Posted on January 3, 2013

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Program Director for Environmental Data, Information

Requisition number: EDIT 003
Reports to: Executive Director
Exempt status: Exempt
Salary Band: $85,000 -$100,000 Position Mission

SFEI is seeking a seasoned professional to provide leadership to the Institute’s technology staff across a breadth of technical areas. The Environmental Data, Information, and Technology program includes Applications Development, Data Management, GIS, and Systems and IT Focus Areas.

About SFEI

SFEI is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that provides science to support environmental decision making and management. Our science informs policy-makers, resource managers, stakeholders, scientists, and the broader public. SFEI typically engages with organizations and individuals of diverse perspectives, priorities, and backgrounds to understand their information needs and how best to meet those needs.

Technology is integral to how SFEI communicates findings and disseminates data and information. SFEI is a California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN) partner and serves as a one of California’s four Regional Data Centers for management of surface water quality, wetlands and spatial data. SFEI hosts multiple web sites that provide access to environmental data and information. The Institute has a strong history of GIS expertise including spatial dataset creation and spatial tools and analysis. We strive to help natural resource managers and scientists do more with the products the Institute generates.

We have the hardware, tools and, most importantly, staff to ensure that monitoring data and findings and other relevant information are useful and broadly accessible to a range of technical and non-technical users.

EDIT Description

EDIT has a reputation for sound data management, innovative GIS and web engineering for management and timely delivery of data and information essential to develop and assess alternative solutions to complex environmental issues in the San Francisco Bay-Delta Region and beyond. The EDIT team has fifteen highly talented and skilled programmers and engineers who provide expert data management, database administration, GIS, spatial data generation and analysis, web mapping, web site development, and web services. EDIT serves all the other Programs at SFEI and is a principal partner in prominent regional and statewide governmental initiatives focused on effective environmental data and information management. The EDIT team is committed to meeting the information technology needs of a growing user community.

Qualification and Responsibilities

The EDIT Program Director must have a solid and broad foundation in information technology plus strong skills as a manager, collaborator, and fund raiser. As a member of the SFEI Management Team, the EDIT Director will support EDIT and Institute strategy. The Director will work with the Management Team to raise funds and to develop partnerships and collaborations with scientists, resource managers, and technology experts to support EDIT.

The EDIT team is committed to a user-focused approach and innovative and creative solutions. This requires a rich understanding of the capabilities of web-based technologies and solutions. The Program Director will partner with EDIT’s GIS and Data Management managers, our Web Technology Coordinator, other Institute staff, and the Executive Director to meet programmatic commitments for data and technology tool delivery.

Responsibilities

Tasks

Program Direction

• Refine the Institute’s technology strategy and lead its implementation.
• Develop a clear vision for adoption of new technologies as well as evolution of existing technology platforms. Direct platform decisions and establish criteria for evaluation of technology stack layering.
• Initiate and collaborate on proposals for technology and data tool development.
• Maintain existing and develop new partnerships with environmental leaders and technology organizations.

Management

• Manage six direct reports (total EDIT staff is 15).
• Work closely with the Web Technology Coordinator to continue to improve our software development practices related to software deployment, testing, and integration.

Systems and IT oversight

• Be responsible for IT roadmap development and strategies to meet the IT needs of SFEI’s highly technologically-dependent staff of 45.
• Serve as the final decision maker for budgeting and planning for hardware, software, and systems infrastructure.
• Manage experienced desktop support and IT staff to maintain uptime and efficiency of technology systems and infrastructure at SFEI.
• Be responsible for long term IT strategy for remote access, server maintenance, disaster planning, cloud services, IT resources, data integration, security, etc. Oversee and coordinate hardware and software upgrade processes. Lead hardware and software capacity planning for the Institute.

External partnerships

• Represent and champion the EDIT program and the Institute to regional and statewide partners.
• Participate in statewide environmental data and information management initiatives with state partners (California Environmental Data Exchange Network, Surface Water Ambient Monitoring Program, Department of Fish and Wildlife).
• Negotiate and monitor institutional agreements related to information management, including data ownership and use agreements.
• Undertake other duties as assigned.

Knowledge

• Experience developing technical strategies and platform recommendations and taking a leadership role in technology selection and product/solution evaluation. Experience initiating and recommending changes in development, maintenance, and system standards.
• Proven experience successfully managing technology staff.
• Strong communication skills (verbal, written and presentation); ability to communicate technical information to non-technical stakeholders in a clear and concise manner.
• Able to clearly understand the needs and concerns of the user groups in the organization and external stakeholders and apply knowledge to meet those needs.
• Demonstrated success delivering technical projects on time with a set amount of resources.

Required Skills and Experience – Technical:

Advanced skills in at least one of the following areas:

• Demonstrated knowledge of web architectures that foster modularity, layering, and reusability.
• Broad range of technical knowledge and professional experience in computer and network software, hardware, utilities and sever operating systems including UNIX, Windows and Mac.
• Enterprise IT systems planning and oversight.
• Demonstrated knowledge of debugging and troubleshooting complex technical issues.
• Experience developing intranet and internet data exchanges and web services across multiple technologies and platforms.
• Strong understanding of relational database management systems and methods in data integration.
• Experience working with large scientific and/or spatial datasets.

Additional Desirable Skills and Experience – Technical:

• Familiarity with non-profit or educational institutional management.
• Familiarity with environmental data.
• Experience with contemporary communications tools (e.g., wikis) and social media platforms.
• Proven skills and experience relating to the successful design, development, testing, implementation, and maintenance of web applications, with an emphasis on open source technology solutions.
• Ability to communicate effectively about the following aspects of software development:
• Industry standard web application programming languages and technologies, such as: HTML/HTML5, CSS, JavaScript and JavaScript libraries (JQuery etc.), PHP, Rails, Python, Java, RDBMS, and content management systems, e.g., Drupal.
• Current web protocols and standards including AJAX, SSL, REST, LDAP, ODBC, Web Services, LAMP, etc.
• Mobile app development

Personal Characteristics:

• Highly intelligent and communicative
• Ability to lead and make decisions
• Willingness to be innovative, adaptive and flexible
• Strong team orientation and an ability to motivate and manage staff with a variety of working styles
• Common sense with a well-grounded personality/attitude
• Exceptional work ethic
• Outstanding communications skills

Application Instructions

To apply, send your cover letter and resume to resumes@sfei.org. No phone calls please. SFEI is an equal opportunity employer. For more information on our mission, values, programs, and staff, visit the San Francisco Estuary Institute web site www.sfei.org.