Research Software Engineer\Data Scientist

Research Software Engineer / Data Scientist (6104C) - #81524

About Berkeley

At the University of California, Berkeley, we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom, and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty, and staff. As a world‑leading institution, Berkeley is known for its academic and research excellence, public mission, diverse student body, and commitment to equity and social justice.

Since our founding in 1868, we have driven innovation, creating global intellectual, economic, and social value.

We are looking for applicants who reflect California's diversity and want to be part of an inclusive, equity‑focused community that views education as a matter of social justice. Please consider whether your values align with our Guiding Values and Principles, Principles of Community, and Strategic Plan.

At UC Berkeley, we believe that learning is a fundamental part of working, and provide space for supportive colleague communities via numerous employee resource groups (staff organizations). Our goal is for everyone on the Berkeley campus to feel supported and equipped to realize their full potential. We actively support this by providing all of our full‑time staff employees with at least 80 hours (10 days) of paid time per year to engage in professional development activities.

The problems facing our environment are becoming increasingly complex and they are outpacing efforts to address them. This includes challenges ranging from climate change, to the global extinction crisis, to issues associated with environmental justice. We must act both smarter and faster to head off severe consequences for people and the planet. Data Science approaches offer a transformative opportunity to increase both the rate and impact of environmental problem‑solving.

Launched in 2022, the Eric and Wendy Schmidt Center for Data Science and Environment (DSE) at Berkeley is a partnership between UC Berkeley's Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and the Division of Computing, Data Science, and Society, with the financial support of Eric and Wendy Schmidt, working to take on these challenges.

The Center Aims To Contribute To The Global Community Who Are Similarly Working To Take On These Challenges In Four Key Areas:

• Generating ground‑breaking computational/data science discoveries motivated by pressing environmental questions.
• Producing scalable solutions to critical threats facing the environment, powered by open‑source tools.
• Deploying these solutions widely, taking advantage of modern cloud infrastructure and open data/open software, and maintaining a design philosophy of vendor neutrality to ensure that community needs are prioritized.
• Creating an enhanced pipeline of young environmental leaders connected to local communities and organizations to meet their needs and translate our research findings and technological developments into practical impacts.

At Data Science & Environment (DSE), our engineers play a critical role in developing and delivering all technical aspects of our project efforts. We are currently looking for a candidate with strong software development experience who can also understand and support the workflows and methodologies used in biodiversity data analysis and enhancing the accessibility of bioacoustics research methods. This work is in collaboration with our partners to advance the software of Soundhub—a platform to store, manage, and analyze bioacoustic data.

This position will play a critical role in ensuring the performance, scalability, and reliability of the data infrastructure of Soundhub and related research workflows. You have a passion for using creative coding methods to help develop and implement workflows, visualizations, and other interactive data‑enabled solutions. You’re driven by a commitment to protecting the environment and wildlife, and you channel that passion into bringing people together to improve tools and advance training in bioacoustic methods.

As an experienced data scientist/research software engineer, you are…