Research Software EngineerData Scientist

Research Software Engineer
• Data Scientist (6104C) – 81524

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 make 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.

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. 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 ((Use the "Apply for this Job" box below).) 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.

The Center aims to contribute to the global community that is similarly working to address 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 community needs are prioritized;
• Creating an enhanced pipeline of young environmental leaders connected to local communities and organizations to translate research findings and technological developments into practical impacts.

Our engineers play a critical role in developing and delivering all technical aspects of our project efforts. We seek 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 involves the Soundhub platform (), a platform to store, manage, and analyze bioacoustic data.

Key responsibilities include ensuring the performance, scalability, and reliability of the data infrastructure of Soundhub and related research workflows. The role focuses on creative coding methods to develop and implement workflows, visualizations, and other interactive data‑enabled solutions. It demands a commitment to protecting the environment and wildlife, fostering collaboration, and advancing research across diverse disciplines.

The first review date for this job is 1/21/2026.

• Plan, design, develop, modify, debug, deploy, and evaluate data science / computational science research software technologies and visualizations.
• Ensure performance, scalability, and reliability of data infrastructure and software tools developed by the core technology team.
• Work closely with Program Manager, Senior Research Software Engineers, and domain scientists to perform these responsibilities and apply domain science knowledge where relevant.
• Analyze existing software, scientific/data science code, and interactive/static visualizations, or formulate new logic for existing systems and algorithms.
• Contribute to research in biodiversity monitoring workflows, emphasizing improving accessibility of bioacoustics research methods.
• Develop data‑enabled software solutions to specific environmental challenges in collaboration with the program team.
• Understand and apply open research and development practices and community standards, and adhere to department policies and procedures.
• Serve as technical lead for a research and development project of moderate scope, when appropriate.
• Negotiate research and development project plans with collaborators, stakeholders, and users.
• Contrib…