Lead Data Engineer:

Building Climate Solutions for Cities

Link to application: https://noteforms.com/forms/openearth-job-application-ctwllg

Have you created a successful career in tech and are ready to do something good with your skills and experience? If yes, then join us in our Earthshot mission to build open source digital systems and solutions to battle environmental threats.

Open Earth Foundation is a California-based research and deployment non-profit developing open innovative technology to increase planetary resilience and avoid a catastrophic climate crisis. 

We are building open infrastructure in support of the UNFCCC Paris Agreement, solutions in climate finance, biodiversity tracking, community empowerment and other critical problems and solutions. 

We are a diverse international team, working remotely with a network of collaborators and partners globally, from the United Nations to climate tech startups.

We have funding and a team of experts focused on Earth systems and digital innovation.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it:

As a lead data engineer,  you will leverage your data and engineering expertise and analytical skills to build open digital infrastructure, with a particular focus on our newly launched CityCatalyst project.

As a Lead Data Engineer you will provide leadership and hands-on data management in our climate accounting technology programs. Your work will cover climate data pipelines, infrastructure design and implementation, working on greenhouse gas data inventories from satellite imagery and diverse data sources, being part of a software production team  and even interfacing with new AI and LLM tools for data harmonization.

You will be part of the technical team and work directly with the Director of Open Technology. You will also work with a variety of team members in the organization from the Product Team and Community Manager.

The position is remote and international candidates are welcome, but prefer those willing to work with time zones compatible with PST. We're working on the planet's problems and we need the planet's best people to fix them.

The following requirements describe our ideal candidate. If you don't meet some of the requirements, you're encouraged to apply anyway. Let us know if there is something missing and how we can work together to make it up.

Essential Functions and Specific Duties: 

• Design, architect, build and maintain data pipeline systems
• Write code for importing and updating large datasets to relational database and search indexes
• Define and maintain database schemas and data file formats
• Collaborate with web developers on optimizing database schemas for APIs and Web applications
• Collaborate with a team of software engineering peers
• Mentor and guide more junior data engineering staff
• Define and maintain data management processes for the organization
• Work with product managers to develop schedules, estimate tasks, and define success criteria
• Collaborate with team members from other disciplines such as web development, design, product management, and devops
• Coordinate with Open Source contributors
• Coordinate with open standards community to define interoperability standards
• Actively participate in team building and culture development activities at Open Earth Foundation
• Other duties as assigned  

Required skills:

• Python programming focused on big data management
• PostgreSQL or other relational database
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Git

Optional skills that will make a candidate stand out: 

• Generative AI and large language model (LLM) APIs and data applications
• GIS tools such as ESRI
• Amazon Web Services
• ElasticSearch
• Data pipeline tools, e.g. Pachyderm
• Experience with 100Gb or larger data sets
• Climate action data such as emissions, targets, and action plans
• Physical (lat, lon, alt) and political (city, state, country) geographical data
• Remote-sensing and satellite data
• RESTful Web APIs
• Engineering leadership
• Open Source project maintainership
• Machine learning, especially for anomaly detection, pattern recognition, clustering, time series analysis

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, electrical engineering, or equivalent technical or scientific degree, or equivalent on-the-job experience
• 5 years of experience in software development for data systems
• 3 shipped projects

Interpersonal skills: 

• Clear communicator with good verbal and written skills in English (additional languages a plus)
• Creative, flexible and efficient with a focus on details
• Capacity to work with team members and partners at all levels and across time zones in a highly collaborative and often remote environment. 
• Ability to embrace new challenges, take ownership and initiative as a key team player.

Compensation and benefits 

• This position is full-time with compensation of $60,000-$105,000 /year, dependent on experience and location
• Open Earth offers unlimited paid time off, paid holidays and paid sick leave
• You will work remotely within a dynamic and international environment 
• We celebrate our achievements during our annual team retreat

OEF is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer. We support diversity, equity and inclusion in teams, and believe people should align their work with their purpose. Join us if you love Earth. 

Please apply by submitting your resume AND a cover letter, it is your opportunity to highlight why you feel you would be a great addition to the team.  We look forward to hearing from you! 

Open Earth Foundation seeks diverse applicants from underrepresented communities. If you would like to pursue this job opportunity but don’t believe you meet all the requirements, please apply and note what’s missing in your cover letter.