Mid-Level Full-Stack Environmental Engineering Applications Developer

Overview

RTI International’s Center for Water Resources (CWR) delivers cutting-edge services across the spectrum of water resources including river forecasting, water supply modeling, and hydrologic risk analysis.

These projects require expertise in software development, data management, data analysis, hydrologic, hydraulic, and water quality modeling, assessment of impacts on the natural and built environment, and analysis of economic and social outcomes.

We are a dynamic team that collaboratively and creatively develops solutions to solve the world’s most pressing water resources problems.

Our aim is to put the data in the hands of stakeholders through creation of a variety of web and desktop tools based on rigorous hydrological modeling and analysis.

CWR is currently increasing the number of applications it develops, operates, and maintains. These include scalable web applications as well as more traditional systems, that are hosted on our client’s on-prem infrastructure and cloud infrastructure, as well as our own cloud resources.

The applications include decision support systems, scalable environmental modeling platforms, and data analytics platforms to support the water sector.

And includes some software libraries and desktop apps for good measure.

We have an immediate opportunity for a Mid-Level Full-Stack Environmental Engineering Applications Developer to join our small but growing group of core software developers.

The successful candidate will work with multidisciplinary teams including software developers, subject matter experts and non-technical staff to support, operate, maintain, and enhance existing in-house software as well as contribute to the development of new software products to support CWR projects and initiatives.

This position is right for you if you :

• Exhibit passion for technology, enjoy working on several projects at the same time, and are energized by building, understanding, maintaining, and troubleshooting complex systems, and want to continually be learning new technologies and techniques.
• Are proactive and communicate effectively with internal and external stakeholders with varying degrees of technical knowledge.
• Have experience as a full-stack web application developer including databases, web-services, and web-applications.
• Have a full understanding of software management lifecycle and command of software development principles and practices.

Responsibilities

The successful candidate will also be able to demonstrate real-world experience in many of the following, including the specific technologies currently used by CWR as specified in the parentheses :

• Experience using cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure, including setting up Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, CloudFormation, etc.)
• Relational database design to support the management of scientific data including timeseries data, gridded environmental data, and numeric model configuration data (PostgreSQL, PostGIS, SQLite, Parquet)
• Design and development of REST and GraphQL web-services to support modeling, data collection and data visualization objectives (Python, Django, Go, Java, C# / .NET, Hasura).
• Development of front-end web applications to support the collection, dissemination, and visualization of scientific data to end users (JavaScript, React, Plotly, Leaflet, Material-UI).
• Containerization, deployment, and administration of application components (web services, models-as-a-service) to support cloud-deployment and scalable computing (Docker, Kubernetes, AWS, Azure)
• Experience working with Unix / Linux operating systems and comfortable with command line tools.
• Understanding of software management lifecycle using version control, continuous integration / continuous deployment, and project tracking tools (git, GitHub, Actions, Garden) and automated testing.
• Development of internal and external client documentation and providing training for system end-users.
• Experience working with project owners and subject matter experts to translate their needs in plain language to specific tasks / features that can be developed.
• Experience with cluster monitoring software (Prometheus, Grafana, Kubecost / Opencost) in a production environment.

Pluses would be (but are not required) :

• Familiarity with geospatial and temporal environmental data processing (Python, GDAL, QGIS, ArcGIS)
• A scientific or engineering background in water resources principles including hydrology, hydraulics, water resources management, floodplain mapping, water quality, and the related data.
• Experience with development of online payment processing platforms.

Qualifications

• Bachelor of Science in Computer Science or Engineering or in an environmental or engineering discipline with emphasis on software development and a minimum of 5+ years of professional experience in information technology or software development (or a master’s degree in a related field and 3+ years of professional experience)
• A lesser degree can be compensated with more work experience.
• To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require now, or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status.

This position will be based in RTP, North Carolina or Fort Collins, CO but telecommuting is possible as well. Please apply if you have expertise related to the above requirements (experience related to all is not necessary) - we will provide specific training to motivated colleagues with the appropriate background and aptitude.

The CWR team includes a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and capabilities, but a common thread is our interest to continue learning and push the boundaries of what can be done to support our field.

As a non-profit research institute, RTI also offers opportunities for internally funded research and development to help bring great ideas together for on-the-ground applications to help make a difference in the world.

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