<h5>Persons in these roles are expected to spend part of their time on-site in our Seattle offices and may occasionally work remotely from their home in the Greater Seattle area. On-site requirements vary based on position and team. If you have questions about Hybrid work arrangements for this role, please ask your recruiter.</h5> <h5>Our base salary range is $146,880 - $220,320, and in addition we have generous bonus plans to provide a competitive compensation package.</h5> Who You Are: Love animals? Have you always wanted to apply your technical and creative expertise to a product that protects endangered species on a day-to-day basis? You don’t have to decide between a technical career and a deeply moving, important calling. Imagine your cutting-edge software being used by a wildlife ranger in Africa, helping them to combat poaching, study animals, and help local communities! Who We Are:  The Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) is looking for our next Backend Software Architect to help drive our Applied Science &amp; Technology team’s EarthRanger project. EarthRanger is a software platform that empowers conservationists to make informed operational decisions by integrating data from many sources to create a holistic view of their protected area. Our solution helps prevent endangered species poaching, combat deforestation, promote human-wildlife coexistence, and advocate for legal wildlife protection. Used by over 700 conservation organizations worldwide—from iconic national parks like Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya and North Luangwa National Park in Zambia to species-specific programs like the Snow Leopard Trust in Mongolia and Panthera’s Mountain Lion Program in Washington state—EarthRanger is making a global impact. Your Next Challenge: We are seeking a Backend Software Architect with extensive experience in processing, storing, and retrieving large volumes of IoT data for analysis. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in designing scalable systems that handle real-time data streams from diverse sources such as animal trackers, radios, vehicles, rangers, patrols, and remote imaging devices. You will be responsible for architecting solutions that efficiently ingest, store, and analyze data from over 100 hardware sensors, enabling conservationists to make informed operational decisions based on comprehensive and timely information. The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following: <ul> <li>Ability to architect scalable solutions including design documents and lead the implementation of that system by their team. Including the management and processing of near real-time data streaming from remote sensors.</li> <li>Technical innovator and thought leader, with ability to demonstrate and inspire continuous learning, experimentation, and data and metrics-driven decision making</li> <li>Architect and enforce best practices for unit testing and CI/CD to support scalable, reliable delivery of web, service, database, and mobile platforms.</li> <li>Broad architectural expertise spanning multiple technology domains, from designing web service interfaces to engineering scalable backend systems and the integration layers that connect them.</li> <li>Anticipates obstacles and performance risks early, formulating and implementing strategies to mitigate issues and maintain delivery momentum.</li> <li>Must be delivery focused, with a strong willingness to perform all tasks required to complete the job and meet deadlines.</li> </ul> What You’ll Need: <ul> <li>Established track record of delivering complex software solutions to delight customers</li> <li>Bachelors degree and/or Masters degree in Computer Science, or equivalent experience</li> <li>A minimum of 12 years of software development experience</li> </ul> Preferred: <ul> <li>Experienced coder in Python with over 4 years experience developing applications and services in that language. Version 3.10 and above.</li> <li>Proven track record of architecting and delivering scalable SaaS solutions built with Django, utilizing data stores such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis, and Elasticsearch. Skilled in designing multi-tenant systems and orchestrating deployments on Kubernetes for high availability and performance.</li> <li>Expertise in designing and implementing RESTful APIs for complex systems using Django REST Framework, with additional experience developing real-time communication interfaces through WebSockets or Socket.IO.</li> <li>Architect real-time systems leveraging Celery, Pub/Sub, or similar technologies to implement distributed background processing and message queues for seamless cross-system communication.</li> <li>Demonstrated expertise in end-to-end application security, ensuring protection from data at rest to data in transit, and safeguarding all public-facing interfaces.</li> <li>Experience delivering solutions on AWS, Google Cloud or Azure. Google Cloud preferred.</li> </ul> Physical Demands and Work Environment: The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions. <ul> <li>Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. </li> <li>The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. </li> <li>The ability to observe details at close range.</li> <li>Can work under deadlines.</li> </ul> A Little More About Ai2: Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond. In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are: <ul> <li>We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. </li> <li>We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. </li> <li>We value inclusion - We understand the value that peoples individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.</li> <li>We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.</li> <li>We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.</li> <li>We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.</li> <li>We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. </li> </ul> Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/EEOC_KnowYourRights_screen_reader_10_20.pdf">Know Your Rights</a> compliance poster and the <a href="https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/ofccp/pdf/pay-transp_%20English_formattedESQA508c.pdf">Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision</a> by clicking on their corresponding links.  This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9. We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at <a href="mailto:recruiting@allenai.org">recruiting@allenai.org.</a> Benefits: <ul> <li>Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, basic life insurance, basic accidental death and dismemberment insurance, short-term disability, long-term disability, and an employee assistance program.</li> <li>Team members are able to enroll in our voluntary life insurance program, our voluntary accidental death and dismemberment program, our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.</li> <li>Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan.</li> <li>Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.</li> <li>Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.</li> <li>Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.</li> </ul>         Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.

Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence

Lead Software Engineer, Earth Ranger

Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence