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Software Engineer - FAIR Data Infrastructure
Software Engineering, Other Engineering
Posted on Oct 28, 2026
Founded in 1987 by the late David Packard, the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) is a nonprofit oceanographic research center advancing marine science and engineering to understand our changing ocean. Located in Moss Landing, California, the heart of the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, MBARI offers ready access to the open ocean and deep sea. Ongoing research programs range across autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicle systems, control technologies, ocean physics, chemistry, geology, biology, ocean instrumentation, and information management. MBARI hosts approximately 200 employees, with shore facilities that include state-of-the-art science and engineering laboratories, manufacturing and electrical fabrication shops, and dock facilities for MBARI vessels.
MBARI’s engineering department is seeking a Software/Data Engineer for a two-year term position supporting a strategic initiative to make MBARI’s ocean science data Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR). This position is based at our state-of-the-art facilities in Moss Landing, CA.
Over nearly four decades, MBARI has assembled a rich marine science archive spanning physical and chemical oceanographic time series, seafloor mapping surveys, expert-curated deep-sea video annotations, and data streams from autonomous platforms and environmental DNA studies. The FAIR Data Infrastructure project will build a standards-compliant layer on top of these existing systems, making MBARI’s data holdings globally discoverable, citable, machine-accessible, and ready for use in modern AI/ML workflows through persistent identifiers (DOIs), standardized metadata, and registration with recognized global repositories such as BCO-DMO, R2R, PANGAEA, OBIS, and others.
The engineer in this role will work closely with scientists, data system and software engineers, and external repository experts to assess MBARI’s current data ecosystem, build prototype connections between MBARI systems and external repositories, document data pipelines across science programs, and contribute to governance frameworks covering DOI versioning, embargo policies, and data attribution standards. This role requires someone who thrives at the intersection of software engineering and scientific data stewardship.
Required qualifications:
- Five or more years of professional software or data engineering experience, preferably in scientific research computing or environmental data management
- Familiarity with FAIR data principles and practices (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)
- Experience building or maintaining data pipelines for structured scientific data, including ingestion, quality control, and publication workflows
- Proficiency in Python, with experience working with scientific data formats and REST/messaging APIs
- Experience with relational databases, including designing schemas and writing queries
- Proficiency with Linux/Unix environments, including command-line tools, shell scripting, and version control
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document technical systems for scientific and general audiences
- Ability to work independently and within multidisciplinary groups spanning science, engineering, and operations
Desired qualifications:
- Experience submitting data to recognized scientific repositories (e.g., BCO-DMO, R2R, PANGAEA, OBIS, SESAR/IGSN, NCEI, or NCBI SRA)
- Familiarity with persistent identifier systems such as DOIs and with metadata standards used in oceanographic or environmental science (CF Conventions, Darwin Core, WoRMS, FAIRe, etc.)
- Experience with containerization technologies (Docker/Podman) and cloud storage platforms
- Background in marine science, oceanography, or environmental remote sensing
- Familiarity with oceanographic data types including time-series, acoustic/sonar, biological annotation, or environmental DNA data
- Experience with data governance frameworks including embargo policies, attribution standards, and versioning practices