I am a software developer (mostly backend, some frontend and some data analytics). I personally don't really have any desire to work at FAANG. I also don't really have any desire to write CRUD for some generic company that pays well either.
I want to explore more meaningful avenues of work. Preserving nature, animals and their habitats, is one cause I have been thinking about. I know that most projects are very hands-on, requiring mostly hard labour or specialised research efforts. However, I've been wondering if there is a demand for software in these projects? Particularly in terms of specialised tooling and/or data analytics?
I suspect that most research projects don't have the funding to afford anything beyond the bare requirements. The same probably goes for government sponsored programmes; again, this is all speculation.
Does anyone have experience as a software dev in these fields? Where might one start looking ?
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Because I am sure some people will mention it, yes, volunteering is an option. But money is an unfortunate living requirement in today's society (unless you plan on going off-grid entirely).
You'll also take a hit in your reputation among other developers, most of whom seem to have gone into it for money and don't seem to care whether or not their labor is doing anything to benefit society.
Good work is still worth doing of course. You just have to count the work itself as one of the benefits.
"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation."
- Web development. Nonprofits need websites. Sometimes they may have a dev on staff, usually they at least have a digital director that can work with devs at web dev vendors. These vendors are usually solely focused on the non-profit market.
- CRM. Non-profits fundraise and they need people to manage the donor database. Usually this is bought from a vendor that specializes in non-profit CRM and those vendors also have devs/DBAs.
- IT. Non-profits need IT to manage networks, phones and equipment. Often they work with IT vendors.
- Devs for conservation work. This is more rare. Still, some non-profits have staff scientists, GIS people, and devs to build out conservation tools, such as data collecting apps, data visualizations or other things. This is rare because most non-profits are trying to convince the government to do the science because the government has much more money and power to recruit. It's rare and maybe a bit of a vanity project to do any science out of the non-profit, though there are a couple of groups that do that.
Big NGOs also need technical people, too. Check out the Humane Society, Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Compassion in World Farming, etc. They aren’t going to be the highest paying jobs and there are all sorts of downsides but it’s a way to use your skills to make a difference in the world.
I do web development and data engineering for plant phenomics automation in a plant bio lab. Crop optimization (e.g., for abiotic stress resistance, reduced fertilizer requirements, atmospheric carbon sequestration, yield) basically requires digital surveillance infrastructure on the same scale we've (regrettably) developed for humans, except for plants. Nobody really understands how phenotypes develop as a function of genetic, physiological, and environmental factors; but we need to if we want to maintain the viability of agriculture in the face of climate change etc.
You won't get paid like you would in a more traditional software development position, but it's enough to live on. Let me know if you'd like more information.
I work with oceanographers. There are many who get by with rudimentary programming skills but love the help of developers who can help them build tools to analyze and disseminate their data. They love spreadsheets because they don't know how to make databases.
Having mechanical or electrical engineering or CAD skills helps them design enclosures for instruments, having software skills helps them add autonomy.
However it is not a field where, at least as I've seen, engineers have free rein to improve processes simply for the sake of improving them.
You are right that research funding is tight and in most of the world it is getting tighter. Right now many projects are burning through funds while scientists babysit their kids; the research vessels are only now trying to resume operation.
It could be like a combination of Airbnb and Couchsurfing etc. that serves a specific niche.
https://catalpa.io/work-with-us/
They are based in East Timor and were founded by an Aussie and an American (U.S.) and they allow remote work.
The trust maintains a visitor park that provides bird displays and experience days for the general public. The gate takings and donations fund conservation activities in the UK (raptor nest boxes, bird hospital, bird surveys) and overseas activities (e.g. reducing poisoning of wild birds by game poachers). The Trust itself is very much an outdoor organisation, with key staff supporting bird care and site infrastructure. There is a small back office that supports ops, marketing and merchandising, using COTS software. Academic research is conducted but in conjunction with local universities, which is where data crunching, etc, happens. There are a small number of on-site student placements, primarily for those in biology / zoology courses, and the placement activities seem fairly practical in nature. I suspect that most similar organisations follow a similar pattern, with a relatively small COTS software footprint and a focus on practical tasks rather than software development / data analysis.
That said, I started volunteering to support an office-based marketing function: management of a massive photo library and video editing to support marketing and outreach functions. After six months of doing this, COVID-19 happened and most office staff started WFH, with office-based volunteering suspended because it involves hot-desking. When the park started to reopen, I switched to COVID-related activities such as queue management (‘space marshal’) and cleaning. Although some tasks are menial, I’ve learned much more about how the trust works on a daily basis and I’ve got to know the key bird staff much better.
One of my key insights, as an ex-software professional, is how much I didn’t know about how conservation actually works, and how specific conservation organisations actually operate. But getting hands-on with some of the less glamorous tasks is a good apprenticeship and a way of building trust in the industry, if you have a long-term interest in directly supporting conservation.
ps- contact them and help with the cert!
I've seen a plant identification app disrupt the process of species identification with field guides. I suspect that there are a lot of tedious classification projects that professors assign to undergrad researchers (find photos with wildlife) that can be entirely automated.
https://wildlifeprotectionsolutions.org/
https://observer.com/2017/05/artificial-intelligence-can-sto...
Make friends with people in national-level government organizations (whatever would be most like USGS wherever you live) or university "geomatics" type people. A good start would be those involved with remote sensing (satellite [radar or optical]/drone/other sensors). These are the people that know of or are sitting in these types of jobs.
If you want a web dev type job find a way to get experience with scripting for ArcGIS Portal.
I would suggest you to assure first a well paid job and use your free time for volunteer activities. Nobody should be doing science before 50 Yo. Not at this moment when postdocs are being paid 300 euro/month. Is committing economical suicide and starting a family first and having kids should be your priority.
About oceanography. If you can read spanish (if not, you can always google-translate it) you may find interesting this recent piece of news.
https://elpais.com/ciencia/2020-06-30/dimite-la-cupula-del-m...
Your mileage may vary
active group, good work, and they’re a semi-commercial autonomous wing of st. andrews.
No, there's not a demand for software in this arena. All this stuff is dominated by grants and politically charged funds.
You might save a tiger, but in the year it took you to save him, Brazil cut down 8 million hectares of the rain forest for palm oil.
Drop me an email at nhh@downforce.com. We don't have a framework for hiring at the moment but might do very soon.
inaturalist
Cornell ornithology lab
eesa
Caltech JPL
USFWS
MBARI
blue point conservation science
NOAA
Sitka technology group
conservation x labs
sail drone
uw escience institute
greenridge sciences
Oregon carbon
m science (marine research)
Tortuga agtech
conservation metrics
- https://4returns.earth/network/job-listings/ is in the regenerative ag space - lists some tech jobs if you search for them. (e.g. try https://4returns.earth/network/job-listings/?searchval=devel... )
- Conservation is only one area, and the term 'conservation' itself is a frame I've been more critical of after reading papers like https://www.uv.es/jgpausas/papers/Pausas-Millan-2019_BioScie... which have been making me think some of the problems we have might be more with abandoning land for the city. Another frame of thinking about about is how/where you want to live and go from there - I'm really questioning whether one should live in "today's society" - that doesn't mean going off-grid entirely but living in a way that's local/bioregional oriented..
- I'm skeptical of the tech-focused effort on only looking at co2 because it doesn't account for the other problem areas (google "planetary boundaries framework" to learn about biodiversity collapse/nutrient flows and how those are much bigger problems), but there's the airminers folks: http://www.airminers.org . Again, while this falls more in the tech frame I'm not sure I'd spend time on it.
- While I disagree with some of the recommendations around 'effective altruism', it's another path worth considering if your survival requires making money at the moment. You could say, work at a mapping or weather-related company spend then leverage the experience later on for more direct action. At the moment I haven't quit my dayjob yet but am taking an "Ecosystem Restoration Design" course (https://www.gaiaeducation.org), donated to various things, and participate in a study group around these topics (https://earth-regenerators.mn.co) and feel like that so far has helped in developing a perspective before jumping into anything.
- almost forgot, Patagonia's Action Works seems to have a really good platform for finding tech volunteering on environmental projects: https://www.patagonia.com/actionworks/