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At the Center for Open Science, we believe that transparent and reproducible research is better research, leading to better outcomes. Our mission is to make that a reality throughout the world of scholarly investigation.

 

We also believe in a fantastic work environment, awesome work-life balance, killer technology, and empowering our people to grow as professionals and people. Working at COS means that you’ll be surrounded by colleagues who are constantly striving to improve science and the tools that support it. We set high expectations for ourselves and are always trying to stay out in front of software and research trends. We are committed to quality design and architecture, an agile methodology, and contributing to the open-source community. Sound like you? Join us! 

COS is committed to building a research culture inclusive of all contributors and their skilled contributions. Please view the COS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Statement for details regarding how we maximize opportunity in our staffing, collaborative partnerships, and in the greater research community in order to advance research and technology.

Current Openings

Backend and Database Senior Software Engineer

Background

The Senior-level Backend and Database Software Engineer develops, modifies and maintains complex open source software applications, focusing on configuration, optimization, and support of the database and data infrastructure. This is a collaborative role across the Engineering, Research, and Product teams, to ensure successful design, development, and delivery of technological solutions to meet organizational priorities relating to data science and analytics. This role collaborates across the engineering and product teams, as well as external users and stakeholders to ensure successful design, development, and delivery of technology solutions to meet organizational priorities. This role is responsible for supporting and implementing technology direction, assisting management and other senior technical leaders create strategic roadmaps, and executing priorities to meet objectives. The Sr. SWE is equipped to be accountable for technical seniority in the organization because of demonstrated ability to lead software projects and mentor staff members and expertise in design and coding activities with other staff members, and proven ownership of cross-team shared infrastructure.

Duties/Responsibilities:
  • Write clean, maintainable, and well-designed code that works and is understandable by teammates
  • Promote effective data modeling and management practices and ensure understanding of the implemented data and analytics
  • Define, develop, and execute strategies to implement and enhance an enterprise data ecosystem that supports organizational goals
  • Analyzes and implements technical requirements, architecture patterns, and best practices into the code and projects
  • Effectively communicates status updates, blockers, and timelines for projects and functional area to all stakeholders
  • Collaborates with project, product, and QA team to gather requirements and specifications to inform test planning, assertion criteria, and testing efforts
  • Sets measurable goals, and meets them
  • Engage internal and external data science stakeholders to ensure data ecosystems meet current and future goals, translate needs into architecture and design approaches, and articulate tradeoffs to meet scalability, reliability, and sustainability
  • Make evidence- and experience- backed architecture decisions for new and existing products.
  • Performs helpful code reviews, with a good balance of responsiveness and thoroughness
  • Adheres to high-quality development principles while delivering solutions on-time and on-budget
  • Works closely with Senior and Principal Engineers to set goals, seek mentorship opportunities on new code and functional areas, and take on additional leadership and ownership opportunities
Required Skills/Abilities:
  • Demonstrate expert level understanding of at least one or more commonly used languages, technologies, or frameworks, such as:
  • Back-End: Python, Django, Tornado, and Flask
  • Databases & Messaging: PostgreSQL, ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ
  • Hosting, CI/CD: Google Cloud, Kubernetes, Jenkins, and TravisExperience using system monitoring tools (e.g. New Relic) and automated testing frameworks
  • Extensive experience with software development, scripting and project management
  • Strong oral and written communication skills with ability to communicate with a non-technical audience.
  • Demonstrated ability to lead projects or initiatives outside individual area(s) of expertise
  • High level of interpersonal skills and ability to exercise discretion and independent judgment in the performance of duties
  • Ability to provide in-depth evaluation and analysis of unique complex technological issues
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Ability to learn new tools and technologies quickly and effectively
  • Excellent organizational and leadership skills, with ability to work independently
Required Education and Experience:
  • At least 6 years professional experience in software engineering
  • Bachelor’s degree in computer science, or related field or equivalent experience
  • Experience with personnel management
Other information:
  • This position may have direct reports
  • This is largely a sedentary role. Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
  • COS supports flexibility in work scheduling. Individuals who would like to work outside a 9am - 5pm Eastern Time (ET) schedule must work with their managers to establish core hours of availability. Modifications for different time zones will be considered for team collaboration.
  • Occasional travel is possible for this position
  • Salary range for this position is $95,000 - $110,000 annually
Benefits
  • 401(k) with employer match. COS offers a matching contribution of 100% up to 3% of pay and another 50% up to 5% of pay (the full match will be 4% if participants elect to defer 5%)
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance. COS covers 100% of employee premium and 50% of all dependent coverage costs under the base plan
  • 20 days vacation in year one
  • COS offers paid leave for up to three (3) months to all full-time, regular employees to care for their child after birth, after or during the adoption process, or to care for their spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition as well as for the employee’s own serious health condition.
  • Remote work option or modern local office space in Charlottesville, VA with a Macbook and Google Workspace environment
Apply

Please apply by submitting a resume here. Questions about the position and COS are welcome and can be directed to jobs@cos.io

Please note, in order to be considered for this position you must be authorized to work in the United States and have a U.S. address and bank account. Remote workers must be located within the U.S.

COS is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also strongly encourage applications from members of groups underrepresented in science and technology industries.

Our Work Environment

COS supports a distributed work environment that includes both onsite at our office in Charlottesville, VA, and offsite employees along with flexible working schedules and a variety of work interactions among teams. We aim to bridge the physical and digital workplace, so that we can be inclusive and dynamic and support a diverse team that is contributing to our globally situated mission.

Our Benefits

  • 401(k) with employer match. COS offers a matching contribution of 100% up to 3% of pay and another 50% up to 5% of pay (the full match will be 4% if participants elect to defer 5%) 
  • Health, dental, and vision insurance. COS covers 100% of employee premium and 50% of all dependent coverage costs under the base plan
  • 20 days paid time off in year one
  • Option to enroll in Health and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Account (FSA)
  • 11 paid holidays a year
  • COS offers paid leave for up to three months to all full-time, regular employees to care for their child after birth, after or during the adoption process, or to care for their spouse, child, or parent who has a serious health condition as well as for the employee’s own serious health condition
  • Remote work option or modern local office space in Charlottesville, VA with a Macbook and Google Workspace environment

Our Work

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Research Software and Storage

COS has developed a variety of software tools and workflows based on our free Open Science Framework to help researchers manage and archive their research, privately or publicly. We work with a great technology stack and the latest tools. 

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Community Development

COS helps connect and build open science communities of researchers, their affiliated institutions, their funders, and the publishers of research outcomes.

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Metascience and Research

COS supports and conducts research on scientific practices. Our team members are thought leaders on open science and our tools serve as critical research platforms.

Check out our Employee Manual and Policies and Procedures for more information.