DescriptionABOUT THE CONSERVANCY
Chesapeake Conservancy is a non-profit organization based in Annapolis, Maryland, dedicated to ensuring a healthier Chesapeake Bay watershed where fish and wildlife thrive, with healthy waters and abundant forests, wetlands, shorelines, and open spaces. With a human population in the Chesapeake watershed of 18 million and tens of thousands of acres of open space vanishing each year, the Conservancy works to connect people with the Chesapeake’s wildlife and history; conserve landscapes and rivers; and restore the region’s natural resources. The Conservancy works in close partnership with the EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Office as well as other federal, state and local agencies, private foundations, and corporations to advance conservation.
Within the Conservancy, the Conservation Innovation Center (CIC) group has become a globally recognized leader in producing data, analyses, and web applications to advance precision conservation and restoration. We partner with industry-leading organizations like Microsoft and Esri to help define the next generation of environmental data and work with partners on the ground to make sure it is useful. The CIC has recognized the potential of AI/ML to dramatically improve the analysis of large and complex datasets to improve environmental decision making.
Chesapeake Conservancy is seeking a Conservation Data Specialist with experience leveraging machine learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large and complex data sets in the environmental world.
POSITION SUMMARY
The Conservation Data Specialist will be responsible for assisting with the development and management of a variety of projects both inside and outside the Chesapeake Bay watershed that leverage AI, big data, and cloud computing to improve environmental decision making. The successful candidate will have a unique opportunity to develop innovative data products and tools while collaborating with other leading organizations, and work with impact partners to deliver on-the-ground conservation benefits. Experience with or interest in environmental issues, including water quality and quantity management, ecosystem and habitat modeling, and land management is highly desired.
Essential Functions
- Create data science solutions for a diverse set of environmental problems. With guidance from the Deputy Director, the Conservation Data Specialist will develop and test data visualization and analytical tools that use statistics, machine learning, and AI to generate new information that improves conservation decision making. These tools may range from internal modules to public facing web applications.
- Develop efficient pipelines to leverage larg