Temporary Programmer/Analyst

Cornell University • Ithaca, NY

23h • Remote

About The Position

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences CALS is a pioneer of purpose-driven science and Cornell University’s second-largest college. We work across disciplines to tackle the challenges of our time through world-renowned research, education, and outreach. The questions we probe and the answers we seek focus on three overlapping concerns: natural and human systems; food, energy, and environmental resources; and social, physical, and economic well-being. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is the world's leading resource for conservation, research, education, and citizen science focused on birds. The Lab is a vibrant unit within Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS), where six world-class, mission-driven centers are directed by full-time faculty and other renowned professionals. Lab staff teach undergraduate courses, advise graduate students, collect and disseminate world-famous digital resources on biodiversity, and engage with partner organizations and citizens around the world to conduct scientific research and conservation actions. Our management and staff are committed to the highest standards of ethics and excellence in all areas of our work, and our Board leadership includes successful entrepreneurs and managers from the business and non-profit sectors, conservation-minded citizens from the United States and beyond, and faculty from Cornell and other universities. Join the team behind AllAboutBirds.org, a digital gateway bringing birds and nature to 20+ million people annually. You will build the bridge between complex scientific data and a massive community of nature lovers—creating high-performance tools that turn raw information into a journey of discovery. You will architect and build t he modern web and data services powering our next-generation user experiences. Working within a collaborative, iterative team, you will integrate diverse data streams to design dynamic personalized features, self-service tools, and interactive learning capabilities that drive global engagement with the natural world. While position responsibilities vary, every member of our community is expected to foster a culture of belonging and a healthy work environment by communicating across differences; being cooperative, collaborative, open, and welcoming; showing respect, compassion, and empathy; engaging and supporting others regardless of background or perspective; speaking up when others are being excluded or treated inappropriately; and supporting work/life integration of oneself and others. This is a full-time, temporary position at 100 % FTE . This is a 6 month appointment with the possibility to extend up to one full year. This position is eligible for a hybrid or fully remote work arrangement. The university reserves the right to modify, suspend, revoke, or terminate the hybrid work arrangement at any time. Visa Sponsorship is not available for this position. Relocation assistance will not be provided for this position.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree and 3 to 5 years relevant experience or equivalent combination.
• Ability to communicate clearly and diplomatically with a variety of domain experts in order to define software requirements
• Ability to work with the team in establishing realistic goals and to deliver work on schedule.
• Ability to translate design and functional requirements into actionable technical specifications
• Must be self-motivated and able to work independently and be equally capable of working with the supervisor to prioritize projects and to regularly communicate status and progress.
• Experience in application design and implementation, using agile practices
• Familiarity with QA/QC conventions
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, multi-tasked, team-based environment, to manage multiple competing deadlines and be able to prioritize work with minimal input
• Ability to express highly technical terms in layman’s terms.

Responsibilities

• Architect the enterprise technology services compatible with Cornell Lab's technical infrastructure
• Work with the Advancement Technology Team on web applications, data integration processes, CMS, and cloud server infrastructure
• Manage enterprise platform components, including web servers, JavaScript frameworks/runtimes, container platforms, databases, cloud services, and AI-supported services
• Oversee integrative software development lifecycle, from requirements to deployment
• Design & manage application-level data services
• Scaffold a modern application to support our goals
• Select the tech stack for the new application
• Architect the new application and all supporting web & data services
• Standardize the business layer for inter-application communication
• Integration with marketing platform to enable business goals
• Quality assurance and testing procedures.

Benefits

• Competitive compensation, generous time-off, and great benefits
• More on Cornell Benefits
• The compensation range for this position is 98,000 – 106,538 on an annual basis.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees