Plankton Taxonomist

Requirements

The Contractor shall have:

• An MS Degree in Marine Science or a related field of study, plus a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience; or a BS Degree in Marine Science or a related field of study, plus a minimum of 10 years of relevant experience.
• Expertise in marine fish systematics, ontogeny, and larval morphology.
• Prior experience in larval fish identification.
• Proficiency in using primary literature sources and regional taxonomic atlases.
• Experience in working with large data sets.
• Ability to write reports at the college level and make oral presentations.
• Computer literate and experience with common word processing, database, statistical, and graphics programs.
• Sea going contractors who participate on research cruises on Office of Marine and Aviation Operations’ NOAA ships will be required to annually/biennially (age-dependent) submit a NOAA Health Services Questionnaire (NOAA Form 57- 10-01) and Tuberculosis Screening Form (NOAA Form NF 57-10-02) to OMAO health services to determine fitness for sea duty.
• Current tetanus vaccine (once every 10 years).
• Driver’s license to operate government vehicles.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience in marine zooplankton identification.
• Knowledge of statistical treatment of marine plankton and oceanographic data.
• Proficiency with EcoTaxa or similar AI-assisted taxonomic validation platforms.
• Experience with ImageJ or other microscope imaging software.
• Familiarity with R (for biological data graphing, synthesis and analysis) is highly desirable.
• Knowledge of techniques and instrumentation (e.g., Zooscan, Flowcam) used to gather digitized data on marine plankton specimens.
• Experience with molecular methods needed to prepare samples for species identification (e.g., tissue sampling, DNA extraction, amplification, sequencing, etc.).

Benefits

The Contractor will be compensated at a salary range of $35 – $55 per hour, dependent upon experience.