Coral Data Manager

CSS is seeking a Coral Data Manager to support NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information's (NCEI), This position supports the Coasts, Oceans, and Geophysics Division at NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). The primary focus of this role is as a Coral Data Manager, specifically addressing the end-to-end lifecycle of Coral Reef Conservation Program (CRCP) funded data and information products.

The incumbent will blend technical data management expertise with clear communications skills, operating across the requirements for scientific data stewardship and user engagement and customer services. Responsibilities balance the safe ingestion, documentation, and web-service dissemination of coral datasets with collaborative outreach, including the development of web stories, story maps, and social media content for stakeholder engagement.

Location & Work Arrangement

• Primary Location: Silver Spring, MD
• Work Arrangement: Hybrid or Remote.

Responsibilities

1. Ingest and Archiving

• Manage the end-to-end intake of raw environmental and biological coral data from diverse partner networks, ensuring all records are securely archived in accordance with NCEI archival policies.
• Serve as an active member of product teams, evaluating data collections to verify content and performing formatting adjustments or initial data verification.
• Engage proactively with scientific data providers and project stakeholders to advise on best practices, resolve anomalies, and address technical issues related to the ingest and archive workflow.

2. Metadata Compliance and Documentation

• Develop, validate, and maintain standards-compliant XML metadata records (such as the NCEI profile of ISO 191xxx geospatial metadata) to guarantee data products conform to federal guidelines.
• Ensure all stewarded datasets adhere strictly to Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) data practices, ensuring discoverability via metadata search tools like NOAA's OneStop,CRCP's Digital Corals, and data.gov.
• Assist scientific staff and external data partners in defining data file attribute structures, developing standardized templates, and applying controlled scientific domain vocabularies to maximize long-term data utility.

3. Dataset Dissemination and Web Services

• Develop and maintain finalized environmental datasets for open web services (such as OGC-compliant, REST-based geospatial services) to increase public and stakeholder access to CRCP-funded products.
• Administer and populate open data catalogs using Web Accessible Folders (WAFs) and emerging cloud-based discovery services to feed product search pages and interactive map interfaces.
• Address user queries regarding coral data products in a timely and professional manner, ensuring incoming requests are tracked within the customer management tool (Salesforce).

4. Outreach and Communication

• Coordinate cross-functionally across different stakeholders, science staff, and NCEI communications teams to identify promotional and documentation requirements.
• Assist in developing clear scientific and technical documentation, and design visual graphics to convey complex dataset parameters to the public.
• Contribute actionable content to division communication frameworks, including social media plans, online web stories, and interactive ArcGIS StoryMaps.
• Support public outreach efforts by helping to document user feedback, characterizations, and evolving community needs during workshops and engagement events.

Required Skills

• Stewardship & Ingest: Prior experience managing data acquisition workflows, processing pipelines, or archiving frameworks for environmental data collections.
• Documentation direct experience with documentation standards such as DCAT, MODS, MARC, FGDC, CSDM.
• Communication: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated experience translating scientific concepts into public-facing narratives, web summaries, or user documentation.
• Technical Writing: Skilled at drafting technical standard operating procedures (SOPs), requirements documents, or data management guidance.
• Collaboration Tools: Familiarity with applying version control tools (such as Git) and leveraging collaborative workspace environments.
• Security Clearance: Must be able to pass a background investigation to obtain a federal security badge for access to government facilities and IT systems.

Preferred Skills

• Domain Knowledge: Basic familiarity with coastal ecosystem variables, marine biological observations, or general oceanographic concepts, particularly coral reef ecosystems
• Geospatial Software: Experience using the ESRI software suite, including ArcGIS Online, ArcGIS Pro, and Experience Builder for data visualization or mapping layers.
• Scripting Libraries: Experience with scripting or programming languages (such as Python, R, or Linux Shell) for data manipulation and automating ingest checking.
• Metadata Standards & Systems: Experience working with geospatial metadata standards, including ISO 19115, ISO 19139. Experience utilizing standard metadata authoring editors or XML tools (such as CoMET, Metaserver, Oxygen, or Altova XML Spy).
• Cloud Architecture: Basic awareness of AWS and Google cloud environments and cloud-optimized storage principles.
• Workflow Frameworks: Experience working within Agile/Scrum development environments or utilizing Jira/Confluence for project milestone tracking.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Oceanography, Physics, Computer Science, Library/Information Science, or a related technical or scientific discipline.

At CSS, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and merit-based workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals, ensuring that hiring and employment decisions are based on qualifications, skills, and performance. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.