Employer: Code for Science & Society (CS&S) (Fiscal Sponsor of FAIR Station)
Reports to: Marisa Strong
Status and Type: Non-Exempt Full-time, grant-funded (two years, potential extension)
Location: Hybrid or Remote (U.S. - Pacific Time preferred)
Travel: Occasional travel for workshops, site visits, and community events
Compensation: $130,000 USD annually
Benefits: Comprehensive benefits through CS&S; summary available for review upon request
Field stations and marine laboratories (FSMLs) operate at a critical point in the research life-cycle, where logistics, data collection, and research practice converge. FAIR Station is a multi-year initiative to evole the existing UC Nature Reserve Application Management System (RAMS) into an open-source, interoperable platform to support research activity across its full life-cycle. While maintaining and improving RAMS' existing functionality within UC Nature, FAIR Station aims to expand the platform to support open research workflows, integration with persistent identifier systems and research repositories, and broader adoption across the global field station community.
The project is led by the UC Curation Center (UC3) at California Digital Library (CDL) and UC Nature in close collaboration with community partners. To provide flexibility and administrative support, FAIR Station is fiscally sponsored and administratively hosted by Code for Science & Society (CS&S), a nonprofit supporting open, community-driven digital infrastructure. Funding for this position is made possible by the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation.
The Senior Platform & Web Application Engineer will play a key role in advancing the technical evolution of RAMS as part of the FAIR Station initiative. Working in close partnership with the Technical Lead, Product Manager, and UCNRS collaborators, this role will focus on expanding RAMS into a modular, API-forward, containerized platform designed for interoperability and reuse.
This position emphasizes thoughtful modernization of an existing production Rails application, careful expansion of API capabilities, and support for open infrastructure integrations, all while maintaining continuity of service for current users. The role blends strong web application development with platform thinking, open-source practices, and sustainable architecture design.
The Senior Platform & Web Application Engineer contributes to the technical evolution of the FAIR Station platform, working in close partnership with a technical lead, Product Manager, and UC Nature domain experts. Technical direction and architectural priorities are guided by UC3’s platform stewardship and project governance, while day-to-day implementation, integration work, and iterative delivery are carried out collaboratively within the engineering team.
Design and implement RESTful APIs to support integrations with external research infrastructure systems (e.g., persistent identifier providers, repositories, research workflow tools)
Establish clear versioning, authentication, and documentation practices for public-facing APIs
Ensure integration patterns are maintainable, well-documented, and aligned with open infrastructure best practices
Support and implement transition to containerized (Docker-based) deployment environments
Improve CI/CD workflows, observability, and operational reliability
Contribute to deployment models that support both hosted and self-managed implementations
Partner closely with the Product Manager on roadmap sequencing and iterative delivery
Collaborate with the Technical Lead and UCNRS domain experts to ensure technical decisions align with user workflows and long-term sustainability
Address feature requests, usability improvements, and bug fixes in coordination with stakeholders
Contribute to documentation and implementation guidance for future adopters
Contribute to maintaining RAMS as a public, open-source platform
Support documentation and development practices that encourage sustainability and reuse
Help ensure the platform remains lightweight, maintainable, and aligned with public-interest infrastructure principles
Contribute to the ongoing architectural evolution of the RAMS application toward modular, reusable design patterns
Implement enhancements that support configurability and adoption beyond the UC system
Maintain system stability while incrementally modernizing components
Participate in architectural decision-making and documentation
Experience building and maintaining production web applications (e.g., Ruby on Rails or similar MVC frameworks)
Strong backend and API design experience (RESTful services, versioning strategies, authentication/authorization patterns)
Experience evolving and modernizing mature applications without disrupting existing users
Experience containerizing applications (Docker) and deploying to cloud environments (e.g., AWS or comparable platforms)
Experience contributing to or working within open-source software environments
Strong documentation and communication skills; ability to collaborate effectively in a cross-functional, distributed team
Experience working in Ruby on Rails applications
Experience designing software intended for reuse across institutions or organizations
Experience integrating with external APIs or ecosystem platforms
Familiarity with research infrastructure, scholarly communication systems, or open science ecosystems
Passion for building awesome open source tools for the research community
Experience working in grant-funded or public-interest technology environments
Code for Science & Society is an equal opportunity employer and considers all applications without regard to race, color, religion, creed, gender, national origin, age, disability, marital or veteran status, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected status.
To apply, please submit a letter of interest and resume detailing how your experience and qualifications align with the responsibilities of this role to marisa@codeforsociety.org. Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis and closes May 20, 2026. Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted. If you require reasonable accommodations at any stage of the application or hiring process, please contact us at marisa@codeforsociety.org. For additional information on the organization, please visit CSS’s website atwww.codeforsociety.org.