The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a $430 million dollar observatory project dedicated to understanding how changes in climate, land use and invasive species impact ecology. For the next three decades NEON will collect a comprehensive range of ecological data on a continental scale across 20 eco-climatic domains representing US ecosystems. NEON will use cutting edge technology including an airborne observation platform that will capture images of regional landscapes and vegetation; mobile, relocatable, and fixed data collection sites with automated ground sensors to monitor soil and atmosphere; and trained field crews who will observe and sample populations of diverse organisms and collect soil and water data. A leading edge cyberinfrastructure will calibrate, store and publish this information. The Observatory will grow to 300+ personnel and will be the first of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales.
Position Summary Reporting to the Manager of Data Products, the Ecoinformatics Staff Scientist will be responsible for contributing to the development and generation of all data products of the NEON Observatory, working with the NEON’s science, cyberinfrastructure, and education teams, as well as the external community, to define and create data products and manage their lifecycle. Essential Duties and Responsibilities: • Apply ecoinformatics and statistics expertise to a wide variety of problems related to data product development for the NEON Observatory • Apply Bayesian statistical techniques to model-data assimilation, inference of continental-scale drivers of ecophysical processes, and analysis of metagenomic data derived from NEON biotic samples • Contribute to the development of the science rationale for data products, developing and prototyping algorithms for their generation • Engage stakeholders in vetting data product produced materials • Ensure the utility and veracity of NEON data products by engaging the user community in meetings, workshops, and working groups Required Experience: • Broadly-trained scientist well-versed in or eager to learn the breadth of NEON scientific efforts • Expertise in the application of statistical theory to biological and/or physical systems • Expertise with common statistical software packages (e.g., R) • Familiarity with data processing workflows in a production environment • Experience working in a collaborative scientific enterprise Preferred Experience: • Postdoctoral experience in a scientific research environment • Teaching experience Education: • PhD, ScD, or equivalent degree in ecology, ecoinformatics, biogeochemistry, statistics, applied mathematics, or related fields Skills and Abilities: • Skilled at scientific writing and review • Strong communication and interpersonal skills Apply to: www.neoninc.org NEON Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Women, Minorities, Veterans and Disabled Persons are encouraged to apply.
