Data Management Specialist 2- Natural Coordinated Assessments and StreamNet

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is recruiting candidates to fill the role of the Data Management Specialist 2 - Natural Coordinated Assessments and StreamNet. This is a full-time, full-year benefits eligible position located in Boise, Idaho. The anticipated start date is January 2027.

Position/Project Specifics:

The Coordinated Assessments Partnership (CAP) and StreamNet (SN) are collaborative efforts among federal, state, and tribal organizations creating access to standardized anadromous fish high level indicators (HLI) and fish monitoring metrics for informing regional assessments and reporting needs. The CAP has a hatchery origin component (HCA) and a natural component (NCA).

The data sharing achieved through the Pacific Northwest CAP and StreamNet projects inform decisions and reporting requirements that relate to both ESA-listed and non-listed salmon and steelhead, as well as other associated species.

This position will be primarily focused upon data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) into established data exchange structures (DES) for natural origin fishes. Additionally, they will aid in the development and testing of new data exchange structures both for natural and hatchery origin fishes.

The tasks related to achieving the objectives above will include communicating goals and needs of the project to biologists and research staff, collaborating with those personnel to locate appropriate data sources, and then developing workflows to ETL those data into the regional DES. The data will then be validated and uploaded to a shared, regional database. The workflows will be documented and shared with project personnel in order to build redundancy.

This position will also aid with meeting data and technical assistance requests for these data from internal and external customers. Some travel to regional offices may also be needed.

Essential Functions: (The functions listed below are characteristic of the type and level of work associated with this group and pay band. They are not all-inclusive. Individual positions may perform some or all, as well as other similar work.)

At the lower end of the range, employees:

• Compile natural resource project data into standardized electronic data formats. This includes accessing filed information and verifying its accuracy and completeness, performing data entry, electronic data transfer, editing, and error checking.
• Assist biologists with analyses and interpretation of data.
• Keep records on methods and parameters of data collection.
• Extract relevant data and present it in a variety of text and numeric formats, reports, tables, graphics, or figures.
• Maintain local versions of datasets in accordance with established regional database exchange formats and standards.
• Create queries, summaries, and/or maps for recurring reports.
• Ensure annual submittals for datasets are competed according to schedule

At the upper end of the range, employees:

• Standardize and automate workflows using SQL, ArcGIS Pro, R, and other software to streamline dataflow and provide quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC).
• Develop documentation and protocols using technical and non-technical formats.
• Work with internal and external collaborators, including state, federal, and tribal partners in a regional, consensus-driven environment.
• Attend technical and upper-level meetings for project direction and feedback. Take lead role on presenting information from biologist to technical committees for implementation into workflows.
• Supervising, mentoring and fostering the growth of a Data Management Specialist I working on Hatchery Coordinated Assessments Project.

Knowledge Required by the Position:

The employee must have knowledge and experience in:

• natural sciences
• personal computers and software packages and applications for databases, spreadsheets, and word processing
• data management concepts, principles, and methods
• quality assurance principles
• common query languages
• Supervising or mentoring
• MS SQL
• MS Access
• MS Excel
• MS Word
• ArcGIS Pro

sufficient to: input data; structure information retrievals; edit, combine and manipulate data; and/or provide reports for users. This knowledge allows the employee to assess or interpret the significance of the results and relate that to the overall objective of the assignment.

Additional Desirable Knowledge and Skills:

• R (including Shiny Apps and Markdown)
• Python (within a GIS environment)
• oral communication skills
• writing technical documentation
• Application Programming Interface (API) creation, management

Physical Demands:

The work is generally sedentary, although there may be some nominal walking or standing for short periods of time, or carrying of light loads of papers, books, reports, etc., that require only moderate physical ability and physical stress. Significant amounts of time may be spent on the phone.

Work Environment:

The works area is adequately lighted, heated, and ventilated. The work involves the common risks or discomforts typical of office, meeting rooms, libraries, and the like.