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Computer Scientist VI, Step 3

Job no: 503718
Department: Earth System Science Center
Work type: Staff Full-time Exempt
Location: Alabama
Categories: Research - Computer Science

Purpose of the Position:

This Computer Scientist VI, Step 3, role is designed for a computer scientist/engineer with extensive experience in DevOps, cloud architecture, and distributed systems. The candidate will lead the design and implementation of scalable, secure, and high-performance infrastructure and application environments supporting NASA science. The position requires strong critical thinking, the ability to translate complex business needs into technical solutions, and leadership in establishing best practices across teams.

The selected candidate will support the Office of Data Science and Informatics (ODSI) within the Earth Systems Science Center. This role focuses on advancing data science and informatics to support NASA science.

ODSI evaluates trends across data science and informatics communities to inform strategic direction and develop effective, scalable solutions. The office also provides a user-centered perspective on how science data are represented, communicated, and utilized. The position contributes to cross-disciplinary collaboration aimed at improving all phases of the NASA science data lifecycle, including policy, engineering, workflows, and information delivery.

Duties / Responsibilities:

Develop comprehensive architectural designs for systems, including infrastructure, software components, and workflows, ensuring scalability, high availability, and performance optimization.
Design and implement cloud infrastructure solutions across AWS environments, with emphasis on cost optimization, security, and efficient resource management.
Develop and apply frameworks that translate business and mission needs into technical requirements, ensuring alignment with project goals and long-term system evolution.
Support implementation, deployment, and operationalization of designed systems, including CI/CD pipelines, observability, and reliability engineering practices.

Minimum Requirements:

Master's degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field; (Bachelor's degree and experience in a specialized area may be substituted for a degree).
Minimum of 9 to 9.5 years verifiable, full-time work experience.
10 or more years of professional experience in software engineering, DevOps, or cloud infrastructure engineering.
Proven expertise in designing and deploying scalable cloud architectures (AWS required; GCP or others a plus).
Strong experience with infrastructure as code, containerization, and orchestration technologies.
Demonstrated ability to translate complex requirements into robust technical architectures.
Deep understanding of system reliability, high availability design, and performance optimization.
Strong programming and scripting experience (e.g., Go, Python, Bash, Ruby).

Desired Qualifications:

Experience optimizing large-scale systems for both performance and cost efficiency is desired.
Familiarity with big science data management is desired.
Experience building internal platforms, developer tooling, or self-service infrastructure is preferred.
Exposure to AI/ML infrastructure, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems, is preferred.
Demonstrated experience mentoring teams and improving engineering practices is desired.

Published Salary (if available):

$118,000

Advertised: Apr 17 2026 Central Daylight Time
Applications close:

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