WILDLABS
Fauna & Flora
Organisation: International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
Location: Cambridge Office, Cambridge, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This role can be located in any country where IUCN has a representative office.
Expected start date: 01 September 2023
Type of contract: Fixed-term (24 months)
Application closing date: 28 August 2023
Job Description
This new senior position in IUCN’s Science and Data Centre will be responsible for supporting, developing and maintaining the technological foundation that underpins The IUCN Red List of Threatened species and its underlying database—the Species Information Service (SIS).
We are looking to grow the biodiversity informatics team and this role is a critical part of the growth and continued success of IUCN and its data products. The role will be highly varied, and the successful applicant will be responsible for a combination of systems architecture tasks and software development, helping IUCN improve its current processes and services while looking toward to the future.
The role will be expected to undertake a range of highly technical tasks relating to the maintenance and development of the IUCN Red List and associated services. IUCN’s tech stack is complex, variable and—in some cases—non-standard. Core tasks shall include; server and database (Postgres) updates to improve service performance and improve security, cloud infrastructure upgrades (node balancing, database and website service redundancy etc.) and API development (Rails or Django) for key projects which utilise Red List data (e.g. Contributions for Nature, Knowledge for Nature). The position will also be expected to have at least a working knowledge of other key languages and frameworks used within the informatics team and IUCN in general including: Python, R, Ruby on Rails and/or Django. This position would particularly suit applicants who enjoy ‘full stack’ development and systems administration.
The post holder will be required to perform tasks under the general direction of the Conservation Informatics Manager, but they shall be responsible for planning and performing day-to-day development tasks, as well as coordinating development work with the wider informatics team.
Specific Duties
- Support in the running of SIS and Red List website infrastructure, which includes Linux servers operating within a cloud-based architecture.
- Improving and consolidating the current cloud-based architecture
- Developing a new generation geospatial API which will enable Red List data to be shared efficiently with other services and data partners within IUCN and externally.
- Develop code to calculate the Red List Index (and other metrics) and serve these results via APIs
- Responding to and troubleshooting technical and performance issues
- Coordinate software development relating to SIS and the Red List website, including code review and acceptance processes, coordination and participation in functional requirements and scoping processes
- Working in close association with the Head of the Biodiversity Assessment and Knowledge Team, Head of the Red List Unit, the Chief Scientist and Science Team and with other key stakeholders (e.g. Red List Technical Working Group) to maintain and refine SIS and the IUCN Red List website to further streamline the process of conducting species assessments from data collection through to dissemination to target audiences. At the same time, it is necessary to manage expectation levels, and assess, on an ongoing basis, the feasibility and priority level of the work to be done.
- Provide technical support to a cross-functional team which includes GIS staff, software development and support team members, other internal customers, external vendors and technology/programmatic partnersLiaise directly with internal (e.g. IUCN Regional office teams, Corporate Units, Programmatic Centres and Teams) and external stakeholders (e.g. Red List Partners, GBIF, UNEP-WCMC) to ensure timely and appropriate completion of priority IUCN work.
How to apply
Visit the IUCN website for further details and how to apply.