Senior Software Engineer (Consultant)

Location: Remote, based in Europe or the United Kingdom
Reports to: Lead Software Architect
Hours per week (average): 40, Full-time Consultant
Term: 23 months

Who we are:

data.org is building a better future with data, and is looking for creative, results-driven professionals passionate about the potential of data and technology to achieve social impact to join our team.

Launched in January 2020 and building on an initial five-year, $50M commitment from The Rockefeller Foundation and the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, data.org envisions a world that uses the power of data science to help solve society’s greatest challenges and improve lives across the globe. As a platform for partnerships, data.org works alongside social impact organizations, philanthropy, technology firms, and academia to build the field of data science for social impact.

About this role:

As we enter the next phase of maturity, we have evolved our strategy and transitioned from delivering verticalized standalone, limited-term programs, to a greater focus on horizontal, generalizable, interoperable, cross-domain portable tools, products, and services that can achieve impact at scale. What does this mean for our flagship programmatic work on Epiverse? This project, formed as a partnership between data.org, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), and the MRC Unit-Gambia, also involves many key stakeholders beyond these institutions, including research institutes, national and international public health agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Our ambition is to give rise to the next generation of analytics tools for all aspects of epidemic response, from basic field epidemiology to real-time modeling, intervention planning, disease surveillance, and data pipeline automation.

Thus, as data.org pivots away from building as many tools in-house, there is an increased need to pay greater attention to the internal cohesion and sustainability of the tools, data sets, and community of practitioners within the ecosystem. Consequently, we are hiring a consultant for the role of Senior Software Engineer, who will report to the Lead Software Architect. This role will be dedicated to the implementation of the Epiverse within our strategic cross-domain programmatic portfolio. As the Epiverse continues to develop a coherent, open-source ecosystem of outbreak analytics tools using the R software, the Senior Software Engineer (RSE) will focus on implementing solutions to maximize interoperability and consistency across the different packages of the Epiverse. In close collaboration with other RSE teams of the Epiverse, the ideal independent consultant will develop dedicated object classes to represent common outbreak data as well as procedures for handling, visualizing, and converting them, and tools for data pipeline automation. They will also help define and implement good practices for the packages of the Epiverse, including coding standards, documentation, unit testing and associated coverage diagnostics, continuous integration, and Lean / Agile collaboration frameworks.

This is a full-time remote independent consultant position with a term of 23 months based in Europe or the United Kingdom. Must be able and willing to travel internationally, including frequent travel to Berlin, Germany.

What you’ll do

Support partners working across the Epiverse ecosystem including the collaboration platform, and helping other teams implement Lean and Agile collaboration frameworks (e.g. Scrum)
Provide guidance on software sustainability and long-term maintainability.
Contribute to the implementation of development & processes best practices, as well as standard data structures, defined in partnership with the Lead Software Architect.
Improve existing code bases and packages to meet standards.
Contribute to the development of infrastructures for data pipelines, automated reporting, and scientific reproducibility
Contribute to the development of object classes (S3/S4/R6) and associated methods for handling, visualizing, and converting the most common types of outbreak data
Help define and implement coding, documentation and quality standards for the R packages developed within the Epiverse.
Implement a coherent infrastructure for automated testing and continuous integration for the packages of the Epiverse
Contribute to developing standards for data anonymization and data security.
Improve existing code bases and packages to meet Epiverse standards.
Write documentation as needed.

Key Qualifications:

Bachelor’s degree in computer science, statistics, or relevant field and 5+ years of relevant experience developing software to industry standards
Excellent knowledge of R packages for software development (e.g. Devtools, Testthat, Usethis)
General knowledge of common R packages for data analysis (Tidyverse, Reconverse) a plus
Excellent programing skills in R or Python.
High proficiency with version control systems (preferably git)
Experience in implementing automated testing and continuous integration.
Experience applying Lean and Agile principles in a collaboration framework (e.g. Scrum)
Experience managing a team of developers
Ability to work with a distributed international team
Demonstrated ability to maintain software over long-term

Preferred Qualifications

Self-motivated and able to work in a flexible environment- managing project plans, while maintaining the flexibility to shift as the program and organization evolve.
Detail-oriented and organized.
Ability to work collaboratively and develop trusted relationships
Excellent interpersonal, organizational, and communication skills
Demonstrated work ethic, and ability to self-manage within a geographically distributed team
A demonstrated commitment to data.org IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access) values
A strong drive to meet and exceed goals, even under adverse circumstances, and is
willing to take ownership of problems and make decisions to move forward.
Experience working with purpose-driven organizations
Experience in Public Health, Technology, Research, Data Science, or Innovation sector

data.org values facilitating an equitable standard of living across the regions in which it operates. This is a fulltime remote independent consultant position with a term of 23 months based in Europe or the United Kingdom. The proposed salary range for this role is $85,000-100,000. Must be able and willing to travel internationally, including frequent travel to Berlin, Germany.

Apply Now

Hiring Statement

data.org, the Data Science for Social Impact Collaborative is a project of New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that incubates new and innovative public-interest projects and grant-making programs. NVF is committed to attracting, developing and retaining exceptional people, and to creating a work environment that is dynamic, rewarding and enables each of us to realize our potential. NVF’s work environment is safe and open to all employees and partners, respecting the full spectrum of race, color, religious creed, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, political affiliation, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, and all other classifications protected by law in the locality and/or state in which you are working.

Interested applicants should submit a cover letter and resume (referencing Senior Software Engineer in the subject field) to jobs@data.org