The EPA Environmental Research and Business Support Program has an immediate opening for an EPA Information Management Associate with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Washington, D.C.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

The Office of Science Information Management (OSIM), part of ORD, oversees numerous information management applications and processes and provides leadership with enterprise information management and technology operations and support. 

The selected candidate will assist the Office of Science Information Management with information management activities including implementing VIVO http://vivoweb.org, an open source semantic web application that facilitates research discovery within and among organizations, and creating and managing web content on the intranet and internet.

VIVO responsibilities include:

• Adding missing publications (and other data) to VIVO profiles, removing erroneous publications and editing citations upon request,
• Assisting with resolving author disambiguation issues and increasing the number of valid publications associated with researcher profiles thereby minimizing future manual data curation,
• Becoming proficient in the standard VIVO ontologies and the local EPA ontology and overseeing data and ontology developments as necessary,
• Identifying and assessing new potential data sources and working with owners to add data incrementally,
• Improving usability of application by revising instructional text, layout, fields, etc., so users find VIVO easy to understand and populate,
• Performing queries and preparing visuals and reports to demonstrating patterns of use and collaboration, and
• Participating in VIVO meetings (both within EPA and within the broader VIVO community).

Web-related responsibilities include:

• Assisting in the development of content for ORD's intranet sites,
• Building and editing pages in ORD's intranet content management system built in Drupal, and
• Developing spreadsheets to help track work.

Communications-related responsibilities include:

• Assisting in the logistics and coordination activities for briefings, meetings, workshops, and other collaborative efforts,
• Assisting in developing summary analysis documents of results and impacts from information management activities, and
• Facilitating the appropriate communication and outreach related to information management activities including: creating one-page summaries developing longer pieces based on directed background research, developing communication materials for wider audiences, and developing information management policy and standard operating procedures.

Location: This job will be located at EPA’s Ronald Reagan Building facility in Washington, D.C.

Salary: Selected applicants will become temporary employees of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage for hours worked at a rate of $29.28 per hour.

Working Conditions: The selected candidate shall be supervised by a mentor who will provide day-to-day direction, as well as coach, advise and counsel the candidate, and review his/her work.  The mentor for this position will be a federal EPA employee. 

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected Start Date: The position is full-time and expected to begin in July 2016. The initial contract period is through May 14, 2017, followed by three (3) additional 12 month option periods.

For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly. 

Eligible applicants must:

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned a Master’s Degree in Library Science, Information Management, Information Science or Environmental Sciences from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and

• Be a US citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

Successful candidates will have:

• Experience with semantic web tools and standards including RDF and formal ontology languages,
• Experience with CSS, Drupal and/or usability testing,
• Strong communication skills (i.e., oral, written), including effective multi-media technical communications,
• Excellent proofreading and editing skills, as demonstrated by a writing sample,
• Ability to work well independently as well as in a team, and
• Proactive work habits to operate effectively with minimal management; acting in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• It is desirable, but not mandatory, that candidates have experience with languages for querying RDF (e.g. SPARQL).

How to apply

• Submit application and supporting documents by clicking on Apply Now button.

For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
• Minimum Overall GPA: 2.00
• Discipline(s):
  • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences (16 )
  • Environmental and Marine Sciences (13 )
  • Other Non-Science & Engineering (1 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with a Master’s Degree in Library Science, Information Management, Information Science or Environmental Sciences, from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.