Remote AI/ML Engineer in Wildlife Conservation

The Wild Neighbors Database Project is looking to contract with an experienced data scientist engineer who wants an opportunity to work on a unique and meaningful application. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in AI/ML, data science, and natural language processing, as well as a passion for wildlife conservation.

The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a a fully remote US based 501(c)3 non-profit organization which promotes international wildlife rehabilitation by developing online data management software and helping implement its use worldwide to gather and exchange wildlife data. We are a small team of dedicated individuals intent on supporting and improving the lives of wildlife everywhere. It is a tough job but we are equal to the task.

What You Will be Doing

You will be working with our lead developer architecting and developing a near real-time wildlife morbidity and mortality event alert system. This system (1) uses multi-classification ML models to tag wildlife cases with standardized terminology; (2) calculates thresholds set by time-series analyses for species X classification combinations and (3) searches wildlife cases for anomalies compared to established thresholds. This is an opportunity to work on applications that solve real-world challenges faced by wildlife health professionals and contribute to wildlife conservation.

What Is The Ideal Candidate Like?

• Lives in the United States.
• You should be detail-oriented, thorough, and obsessed with pixel-perfect design.
• You should be able to anticipate problems and plan ahead for them.
• You should be self-motivated, organized, and able to manage your time wisely.
• You should be fluent in English and able to communicate well.
• You should have a passion for wildlife conservation, birding or natural sciences.

Must Haves

• Required experience with Python, R, or similar programming languages (3 years).
• Preferred experience with Tensorflow / Keras and natural language processing models. 
• Experience with both consuming and designing RESTful APIs.
• Familiar with appropriate data storage solutions for the use of the application.
• Excellent communication skills, experience interacting with diverse scientific teams.

Principal Responsibilities And Duties

• Implement and refine multi-classification machine learning models for wildlife disease applications.
• Develop database search algorithms based on a variety of taxonomic, clinical and geospatial variables.
• Develop backend API’s for consumption by our user facing applications.
• Collaborate with researchers and clinicians (our end users) to understand their needs.
• Keep project manager well informed of the status of development efforts.
• Write clean structured and well-documented code.
• Be a thought leader on the team, advocating best practices in security, testing, accessibility, and maintainability.
• Participate in team meetings and presentations.

Benefits

Compensation: $75/hr – $90/hr (depending on experience)

Finer Details

• Start date: ~May 2023
• Fully remote based role
• Contractor 1099 position
• Lives in the United States
• Salary range: $75/hr – $90/hr depending on your experience

How to Apply

We would love to see some examples of your work, engaging, interactive apps / demos built with the skills required for the job, your github account, your blog (if you have one) and a cover letter with answers to at least the following questions:

• Why would you like to work with The Wild Neighbors Database Project?
• Can you share at least one piece of work you are really proud of and which falls in line with the job specifications.
• Can you give us a brief description about your background, how do you work, what motivates you and how do you manage to work remotely?

Please send all of the above in one email to devin.dombrowski@wildneighborsdp.org. We promise to personally respond to every single application that at least has the word “dog” mentioned in the cover letter. We will be accepting submissions until April 31, 2023.

The Wild Neighbors Database Project is a proud equal opportunity employer. We are open to all backgrounds and never discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.