Temporary Software Programmer

Hours: 14 hours/week (part-time, temporary/casual appointment)
Hourly Rate: $53.00 - $57.00 ($110,240 - $118,560)
Department: Department of Economics, University of Minnesota - NatCap TEEMs
Supervisor: Colleen Miller
Location: Remote
Start Date: estimating 6/24/2025
End Date: 8/31/2025

About the Project

The Pest Control Living Database Project, funded by USDA Grant #1023888, aims to revolutionize pest management science by combining insect observation datasets, biological traits, and remote sensing data into an integrated analytical platform. This Living Database will provide researchers and practitioners with a tool to identify, understand, and manage pest dynamics across diverse agricultural landscapes using state-of-the-art data science and automation techniques.

The interdisciplinary team includes ecologists, economists, entomologists, and computer scientists from multiple institutions. This hire will directly support development of key software tools within this framework.

Position Summary

The NatCap TEEMs group in the Department of Economics at the University of Minnesota seeks a motivated, experienced software programmer to contribute to the development of:

• A natural language processing (NLP) tool for extracting and structuring insect trait data from scientific literature.
• The core Living Database infrastructure, enabling integration and querying of ecological datasets at scale.
• Scientific manuscripts describing these methods for peer-reviewed publication.

This is a temporary, part-time, hourly position for a skilled contractor with flexible availability and a collaborative mindset. The candidate will work closely with the scientific leads and technical team.

Primary Responsibilities

Tool Development (50%)

• Design, develop, and document a robust NLP tool to identify and extract traits from ecological and entomological literature.
• Collaborate on the back-end development of the Living Database infrastructure (e.g., ingestion, storage, access, API).
• Write clean, modular, well-tested Python code for database automation and processing pipelines.

Research Support & Collaboration (30%)

• Contribute to reproducible computational workflows supporting scientific analyses.
• Work with interdisciplinary team members to refine software functionality based on user needs.
• Assist with methodological documentation and figures for inclusion in academic publications.

Writing & Documentation (20%)

• Contribute to the methodology sections of two academic publications.
• Write internal technical documentation and external-facing guidance for collaborators and users.

Required

• BA/BS plus at least six years of experience or master's degree plus at least four years of experience.
• Proven experience in Python programming, especially for scientific computing or NLP applications.
• Experience working with or developing database systems and/or API integrations.
• Familiarity with common NLP libraries (e.g., spaCy, NLTK, transformers).
• Strong documentation, communication, and collaborative development skills (e.g., Git, GitHub).
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and remotely.

Preferred

• Experience working on interdisciplinary scientific research projects including ecological, economic and remote sensing-specific research.
• Knowledge of ecological or entomological data and/or trait databases.
• Experience writing or contributing to peer-reviewed scientific publications.
• Comfort with Google Earth Engine, geospatial data formats, or Earth observation integration.
• Ph.D. in Computer Science.

Pay Range: $110,240 - $118,560 annually; depending on education/qualifications/experience.

Retirement plan options are available for Civil Service, Faculty, Labor-Represented, Professional & Administrative, and Temp Casual classifications. Learn more about retirement plans.

To be considered for this position:

Please send a resume/CV and a brief statement of interest to Dr. Colleen Miller, mill5773@umn.edu.

The University recognizes and values the importance of diversity and inclusion in enriching the employment experience of its employees and in supporting the academic mission. The University is committed to attracting and retaining employees with varying identities and backgrounds.

The University of Minnesota provides equal access to and opportunity in its programs, facilities, and employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. To learn more about diversity at the U: http://diversity.umn.edu

Any offer of employment is contingent upon the successful completion of a background check. Our presumption is that prospective employees are eligible to work here. Criminal convictions do not automatically disqualify finalists from employment.

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC)

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (UMTC), is among the largest public research universities in the country, offering undergraduate, graduate, and professional students a multitude of opportunities for study and research. Located at the heart of one of the nation's most vibrant, diverse metropolitan communities, students on the campuses in Minneapolis and St. Paul benefit from extensive partnerships with world-renowned health centers, international corporations, government agencies, and arts, nonprofit, and public service organizations.

At the University of Minnesota, we are proud to be recognized by the Star Tribune as a Top Workplace for 2021, as well as by Forbes as Best Employers for Women and one of America's Best Employers (2015, 2018, 2019, 2023), Best Employer for Diversity (2019, 2020), Best Employer for New Grads (2018, 2019), and Best Employer by State (2019, 2022).