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Social Scientist
Ocean Associates
USD 30-40 / hour
Posted on Jan 22, 2026
If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact Ocean Associates at 703-388-9548 to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.
Ocean Associates Inc. (OAI) is seeking a Social Scientist to provide support to the Social Sciences Branch (SSB) of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC). OAI is a Virginia corporation established in 2003 that provides consulting and technical services to the U.S. government, non-governmental organizations, international organizations, and the private sector. We specialize in scientific program and project management, strategic planning, professional and technical services, and stakeholder engagement, supporting government contracts.
Background
The Social Sciences Branch (SSB) of the Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has developed two recreational Decision Support Tools (DSTs) that are used by our regional fishery management partners to guide the selection of recreational fishing policies. These tools combine economic models of angler behavior with biological data to describe how alternative regulations affect recreational harvest, removals, effort, and angler satisfaction. These DSTs are RShiny apps that are hosted on Microsoft Azure. These tools have been used for summer flounder, black sea bass, and scup since 2022 and Gulf of Maine cod and haddock since 2014. Effort is underway across the nation to build similar DSTs. The project team currently consists of two economists and one data scientist. We are seeking a social scientist to support continued development, extension, and documentation of the DST modeling framework.
Tasks
Primary tasks fall into three areas:
1. Improving Reproducibility and Increasing Our Capacity
The current recreational DSTs evolved organically from research projects over time and code has been developed by many people without a set of standards. This makes reproducibility difficult and slows development of new features. Work with team members to:
- Translate remaining Stata code components into R.
- Develop, prioritize, and implement processes that will improve the way we work. This may include coding standards, code review practices, development of test scripts or data, conversion of scripts to functions, modularization, and quality assurance checks of input, intermediate, and final products.
- Integrate existing processes into a streamlined, one-click R workflow
- Optimize existing code to reduce costs of cloud computing
- Document all code improvements and architectural changes
2. Efficiently Supporting Our Stakeholders
The DSTs produce performance metrics that managers care about: removals of fish, harvest of fish, and angler utility. Like all models, they are not perfect representations of the world; understanding the strengths and weaknesses of input data is critical to interpreting the performance metrics.
- Improve existing quality assurance and quality control code. Develop additional QA/QC steps as needed.
- Develop turnkey R-markdown or similar code that can produce reports of summary statistics and graphical visualizations of input data, model outputs, and results to help our stakeholders understand the advantages and limitations of the model.
3. Strengthening the scientific rigor of the existing DSTs
Assist with research that directly improves the realism of the DSTs. This may include analysis that:
- Improves the realism of sub-models of catch-per-trip and catch-at-length in the DSTs.
- Improves the realism of sub-models that account for retention of sub-legal sized fish, exceeding possession limits, and voluntary release of legal sized fish.
Start Date: As soon as possible.
Location: Northeast Fisheries Science Center Woods Hole, MA or Remote.
Travel: The team has a standing in-person coordination meeting in Woods Hole, MA in August.
Salary and Benefits: This is a full-time position with benefits. Salary, commensurate with experience, between $30.00 - $40.00 per hour.
Requirements
Applicants must have the following minimum requirements:
Required
- M.Sc. in natural resource economics, fisheries science, computer science, or data science with 3 years of work experience. Ph.D. degree in those fields may substitute for experience.
- Demonstrated proficiency with R.
- Demonstrated experience using version control software to conduct reproducible research or analysis.
- Demonstrated experience working collaboratively in a team environment.
- Proficiency in written and oral communication.
Desired
- Experience in fisheries or renewable resource management.
- Familiarity with survey data and analyses, including QA/QC.
- Demonstrated proficiency with RMarkdown or related methods of reproducible writing.
- Experience developing R packages.
If you are interested in being considered for this position, please APPLY THROUGH OUR ADP WEB PORTAL, AT THE LINK AT THE TOP RIGHT OF THIS PAGE.
Only qualified applicants that meet minimum experience or background requirements stated above need apply. When applying for this position you will be asked to upload your resume at the end of this online application.
Applicants should submit a resume that includes the following:
- Cover letter that briefly describes how you meet the required and preferred qualifications listed.
- Work history for past 10 years or since last full-time education.
- Education.
- Previous experience or training with similar requirements.
- Three professional references.
- Include your name in the document file name.
- Upload your resume in readable, not scanned, PDF or Word format (PDF is preferred).
In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States, complete the required employment eligibility verification document form upon hire, and successfully complete a federal government background check. OAI does not discriminate on the basis of any status or condition protected by applicable federal or state law.
OAI is a government contractor and is required by law to invite applicants to voluntarily self-identify their disability status and veteran status. OAI's online application includes check boxes to either voluntarily self identify or decline to self identify. While the information is collected through your application, it is collected anonymously and is not connected to your application. OAI uses the information it collects to track its disability and veteran hiring progress, and to meet its obligations under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and under VEVRAA.
Note: If you are not selected, your materials may be retained for present or future opportunities. We may use your resume in bidding on a project and if we are awarded the work, we will contact you before seeking further applicants. If you do not wish us to retain or use your resume to seek work for you, please let us know in the "Notes" section on the second page of the online application.