Associate Computer Science Jobs in Frederick, MD

Description
PREP Research Associate
This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration's scientific research.
Research Title:
Research Software Engineer
The work will entail:
The Data Center and Business group (DCB) in the NIST Material Measurement Laboratory is seeking a Research Software Engineer (RSE) to help build sustainable software infrastructure for Measurement Service related projects. The successful candidate will provide both hands-on support for the development, maintenance, deployment, and long-term sustainability of critical software, databases, workflows, and scientific infrastructure.
In this role you will work as an embedded technical team member, participating in project planning, code creation and revision, code review, architecture discussions, reproducibility efforts, and deployment decisions. The successful candidate will help prioritize coding work across projects in consultation with DCB programmers, balancing near-term needs with long-term software sustainability.
U.S. Citizen Preferred
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
§ Design, expand, and deploy to an existing scientific database layout supporting active research and internal NIST datasets.
§ Develop, refactor, profile, test, and package prototype code for long-term maintainability and performance.
§ Develop new user-friendly intuitive features based around data input forms and display of data for an existing reference material dataset website.
§ Develop features to store, retrieve, and manage files related to the data records.
Qualifications
§ A Bachelor's degree in software engineering, computer science, information technology, a STEM field, or equivalent professional experience.
§ Proficiency in HTML, CSS, SASS, and JavaScript for user-facing layouts and behavior.
§ Proficiency in Server-side languages or runtimes (Node.js and PHP), alongside database management (MongoDB).
§ Proficiency in Version control systems like Git, API integration, responsive design, and debugging/testing procedures
§ Proficiency in Linux based file system and programming
§ Experience building data pipelines and reproducible workflows.
§ Library and API design and release management, documentation for scientific users and developers, automated testing and continuous integration, code review and maintainability practices.
§ The ability to work alongside researchers in adopting modern, collaborative software development workflows (e.g., git-based collaboration, issue tracking, lightweight project management).
§ Experience creating tutorials, examples, API documentation, or other user-facing materials for scientific software.
Application Instructions
Please upload the following with your application:
• CV/Resume
*Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Your resume will not be considered if the following information is included on your CV/resume.
• Self portraits
• Phone number
• Home address/Country
• Citizenship status
• Languages spoken
• Sex/Gender
Privacy Act Statement
Authority: 15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)
Purpose: The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.
PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.
Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.