POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT:
RODA SEEKS DATA ANALYST CONSULTANT with expertise in fisheries database development, data analytics, and collaborative research.
Project Description
The contractor will assist the Project Team, led by the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance (RODA) that has received funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) to: (1) create a fishing industry-owned and -managed integrated knowledge and database infrastructure; and (2) apply that infrastructure to evaluate consensus hypotheses with data, of the potential impacts of offshore wind energy development on the key socio-ecological dimensions of fisheries from the fishery perspective. The goal of the project is to build a “Fishery Knowledge Trust” allowing for the synthesis of expertise, perspective, and empirical evidence into products that allow the industry to speak in the ecosystem management and science arenas with “one coherent voice” and to evaluate that consensus with verified evidence. Specifically, the products developed with the infrastructure will provide those negotiating conflicts arising from the human use of ecosystem services of offshore wind energy and seafood a deeper understanding of how fishing industry sectors are likely to be impacted by offshore wind energy development, including the potential impacts of constraints arising from interactions between wind lease areas, spatial and temporal fishery management regulations, and the spatial dynamics of fishing, on business balance sheets and seafood security in the present and future.
Statement of Work
The primary role of this contractor is to support RODA and the Project Team in the development of the Knowledge Trust using skills in database development, spatial analytics, and collaborative research.
The contractor will be expected to operate independently, with little administrative support. The contract duration would be 12 months, with RODA providing support for 37 hours per month and associated travel. Necessary office space and equipment will be provided by the contractor, although reasonable exceptions may be considered.
The contractor with a strong background and training in fisheries and ecological analysis will work with PIs on a fishing industry-science collaboration to establish a Knowledge Trust to help inform resolutions of conflicts between the fishing industry and offshore wind development. The candidate must have experience designing and maintaining remote databases, processing and analyzing spatio-temporal data, including longitudinal data describing dynamics of fisheries, the ocean, and human dimensions. The candidate should have demonstrated capabilities in spatial analyses with R. Knowledge and facility with Python, SQL, MySQL, and Amazon Web Service is highly desirable. Experience with networking and database security is also valuable. The candidate is required to have a strong interest and willingness to work respectfully and productively with fishing industry experts, including commercial fishermen. Masters or Ph.D. degree is preferred, but candidates with undergraduate degrees who have exceptional backgrounds in ecological analysis, data analytics and a deep interest in collaborative research of the socio-ecology of fisheries systems will be considered.
Specific tasks the candidate will perform:
1) Provide technical support for the development of a secure network database to crowd source Fisheries Dependent Data within the Knowledge Trust.
2) Assist in the development and execution of systematic approaches to collect and synthesize tacit knowledge of fishing industry experts which will be part of the Knowledge Trust.
3) Provide analytical support for the development of spatio-temporal analyses of fisheries and other data contained within and outside the Knowledge Trust in evaluations of hypothesized impacts of wind energy development on the socioecological dimensions of fisheries.
Application Submission
Interested parties should submit a brief statement of interest, current resume including the names of 3 professional references, and proposed budget for project completion to Annie Hawkins via email at annie@rodafisheries.org no later than December 23, 2019. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled, with the selected candidate to begin work as soon as possible on or before January 20, 2020. This is a remote position, and candidates located in New England or the Mid-Atlantic regions are preferred.
RODA complies with the Federal Equal Opportunity of 1972, as amended.