Ecosystems Digital Twin Researcher II - Seasonal - San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is an international, nonprofit conservation organization with two front doors: the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We integrate wildlife health and care, science, and education to develop sustainable conservation solutions.

HOW YOU WILL IMPACT OUR MISSION The Researcher II develops programs for scientific research; conducts independent and collaborative research in a specialized area of biological or social sciences; and supervises assigned research/laboratory operations. This position reports to Scientist level or higher in the Conservation Science & Wildlife Health department.

WHAT YOU WILL DO

• Oversee and conduct data collection, analysis, and interpretation of results applied to conservation programs; publish research findings in peer-reviewed journals.
• Plan, design, organize, supervise, and conduct independent and collaborative projects.
• Develop scientific research programs in a specialized field of study.
• Determine study subjects, research parameters and methodology, and cost requirements.
• Evaluate funding sources and obtains necessary funding and establish research.
• Coordinate with animal care and veterinary staff regarding sample collection, disease trends, and reproductive status; provides samples to collaborative researchers.
• Prepare progress reports and prepare and deliver presentations to internal and external stakeholders.
• Oversee assigned area(s) and supervises assigned staff.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR We are building a distributed ecological observatory that uses edge AI to monitor wildlife at large scale. The platform will enable researchers to monitor biodiversity continuously across large landscapes, providing data to support ecological research and conservation. We need a hands on engineer to design, build, and deploy on device wildlife classification systems for vision and acoustics that can be reliably deployed, monitored, diagnosed, and updated by technicians with minimal manual intervention. The vision system targets insects and other terrestrial arthropods and the acoustic system targets birds. The long term fleet target is hundreds of SBC based sensors with tight power, cost, and intermittent connectivity constraints; the goal of this 6 month pilot is 15-20 devices of each type. Responsibilities include implementing embedded software on Linux based SBCs; building an end to end edge ML pipeline including adapting pretrained models through transfer learning, fine-tuning, quantization, and other deployment-oriented optimization techniques; designing OTA, device health/operational telemetry, secure provisioning, and a bandwidth aware selective upload pipeline for event-triggered image and audio clips when target detections occur; and optimizing inference for latency, memory, and power. The desired candidate will have strong skills in Python and an ML framework like PyTorch or TensorFlow; practical experience with quantization, pruning, and profiling; hands on experience with camera and/or microphone stacks on SBC hardware such as Raspberry Pi-class Linux systems with hardware accelerators such as Hailo or Coral; and experience shipping embedded/Linux systems or production edge ML on SBCs using deployment frameworks such as ONNX Runtime, TFLite, ExecuTorch, TensorRT, or similar technologies. Strongly preferred experience includes designing safe update and rollback patterns and operating with intermittent connectivity (often cellular) and constrained power budgets. The role requires writing automated lab and field tests, authoring technician runbooks, and collaborating closely with a small engineering and field team. Deliverables are production-ready quantized models running within target latency, memory, and power budgets; a reproducible OTA able image with tested rollback and device health/operational telemetry; and pilot deployments with a documented retraining and operations playbook. Preferred: demonstrated experience leading the architecture and deployment of embedded Linux or edge ML systems.

JOB EXPERIENCE

• 3 years laboratory, diagnostic, wildlife care or field expertise in a specialized field of research required.
• 3 years of experience with science communication or interpretation of scientific concepts required.

EDUCATION AND CERTIFICATIONS

• Master's Degree in biological science or a related field or equivalent specialized training required.
• PhD in biological sciences or related field preferred.

SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

• Able to communicate effectively both orally and in writing.
• Able to prepare and edit papers for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Ability to prepare and review grant applications and administer grants.
• Ability to operate moderately complex computer software programs.

SOME OF THE REWARDS YOU WILL ENJOY AS A TEAM MEMBER

• Free admission to the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Zoo Safari Park
• Family Passes
• Complimentary Tickets
• Free Parking at the San Diego Zoo & San Diego Zoo Safari Park
• Local and In-House Discounts
• Employee Assistance Program
• Wellness Program

IMPORTANT DETAILS

• Location: Escondido, CA
• Position Type: Salaried Full-Time Exempt 6 Month Temporary Position
• Salary Range: $99,482 to $111,917

About The Salary Ranges

The posted salary range represents the full compensation potential for this role over time. Initial hiring offers are typically made within the lower to mid portion of the range and are based on a combination of relevant experience, skills, qualifications, internal equity, and organizational considerations. Placement near the top of the range is generally reserved for individuals who demonstrate sustained performance, growth, and expanded responsibilities in the role over time.

Fraudulent Recruiting
Beware of fraudulent recruiting. Legitimate San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance contacts will use an @sdzwa.org email address. We do not request money, checks, equipment orders, or sensitive personal data during the recruitment process. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance only conducts interviews via phone, Zoom, Teams or in-person.

If you have been asked for any of the above, or believe you have been contacted by someone posing as a San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance employee, please e-mail sdzwacareers@sdzwa.org. If you feel that you have been the victim of fraud, please contact your financial institution(s) immediately.

At San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance, we celebrate our differences and foster a culture of belonging. Diversity strengthens our employees, enriches our guests' experiences, deepens our connection to our community, and supports the wildlife we serve.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, disability, veteran status, or other legally protected status.

If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete an application, please email your request to sdzwacareers@sdzwa.org and provide the job title and location to which you are applying.

As a Federal Contractor, San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is required to participate in the E-Verify Program to confirm eligibility to work in the United States. We are not offering sponsorship for this position at this time.

San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance is a drug free workplace.