Scientific Programmer, Engineer

Silver Spring, Maryland, Norfolk, Virginia, or Seattle, Washington

@Orchard LLC is building a multi-faceted team to support the Office of Coastal Survey (OCS), located within the National Ocean Service (NOS) of NOAA. We are seeking talented professionals who will apply their capabilities to support a vital public mission and help shape the future of maritime science and safety.

About the role:

National Bathymetric Source (NBS)

The NBS program builds and maintains models of national bathymetry. Bathymetry is foundational input data for marine navigation and hydrodynamic models. NBS has created workflows to acquire and validate multiple sources, deconflict overlapping sources, and create fit-for-use products with accessible metadata. The NBS support includes working with the NBS Operations (OPS) and Development (Dev) teams to assist with the design, development, and improvement of all infrastructure and workflows. The work will cover multiple disciplines.

Your Responsibilities will Include:

Assist with applying hydrographic business logic in Python and SQL to develop and maintain automated bathymetry workflows. These stages may include:

·       Automated scraping of metadata and data, registration of these data in Postgres, the formulation of JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) metadata, and moving the data to the NBS file system.

·       Automated processes of data sources, including finding and reading JSON metadata and bathymetry data in GeoTIFF, Geoparquet, Geopackage, and Bathymetric Attributed Grid (BAG) formats in the NBS file system, transforming coordinate reference systems, interpolating data, and writing processed data back to the NBS file system.

·       Data type conversion between various open and closed geographic information system formats.

·       Automate coordinate system transformations using NOAA marine geodesy systems. Maintenance of linear interpolation engines for the automated definition of survey coverage, including the uncertainty associated with the interpolation of estimated depths.

·       Bathymetry compilation module maintenance and updates.

·       Data extraction, archival, and delivery engines using PostgreSQL, on-prem and cloud capacity.

·       Assist with the containerization of new and existing workflows.

·       Assist with integrating new formats of bathymetry into the NBS, such as BAG 2.0.

·       Assist with standardizing, optimizing, and improving documentation and code to support the NBS program.

·       Assist with transitioning the NBS workflow to containers and continuous integration and continuous delivery models.

·       Travel to meet with the NBS Team once per year for an annual planning session. Travel may be subject to change based on government needs, conference schedules, and availability.  

Your Background will Include:

·       Education:

o   Bachelor’s degree in hydrography, ocean mapping, physical science, marine science, oceanography, computer science, engineering, physics, mathematics, related discipline, or equivalent (4 years of experience is equivalent to a Bachelor’s degree).

·       Experience: 5+ years of knowledge and experience in the following:

o   Data analysis and GIS.

o   Software development, including Python, Integrated Development Environments, debugging principles, continuous integration testing, and automated documentation.

o   Databases and queries in PostgreSQL.

o   Geospatial applications such as QGIS, libraries such as Geospatial Data Abstraction Library (GDAL), and OGC web services.

o   Horizontal and vertical datums as well as transformations in the context of point and raster data.

o   Version control best practices and experience with version control software such as Git.

o   Mapping standards and techniques.

o   Container-based software development and deployment platforms.

Compensation for the Scientific Programmer/Engineer is based on experience and qualifications. 

If you meet the requirements for this opportunity and believe you have the experience and talent to succeed in the role, we would like to hear from you.

Established in 2010, @Orchard LLC has an exceptional reputation, providing staffing solutions to time-sensitive, talent scarcity issues to deliver better talent management ROI.  Our specialty lies in the critical area of program talent acquisition and resource management, not in one narrow skillset, but across many areas of technical and functional delivery. To learn more about our other exciting opportunities, visit our Jobs Page at www.atOrchard.com.