Overview:
The National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) is a $430 million dollar observatory project dedicated to understanding how changes in climate, land use and invasive species impact ecology. For the next three decades NEON will collect a comprehensive range of ecological data on a continental scale across 20 eco-climatic domains representing US ecosystems. NEON will use cutting edge technology including an airborne observation platform that will capture images of regional landscapes and vegetation; mobile, re-locatable, and fixed data collection sites with automated ground sensors to monitor soil and atmosphere; and trained field crews who will observe and sample populations of diverse organisms and collect soil and water data. A leading edge cyber-infrastructure will calibrate, store and publish this information. The Observatory will grow to 300+ personnel and will be the first of its kind designed to detect and enable forecasting of ecological change at continental scales.
Summary:
This position reports to the Chief of Education and Public Engagement. Once NEON is operational, a primary interface with users will be through its web presence. This web presence will include not only information about the NEON project goals and objectives, but also a host of resources including a data portal that serves complex, long-term datasets to be downloaded by end-users and associated visualization products, education and outreach portals that provide educational resources in the form of training and interactive content and information about associated NEON programs and initiatives. Developing and maintaining an effective, accessible and functional web portal is critical to engaging users with NEON data and resources. The Web Portal Product Manager (WPPM) will be responsible for both developing creative and effective strategies for NEON’s online web presence and leading NEON and associated key stakeholders through the process of developing and maintaining a cutting edge web portal. Given the technical nature of web components, this position will work closely with the Web Project Manager in the NEON Cyber Infrastructure (CI) group. Specifically, the WPPM will lead the development of data, education and outreach, and development of general areas of the NEON web portal. The WPPM is also responsible for managing development and implementation of web portal vision, goals, design, structure, content generation, user needs and user testing. The WPPM will also manage web portal development timeline, prioritization of releases, and development of helpdesk/ticketing functions in collaboration with the CI Web Project Manager and other key stakeholders associated with respective parts of the portal.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities:
• Work directly with stakeholders to define and gain buy-in/feedback for both goals for NEON’s web presence, and associated web functionality and messages.
• Engage/collaborate with internal NEON staff to develop/implement web development strategy and process.
• Organize/conduct web presence needs assessment with target user groups.
• Collaborate across NEON teams to gain consensus for project direction, gather requirements, develop use cases, create designs, produce structure, and implement content for all areas of the web portal.
• Manage associated web development projects, performed by external web development firm(s) and ensure the design implemented follows NEON’s branding and design.
• Coordinate web content implementation and maintenance across internal departments.
• Recommend and manage the vendor that conducts usability testing.
• Co-manage the web project components, ensuring that individual portal components including requirements, functionality development, testing/quality assurance and production release are completed in a timely fashion, throughout the lifecycle of the project.
• Manage schedule and resources throughout the project delivery.
• Monitor / track project milestones and deliverables, and communicate progress to stakeholders.
• Confer with project personnel to identify and resolve problems.
• Anticipate barriers to completion of milestones and adjust work and schedule accordingly to meet overall identified milestones.
• Integrate the current web projects into what will eventually be the main web presence for NEON.
• Follow department and NEON policy and procedures.
Required Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills:
• Bachelor's degree, with relevant web product experience.
• Seven (7) or more year(s) of web product development and project management experience.
• Ability to understand development / programming components (not necessarily do it) and “speak the language”.
• Advanced knowledge of user experience best practices and what defines a usable, accessible, and attractive web site.
• Experience testing web site designs (usability testing) and developing metrics to gauge success.
• Ability to understand ecological science and data – and our primary audiences.
• Experience successfully managing a team project (interdisciplinary work preferred).
• Advanced database driven / CMS based web development (design and implementation) project management experience.
• Effective and efficient collaboration, communication and business relationship skills in order to effectively communicate the goals, integrate requirements into design and obtain stakeholder buy-in.
• Experience managing complex, technical web development projects, from initial concept to requirements generation to user testing.
• Very effective written, presentation, and facilitation skills in order to perform the high level collaborative activities to effectively deliver the web portal.
• Familiarity with web development frameworks and tools (Content Management Systems, HTML coding, CSS, java, database systems).
Preferred Education, Experience, Knowledge, Skills:
• Familiarity with Drupal and Liferay.
• Expertise in CMS content development.
• Education / experience in the area of ecology / science.
• Experience with scientific data visualization.
• Experience developing / managing the development of websites that are known for with visually appealing and usable interfaces.
• Experience managing web projects for science-focused audiences.
Term:
This is a two year term position.
Must have permanent authorization for US employment.
