Accepting applications on a rolling basis 

About WattTime

WattTime is a rare non-profit tech startup. We’re laser focused on helping people, companies, and policymakers that are working to drive down emissions multiply their good impact - usually at no cost. We do this through several specific creative uses of extremely detailed emissions datasets. Founded by UC Berkeley researchers, we’re best known for inventing Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), a data-driven technique that over 100 million IoT devices now use to reduce fossil fuel use by automatically running on surplus clean/renewable energy. We also develop and share other techniques, like our Emissionality technology that more and more wind and solar farms are using to multiply their environmental impact. Today, WattTime is also the secretariat of the Climate TRACE coalition, a global team-up of nonprofits, tech companies, and universities working to use machine learning and remote sensing to provide open, transparent, independent monitoring of nearly every major individual source of GHG emissions worldwide. For more information visit www.WattTime.org.

About the Role

This role specifically supports the work we do as a founding member of Climate TRACE, a coalition of 11 organizations and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, which recently released the world’s first comprehensive emissions inventory based on machine learning and objective remote sensing, rather than relying on emitters’ self-reported information. This work furthers the radical transparency and increased granularity - having access to such data can successfully drive real positive change.

In September 2021, we released our first inventory of country level emissions data for every country in the world. In November 2022, we released an asset level emissions inventory containing data from over 70,000 individual sources of emissions. WattTime is responsible for ingesting the data from all contributing members, doing additional modeling, and passing the data to a UI contractor for delivery to the public. The underlying data pipeline contains billions of records and sources data from 11+ teams. As you might guess, managing this data is no small task.

We are looking for a data engineer who can help to design and implement new data architectures and write robust, well ordered Python3 code to retrieve and validate data from contributing members. The data will range in format from point locations to global 1km x 1km geospatial raster data.

Our current data pipeline is functional, but it is in need of optimization and preparation for future growth - we have many more emissions sources to add. The complete data pipeline spans many organizations, culminating in delivery to a UI contractor to display on the website linked above.

Also, our growing team needs more project leads. If you are interested in exploring a senior data engineer role that includes some management as well, please indicate your experience and interest.

Responsibilities

• Work on a new data team responsible for managing all Climate TRACE data and developing a science database
• Design and manage fully optimized data pipeline 
• Design and implement version control for over a dozen datasets all progressing at different speeds
• Create a data validation and upload tool for receiving data from Climate TRACE teams or outside contributors
• Perform ongoing database maintenance including monitoring data integrity and quality 
• Clean and structure messy data sets, create linkages between multiple data sources
• Write code to obtain new data from a variety of sources, including satellite imagery sources
• Collaborate with the modeling team to arrive at solutions that allow modelers to move quickly and work with solid data
• **In the more senior role, you would also work alongside and help guide initially 2-3 people on the data team

Qualifications 

The person hired for this position should be committed to WattTime’s mission. All candidates should have proven experience that includes:

• BS, MS in computer science or an engineering related field with relevant experience
• 2+ years of full time work experience in software development or data engineering - senior candidates will have closer to 5+ years of this experience 
• Comfortable working in Linux    
• Excellent grasp on Python, Pandas, SQL, relational databases, working with data pipelines
• Experience working with large datasets and cloud platforms such as GCP a plus
• Strong organizational skills and attention to detail
• Highly motivated and action-oriented
• Flexible and used to working in a fast-moving environment
• Ability to lead and to take direction
• Respectful and collaborative - we are not kidding that we don’t tolerate jerks
• Ability to work effectively from a remote environment across regular U.S. work hours through tools like Slack, Zoom, GSuite, and others 
• Willingness to travel to team collaborative sessions a few times a year

How We Measure Success at WattTime

• Doing the work: you know your priorities and embrace flexibility
• Productivity: you complete work with urgency and deliver it on time through hard work and grit
• Quality: you leverage your subject matter knowledge to implement complex projects and practice relevant new skills
• Judgment: you make impact-focused decisions and adjustments as you work on projects and break apart problems
• Collaboration: you help others meet their goals, cultivate trust, lead with respect, and practice self awareness

Logistics

• This is a full time, remote position - work from anywhere in the U.S. 
• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. 
• For those authorized and located in the U.S., WattTime is open to U.S. visa sponsorship. As an H-1B cap-exempt, non-profit research organization, WattTime can sponsor employees for H-1B status throughout the year.
• Salary: $155,000 - $175,000 for an engineer; $170,000 - $190,000 for a senior engineer, either is based on where you can hit the ground running

Hiring Process

• Resume screening 
• Initial phone screening
• Technical interview #1
• Skills assessment to see your work in action - you will most likely do well if you have:
• Strong python skills: you can solve data engineering problems well with code
• Design capability: you can design data storage and processing architecture well
• Time in the saddle: you have enough practical software/data engineering experience to have learned from prior mistakes/successes so that we can expect you to join a large project mid-stream and jump in and contribute
• Technical interview #2
• Half-day of interviews with the team at large
• Reference checks and offer

Read more about what it's like on this LinkedIn post from one of our awesome engineers.

Why Work with WattTime

• Full medical, dental, vision, life insurance packages for employees and 80% coverage for dependents
• Paid parental leave 
• Flexible time off 
• Professional development support 
• Home office support and employee choice technology 
• 403b with up to 5% matching contribution
• Opportunity to work for a tech nonprofit focused on driving real impact 

What we’re like: we’re obsessed with making practical, results-driven change. We believe nothing has more potential for fast, world-changing impact than software. We embrace change. We are lean and rapid prototypers. We never confuse growth with impact. We are all personally, fiercely committed to our mission. We are quietly radical in unexpected ways. We don’t believe in competition–other people doing good work are allies. Our deep bench of expert volunteers helps us routinely punch above our weight class. We trust in data and everyone’s voice being heard. We know diversity is central to success. We consider respect non-negotiable; there are no jerks here.

How to Apply

You can apply for this position on our website at www.watttime.org. From the “About” tab, select the “Jobs” page, then select the job for which you want to apply.

Please attach your resume AND in lieu of a cover letter, attach a document addressing the following:

• Briefly describe a data storage architecture you designed or helped build. An example might be a couple of relational database tables and file storage on AWS or records ElasticSearch, something of that flavor.
• Are you interested in applying for the Data Engineer position or the Senior Data Engineer position?

Equal Opportunity Policy 

WattTime is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, pregnancy, marital status, family care status, age, appearance, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental ability, medical condition, military or veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or characteristics or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local laws. We encourage all individuals to apply and are committed to a diverse workplace where every person is treated with respect and dignity.