Web Development Specialist

Position Description 

Hey students! Do you want to work on an environmental data science project that is going to make a real difference? Do you want to gain real-world data science and web development experience while working on a high profile project? Well, look no further than the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary! We’re a unit of the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries (part of the federal government) and we’re based on campus. Just so you know, the National Marine Sanctuary system protects a huge amount of our most important aquatic habitats all across the United States, with an area about the size of Alaska protected. 

For this position, you’ll be helping in the build out of a website for the display of all of the data being collected in our Sanctuaries (you can check out the draft version of that website here). Biological data. Climatological data. Economic data. If it is important to Sanctuaries, we’ll be displaying it. The website is being built as a highly customized version of Wordpress, with a fair amount of custom Javascript thrown in as well. Your primary responsibility will be closely working with the lead developer to program the functionality of this website. Additionally, as the research team at Channel Islands is pretty small, you’ll likely be asked to lend a hand with various other research-related tasks from time to time. 

Desired academic status of applicants: either undergraduate or graduate students.

Estimated start and end dates: Summer quarter 2024. We are looking to fill this position as soon as possible and applications will be considered as soon as they are received. Pending funding and a good fit we aim to continue the position through the 2024-2025 academic year.. 

Hours and pay rate: The position will be 20 hours per week. The pay rate will be 20 dollars per hour. 

Position location: The office location of the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary is the UCSB Ocean Science Education Building. Due to the need to collaborate with others in the office, it is expected that work will take place in the office. 

Required Qualifications: 

● Due to federal government requirements, applicants must be US citizens. ● You will need a Windows, Mac, or Linux-based laptop computer. 

● To contribute meaningfully to this project, the position-holder will need to be comfortable learning quickly on the job. This position involves many aspects of web development within a Wordpress environment. It is NOT expected that any applicant will have all the needed skills off the bat, but they are expected to get up to speed. 

● Knowledge of an object-oriented programming language. 

● Knowledge of Javascript.

Optional Qualifications (but desired): 

● Work-study students are preferred (but we are certainly open to all students!). If you are a work-study student, please provide the amount of your work-study award. ● Experience with any kind of web development. Please provide links to projects you have worked on (as well as listing your role in those projects), if available. 

● Experience with collaborative development. Please provide your GitHub username or similar evidence of collaboration. 

● Experience with object-oriented PHP (which is the language in which Wordpress is written). 

● Experience with Wordpress. 

Contact for questions: You probably have questions. Well, Jai Ranganathan wants to answer them. And, he happens to be the guy who is leading the development efforts. Give him a shout at jai.ranganathan@noaa.gov.