"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 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. 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. Find out more about how you can grow your career at UC Berkeley.

Departmental Overview

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 (https://dse.berkeley.edu) 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.

The success of this effort relies on people, our ability to build upon the success of others, and to make new contributions that allow others to build on what we create.

The Schmidt Center for DSE is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. We aim to foster an environment that is safe and open to all work together with RCNR, CDSS, and Campus to continually learn and grow in our ability to do so.

Position Summary

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 (beta: https://dev.wildlifesoundhub.org/) - 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 motivated to work across diverse disciplines, advance research, and collaborate with users to ensure that human-centered design informs every stage of software development. You will lead specific projects and also engage deeply with a collaborative technical team, and opportunities to contribute your expertise across multiple projects and program areas. For examples of our project areas, learn more about our current work at https://dse.berkeley.edu/projects.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is 1/21/2026

Responsibilities

• Plans, designs, develops, modifies, debugs, deploys and evaluates data science / computational science research software technologies and visualizations.
• Ensures performance, scalability, and reliability of data infrastructure and software tools developed by the core technology team.
• Works closely with Program Manager, Senior Research Software Engineers, and domain scientists where applicable to perform these responsibilities and uses domain science knowledge where relevant.
• Analyzes existing software, scientific/data science code and interactive/static visualizations or works to formulate new logic for existing systems and algorithms.
• Contributes to research in biodiversity monitoring workflows, with an emphasis on improving accessibility of bioacoustics research methods.
• Works closely with Program Manager, Senior Research Software Engineers and the program team to develop data-enabled software solutions to a given environmental challenge.
• Understands and applies open research and development practices, community standards and department policies and procedures relating to work assignments.
• May serve as technical lead for a research and development project of moderate scope.
• Negotiate research and development project plans with interested collaborators, stakeholders and users as applicable.
• Contributes research and technical content to peer-reviewed publications and program outputs.
• Works both independently and in collaboration with the program team and stakeholders to design and implement technical solutions to environmental challenges.
• Works closely with the team Program Manager to prioritize work needs and opportunities to address given needs.
• Documents usage modes, capabilities, characteristics and performance of research codes/software/data visualizations.
• Publishes and presents, based on research and development work, results about data science techniques and tools, performance and algorithm enhancement in research venues to attract usage from domain science communities, or to promote latest technologies within the community.
• Leads collaborations with partners, researchers, and academic institutions to advance shared goals.
• Communicates technical program details effectively with a wide variety of audiences to ensure understanding and engagement with program stakeholders.

Required Qualifications

• Intermediate knowledge of open data science/research software development
• Advanced skills, and demonstrated experience associated with deployment of data science applications, tools, and visualizations.
• Demonstrated ability to regularly interface with management.
• Demonstrated ability to contribute research and technical content to program outputs.
• Demonstrated effective communication and interpersonal skills.
• Demonstrated ability to communicate technical information to technical and non-technical personnel at various levels in the organization and to external research and education audiences.
• Proven skills and experience in independently resolving broad computing/data problems using introductory and/or intermediate principles.
• Self-motivated and works independently and as part of a team.
• Able to learn effectively and meet deadlines.
• Proven ability to successfully work on multiple concurrent projects.
• Proven ability to understand research computing/data needs, mapping use cases to requirements and how systems/software/infrastructure can support those needs and meet the requirements.
• Demonstrated ability to develop and implement such solutions.
• Demonstrated experience and ability to collaborate effectively with all levels of staff; technical, students, faculty and administrators.
• Bachelor's degree in related area and/or equivalent experience/training.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience or interest in contributing to the development of applications that analyze biodiversity data, including bioacoustic data.
• Experience with neural networks for classifications
• Experience or interest in ethical considerations of data science methodologies, including open practices and data sovereignty
• Experience developing scientific software packages and working in an open software environment.
• Experience or interest in implementing neural networks for classifications.
• Experience with the modern Python or R stacks for geospatial/environmental problems, and/or javascript tools for interactive scientific visualization.

Salary & Benefits

For information on the comprehensive benefits package offered by the University, please visit the University of California's Compensation & Benefits website.

Under California law, the University of California, Berkeley is required to provide a reasonable estimate of the compensation range for this role and should not offer a salary outside of the range posted in this job announcement. This range takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to experience, skills, knowledge, abilities, education, licensure and certifications, analysis of internal equity, and other business and organizational needs. It is not typical for an individual to be offered a salary at or near the top of the range for a position. Salary offers are determined based on final candidate qualifications and experience.

The budgeted annual salary range that the University reasonably expects to pay for this position is $111,000.00 - $116,000.00.

This is an exempt monthly-paid position.

How to Apply

To apply, please submit your resume and cover letter.