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Job Status :   Full Time, Employee
Company :   Cornell University
Posting Date :   August 24
Closing Date :   OPEN
Relevant Experience :   2 Year(s)
Number of Positions :   1
Location :   Ithaca, New York
Category :   GIS
Reference Number :   29177

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Cornell University

GIS Developer

Applications Programmer III - Band F
Lab of Ornithology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Cornell University
 
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a major, globally focused institution for research, training, and public communication relating to birds and biodiversity. Information Science is one of eleven programmatic units that carry out the Lab’s mission to interpret and conserve the earth’s biological diversity through research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. The Information Science program develops data intensive techniques and applies them to massive quantities of bird observational data, with the goal of using these big data techniques for basic and/or applied research that contributes directly to the conservation of biological diversity at the species, population, or community level. One of the major projects in Information Science is eBird.
 
eBird has evolved from a stand-alone citizen-science project focused on collecting data, into a cooperative partnership involving several distinct user groups spanning multiple scientific domains and dozens of partner organizations, each with its own unique interests in the eBird Enterprise. eBird collects information about the distribution and abundance of birds, taking advantage of the enormous popularity of watching birds to create a global network of volunteers who submit bird observations via the Internet to a central data repository. Through a combination of broad-based community engagement and global partnerships, the volume of data coming into eBird has increased exponentially (30–40% annually) for the last decade. eBird is regarded as one of the largest and fastest growing biodiversity databases in the world. Presently, the eBird database contains more than 250 million observations. More than 1 million people access eBird via the web and mobile apps, and more than 255 thousand participants have collectively spend over 18 million hours in the field recording birds. Data have been contributed from every country in the world. eBird data are relied upon for a variety of research initiatives in Information Science, other Lab projects and programs (e.g., Merlin, Citizen Science, Education, Conservation, and Bird Population Studies), external academic institutions (e.g., Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Northeastern, U of New Mexico, U of Utah, and Oregon State), governmental departments and agencies in the U.S. and abroad (e.g., U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oak Ridge National Labs, US Department of Defense, CONABIO [Comision Nacional para el Conocimento y Uso de la Biodiversidad], and nongovernmental organizations (e.g., The Nature Conservancy, Point Blue, Bird Studies Canada, Audubon) and private companies.
 
The Information Science Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is currently seeking a GIS Developer.  Duties include:
  • Apply cartographic principles to geographic information design to develop web-based decision support tools that will provide access to eBird data for land managers. The goal is to ascertain user requirements to develop exploratory geographic information systems (GIS) analysis to facilitate decision support.
  • Develop an interactive software-based system intended to help decision makers compile and consolidate information from eBird, species distribution models, NASA earth imagery, and other relevant data to identify and solve problems related to the conservation and management of bird populations. Typical decision support use of the GIS-based system includes estimates of distributions and relative abundances of focal bird species that are provided to partners as GIS data layers and accompanied by spatially-explicit information about the robustness of these estimates, all of which can be used interactively by end users to explore different conservation and management scenarios.
  • Develop and manage eBird’s GIS infrastructure, including the development of a line and polygon based methods for data input, data output, and data quality on both web and mobile platforms.
Annual appointment with possibility of renewal based upon performance and available funding.
 
Applicants to provide cover letter, resume, contact information for 3 references.
 
Qualifications
 
Required Qualifications:
  • Bachelor’s Degree in Geography with a focus on Geographic Information Science with at least three years of experience in applying GIS principles in avian ecology, avian conservation, citizen science or similar field.
  • An understanding of the principles of web mapping and map server frameworks and be comfortable with data management, manipulation, design, programming, and deployment of map services for use in decision support tools.
  • Experience with scientific, visualization, and GIS programming languages, including: R, Python, Perl, Oracle Spatial, postGIS, GDAL and QGIS.
  • Must show strong problem solving, critical thinking, and writing skills, work effectively on a team, learn technical material quickly, establish realistic goals, and deliver quality work on schedule with minimal supervision.
  • Ability to prioritize activities and multitask is essential.
Preferred Qualifications:
  • Master’s degree and extensive experience working with both citizen-science bird data (eBird, Christmas Bird Count, Breeding Bird Survey) and statistical modeling outputs in a GIS environment, including data management, analysis, and visualization.
  • Experience communicating scientific concepts to public audiences via both spoken and written forms, as well as through visualizations, maps, and decision support tools.
  • Experience with understanding, communicating, and collecting technical requirements, while acting as a technical liaison to other domain scientists.
  • Experience in integrating domain knowledge in avian biology, conservation, biogeography, taxonomy, and citizen science with GIS practices, principles, and relevant technical skills.
  • Prior use and understanding of the eBird system and interest in birding and ecology is highly desired.
 
Background check may be required. No relocation assistance is provided for this position.Visa sponsorship is not available for this position.

 

Cornell University is an innovative Ivy League university and a great place to work. Our inclusive community of scholars, students and staff impart an uncommon sense of larger purpose and contribute creative ideas to further the university's mission of teaching, discovery and engagement. Located in Ithaca, NY, Cornell's far-flung global presence includes the medical college's campuses on the Upper East Side of Manhattan and Doha, Qatar, as well as the new Cornell Tech campus to be built on Roosevelt Island in the heart of New York City.
 
Diversity and Inclusion are a part of Cornell University’s heritage. We are a recognized employer and educator valuing AA/EEO, Protected Veterans, and Individuals with Disabilities.

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