THE NATURAL CAPITAL PROJECT
Position Announcement
SOFTWARE ENGINEER
We are seeking to hire a software engineer to join our software development team
in a highly collaborative group of researchers with partnerships among The Nature
Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, Institute on the Environment at the University
of Minnesota, and Stanford University. We are developing a tool that will become
the basis of planning land use decisions in protecting and restoring watersheds around
urban areas in Latin America and this position will help support the development and
deployment of that tool.
We offer a flexible academic work environment on the vibrant Stanford campus. Our
team focuses on developing high quality open source code and follows pragmatic
programming practices as well as the option to work on a 20% side project.
Principal Responsibilities:
The Software Engineer will support the development of the InVEST (Integrated
Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs) family of software tools by
implementing mathematical models of environmental services and water funds
prioritization into software with the specific focus on the functional and usability of those
tools. Other job functions include writing test suites, fixing software bugs, implementing
new features, writing documentation, participating in code reviews, and supporting
internal project management tools for the development team.
The successful candidate will be an intelligent, self-directed individual who is passionate
about working on collaborative software projects. The candidate will need the ability to
adapt to new technologies and be able to prioritize work across a variety of outstanding
tasks.
Required Qualifications:
B.S. in computer science, or related discipline
Experience developing a large software application for production. Relevant
projects can include course capstone projects for recent graduates.
Strong understanding of core computer science algorithms and computational
complexity.
Experience developing user interfaces.
Preferred Qualifications:
Experience with web design and JavaScript.
M.S. in computer science, or related discipline.
Experience with software project collaboration techniques such as bug/feature
tracking databases and revision control tools.
Experience with numerical/scientific computing.
Experience with scientific visualization techniques.
Experience working with and/or maintaining open source software projects.
Experience with GDAL, OGR, Geoserver, and/or PostGIS.
Familiarity with C, Fortran, Python, and/or Cython.
Term: Through August 30, 2013 and beyond, contingent upon funding.
Location: The position is located in Palo Alto, California at Stanford University and will
require extensive interaction with interdisciplinary teams and travel within the US and
Latin America.
How to Apply: Interested applicants will apply online on Stanford University’s job site at
jobs.stanford.edu, Job ID #46695 to be considered. Please include contact information
for three references at the end of your cover letter. In your resume or cover letter,
describe one or two software projects you have contributed to and any interesting data
structures or algorithms you encountered during development. Bonus points for linking
to source code or online versions of those projects.
The anticipated start date for this position is March 30, 2012 or earlier. Applications will
be reviewed as they are received. Please apply ASAP.
Stanford University is committed to equal opportunity through affirmative action in
employment and we are especially eager to identify minority persons and women with
appropriate qualifications.
More information on the project can be found at www.naturalcapitalproject.org.
