Technical Project Manager (Remote)

*No Visa Sponsorship is available for this position.

About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a globally recognized leader in technology, data management, and large-scale citizen science supporting birds and biodiversity conservation. We curate more than a petabyte of digital assets, one billion bird sightings, and leverage innovative big data analysis tools and machine learning to produce web applications and services to empower a global community of bird and nature enthusiasts, researchers, conservationists, and educators. The Lab is in an incredible growth phase and navigating exciting challenges to scale our data-driven tools and services for conservation communities in all corners of the globe. eBird collaborates with hundreds of regional organizations in more than 80 countries who are using eBird, Merlin Bird ID, Birds of the World, and other resources as a platform to advance their conservation goals.

The Opportunity

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a creative, mission-driven Technical Project Manager to focus on Merlin, eBird and core services supporting the Macaulay Library media archive, Birds of the World avian life histories, and delivering data products to conservation practitioners. This role will join a team that shares the mission of connecting people to nature and conservation through birds. As part of a team of software engineers, content creators, machine learning researchers, and conservation scientists this role will be the lynchpin in translating new ideas for how to serve a global community in participating in watching birds into features and data products for conservation practitioners. The data collected through eBird and associated apps is directly tied to data products used in conservation decision-making and positive environmental outcomes. Join us to shape the next generation of tools and data resources for the birding and conservation community.  

The Technical Project Manager is responsible for overseeing complex software projects from start to finish, providing direction, guidance, and motivation to Agile/Scrum teams of software engineers and project staff, managing deliverables, and ensuring successful delivery of new software to the community. This role includes: 1) project planning, resource allocation, implementation, communication, coordination, tracking, and reporting; 2) working with engineers and project leadership to define scope and coordinate activities between technical teams and other collaborators; 3) advising and assisting senior staff and/or other clients with the formulation of project budgets, and with project financial management; 4) communicating project scope, goals and responsibilities to the project team; establishing and maintaining clear stakeholder expectations and managing these expectations as projects evolve.

While position responsibilities vary, every member of our community is expected to foster a culture of belonging and a psychologically 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.

What We Need

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor?s degree in software development management, biological sciences, information sciences or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Three (3)+ years of relevant work experience in project management and coordinating software engineering teams.
• Experience watching birds and/or working on projects to advance bird conservation.
• Exceptional project management skills to coordinate multiple groups working towards the same deliverable and timeline for public launch.
• Experience managing complex technical projects across multiple teams and cross-functional groups.
• In depth technical knowledge of software development and modern web application development techniques, including experience with frontend user interfaces and with integrating these into complex enterprise systems involving APIs and web services.
• Experience using software development project management tools (e.g. Jira, GitHub).
• Strong communication skills (written and oral) to clearly articulate vision and plans, and provide instruction effectively to all levels of management, staff, new partners, funding agencies, project participants, and visitors.
• Strong interpersonal skills to develop trust with external collaborators and encourage participation in projects.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all levels of management and staff internally and externally.
• Ability to value teamwork and be able to stimulate cooperation between all employees and partners.
• Provide high level of initiative to anticipate needs of the project and fulfill project objectives with general guidance.
• Ability to prioritize activities and exercise sound judgement in discussions with external collaborators.
• Experience in and/or demonstrated commitment to supporting diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and wellbeing.
• Must have a demonstrated ability for working collaboratively and inclusively in a diverse, dynamic, creative, and multi-disciplinary environment.

If you have all those things, great! We have a few more things that we would prefer you to have, but it?s ok if you don?t.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree preferred.
• Deep understanding of the birding community and/or conservation practitioner community.
• Experience using analytics tools (such as Google Analytics and Firebase).
• Software engineering skills and working knowledge of programming web-based applications using technologies such as Python, Java, Spring, Nuxt, Vue, and JavaScript.
• Technical experience with major cloud providers such as AWS or Azure.

Application Information:

• A Cover Letter and Resume are required for further consideration for this position. When applying through our system, please remember to attach your application materials (Cover Letter and Resume) in PDF format.
• Visa Sponsorship of any kind is not available for this position.

What We Offer

Rewards and Benefits

• This position is based in Ithaca, New York, however, the successful applicant may perform this role remotely anywhere within the United States. Employees who work remotely may receive multiple W-2 Forms depending on their work location.
• The New York Convenience of employer guidelines require New York State individual tax reporting and withholding for this position. Additional individual state income tax filings may also be required if working temporarily outside of New York State.
• Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, sustainability, and diversity initiatives.
• Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: https://hr.cornell.edu/benefits-pay.
• Follow this link to learn more about the Total Rewards of Working at Cornell: https://hr.cornell.edu/jobs/your-total-rewards.
• Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1.
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assistance Program.

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