EPA Information Management Associate

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 team is seeking an individual, at least 18 years of age who has completed a Bachelor degree to assist with information management initiatives. This effort is expected to begin approximately June/July 2016.

The associate 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:

• Add missing publications (and other data) to VIVO profiles, remove erroneous publications and edit citations upon request;
• Assist with resolving author disambiguation issues and increasing the number of valid publications associated with researcher profiles thereby minimizing future manual data curation;
• Gain proficiency in the standard VIVO ontologies and the local EPA ontology and oversee data and ontology developments as necessary;
• Identify and assess new potential data sources and work with data owners to add data incrementally;
• Improve usability of application by revising instructional text, layout, fields, etc., so users find VIVO easy to understand and populate;
• Perform queries and prepare visuals and reports to demonstrate patterns of use and collaboration; and
• Participate in VIVO meetings (both within EPA and within the broader VIVO community) and provide administrative support to OSIM VIVO lead.

Web-related responsibilities:

• Assist in the development of content for ORD's intranet sites;
• Build and edit pages in ORD's intranet content management system built in Drupal;
• Assist in putting content on ORD public research web sites; and
• Develop spreadsheets to help track work.

Communications-related responsibilities:

• Assist in the logistics and coordination activities for briefings, meetings, workshops, and other collaborative efforts;
• Assist in developing summary analysis documents of results and impacts from information management activities; and
• Facilitate the appropriate communication and outreach related to information management activities including: creating one-page summaries developing longer pieces based on directed background research, and 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 $21.48 per hour.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected Start Date: The position is full-time and expected to begin in June/July 2016. The initial project is through May 15, 2017, and may be renewable up to 3 one-year optional 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 Bachelor’s degree preferably in Library Science, Information Management, Information Science, Environmental Sciences,  or other related degree 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:

• Demonstrate education and/or experience in Library Science, Information Management, Information Science, Environmental Sciences, or closely related field;
• Demonstrate leadership skills;
• Have experience working in teams;
• Possess strong written, oral and electronic communication skills; and
• Demonstrate experience (academic or professional) with semantic web tools and standards (e.g. RDF) and formal ontology languages.

Desired Expertise, Skills, Education, and/or Experience:

It is desirable for candidates to:

• Possess strong communication skills (i.e., oral, written), including effective multi-media technical communications;

• Possess excellent proofreading and editing skills, as demonstrated by the writing sample;
• Possess the ability to work well independently as well as in a team;
• Be proactive and able to operate effectively with minimal management and act in anticipation of future problems, needs, or changes;
• Possess familiarity with CSS, Drupal and/or usability testing; and
• Possess familiarity 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: Bachelor's Degree or Master's Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
• Discipline(s):
  • Communications and Graphics Design (6 )
  • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences (16 )
  • Earth and Geosciences (21 )
  • Engineering (27 )
  • Environmental and Marine Sciences (14 )
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (45 )
  • Other Non-Science & Engineering (5 )
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (28 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in Library Science, Information Management, Information Science, Environmental Sciences, or other related degree from an accredited university or college; 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.