The Ocean Cleanup Foundation

POSTED: 12 February 2025

STARTING DATE: As soon as possible

FULL-TIME, ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS

MISSION TO METRICS 

The mission of The Ocean Cleanup is to develop and scale technology to rid the world’s oceans of plastic. Data is critical to achieving our objectives: we acquire data that helps us better understand the plastic pollution problem and the impact that our actions have to maximize our performance and minimize negative environmental impact.

“As a Data / Software Engineer at The Ocean Cleanup, you have a unique opportunity to work on something meaningful together with highly driven colleagues. You directly feel the responsibility for enabling the mission, for ensuring that we can make a difference”- Roberto Noorduijn Londoño - Lead Data engineer.

THE ROLE

You will form part of the enabling Data & IT, specifically the Data Team. As an enabling team, we are responsible for ensuring the success of the mission across all different facets of the organisation. You will be responsible for maintaining and evolving the Data Acquisition platform, ensuring correct and timely access to a variety of different data sources as well as helping Data Scientists achieve their objectives. The role reports to the Lead Data Engineer and is based in Rotterdam role.

RESPONSIBILITIES

Within the Data Team, you will be working closely with the other enabling functions, as well as the R&D teams. You will help the enabling functions to get better insights into their operations by working together with Data Analysts to provide the with governed and clean data sets which can be accessed through a centralised data catalog. You will also be responsible for helping the R&D ensure that their research can have an impact. We do this by ensuring that they have timely access to data from a variety of different data points - sensors on the vessels, cameras over our interceptors - as well as providing guidance and insight on correct Software Development principles.

• Converting technical requirements into efficient and maintainable data pipelines
• Collaborating closely with Data Scientists
• Sharing best practices and knowledge with Data Engineers
• Developing and maintaining in-house software
• Improving the underlying (cloud) infrastructure
• Ensuring code quality through software principles and DevOps practices
• Helping to maintain the Data Acquisition Platform

NB: While the responsibilities above apply to a wide range of roles (Data Engineer / DevOps engineer / Software Engineer), we expect successful candidates to be proficient in some respects and knowledgeable in others.

PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS 

• A minimum of 5 years' experience in Software Development in a professional environment
• Bachelor / Masters in a relevant field
• Familiarity with Agile methodologies
• Experience working in fast-paced, dynamic environments
• Adaptability
• Technical skills - must-haves: 
• Proficient in Python
• Experience developing and maintaining (micro) web-services
• Experience in Kubernetes
• SQL, relational databases (PostgreSQL is a pre)
• Cloud-first architectures (we use Azure)
• Version control and CI/CD

NICE TO HAVES

• Experience working with Data Scientists
• Experience with BI and/or data visualization tools like Power BI
• Experience with monitoring tools like Sentry, Prometheus, Grafana
• Experience with Spark, Databricks
• Experience processing scientific / geospatial data
• Experience working with Ocean / Rivers data

ADDITIONAL DETAILS 

• Starting date: As soon as possible 
• Work permit needed: a valid European Union work permit is highly preferred for this position (the role is based in Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
• Please note: because we are a non-profit, our salaries reflect that of an organization fully reliant on donations rather than that of a commercial entity. Conducting a pre-employment check is part of our recruitment process. 
• At The Ocean Cleanup, we believe we are stronger together, while harnessing the uniqueness each individual brings. That is why we take a fair, equal opportunity, and transparent approach to hiring and welcome special needs requests.

Curious to hear how it is to work at The Ocean Cleanup? Listen to our team members explain their work in our podcast.

Apply now