Employment
Work with Us at NCEAS!
NCEAS is a research institute affiliated with UCSB, but located ten miles south in downtown Santa Barbara. Note that both staff and academic candidates must apply for jobs through the official UC Santa Barbara websites, provided below for each current job opening. NCEAS is committed to advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in environmental data science and is especially interested in candidates who can support the diversity and excellence of the academic community through research, teaching, and service
Learn more about working at NCEAS on our Welcome Website >
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.
Current Job Openings

Research Software Developer
Due Date: On-going
Expected Salary: $77,000 - $94,140
Apply on the UCSB recruitment website
Duties of this research software developer are conducted at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS; http://www.nceas.ucsb.edu/ecoinformatics/) at UC Santa Barbara to create a national software infrastructure for management and analysis of ecological and environmental data. Projects focus on novel approaches to sharing data and scientific products to enable open and reproducible science and facilitate synthetic research. Principal duties include: design and development for cloud, web-based, and desktop scientific data management and analysis software; web-design and development for sites and applications, including design of web service programming interfaces; and creation of end-user documentation and training materials. Software development will include data management and analysis systems using technologies such as linked open data, semantic search, and ontology engineering to solve challenging data discovery and integration problems spanning the environmental and earth sciences. In addition to technical design and development, duties also encompass communication and outreach to the international science community to promote the software and systems through writing, speaking, and training at, for example, scientific conferences and open science events. Duties also include technical collaboration on system design and development for specific grant-funded projects, including collaboration with researchers and engineers spanning a diverse set of partner institutions.
Application Review Begins: 1/7/25
Benefits of Working at NCEAS
Benefits, including healthcare, dental, and retirement, are highly competitive and provided by UCSB. Academic positions, including postdocs, accrue two days of vacation and one day of sick leave per month while staff positions get one day of sick time and vacation that scales with length of employment.
NCEAS Culture
In addition to doing work with positive impact, some of the perks that NCEAS employees enjoy are:
- An open door environment
- Terrace lunches
- Networking with visiting researchers
- Art & science collaborations
- Beautiful workspaces
Our Commitment
At NCEAS, we're committed to:
- A collaborative & encouraging work environment
- An inclusive, diverse community
- Work-life balance
- Impactful work
Remote Work
NCEAS' philosophy generally values in-person over remote work to encourage productive conversation and collaboration. For all employees, we offer flexibility with hybrid schedules. Any positions that are open to remote work will be advertised as such.
Negotations
We do not allow salary negotiation during the hiring process. This decision is grounded in our commitment to creating an inclusive and equitable space for all. We will offer all candidates the maximum possible salary that the position will allow given the candidate's skills, experience, and funding available. You are welcome to negotiate the following after the job offer: job title, start date, percentage time, and, if appropriate, hybrid schedule.
Learn more in our Negotiation Policy Document