Metadata & Submission Agreement AnalystCSS Inc.

Metadata & Submission Agreement Analyst

USA | Full-Time (40)

This position provides expert metadata analysis in support of long-term scientific data archiving by identifying, interpreting, and encoding essential contextual, structural, and stewardship information from a variety of authoritative documentation (e.g., agreements, technical documentation, governance artifacts, and operational records).

The role supports archive-ready data ingestion, governance, validation, discovery, and reuse, consistent with open archival standards such as the OAIS (Open Archival Information System) reference model. The position focuses on translating scientific, contractual, and operational requirements into standardized, machine-actionable metadata that supports the full archival data lifecycle, including provenance, transparency, preservation, and long-term usability.

Key Responsibilities

Documentation Analysis & Metadata Extraction

• Review and analyze authoritative documentation (including, but not limited to, Submission Agreements, technical specifications, governance records, and operational documentation) to identify required and implied metadata, such as:

• Data types, variables, and products

• Temporal resolution, coverage, and update frequency

• Spatial references, station identifiers, and observing platforms

• Data status (e.g., preliminary, quality-controlled, verified, or derived)

• Submission, update, and lifecycle expectations

• Extract and encode information that relates data to information about the data, ensuring clarity of meaning, context, and stewardship responsibilities.

• Interpret responsibilities of data providers and the archive to ensure metadata accurately reflects stewardship, preservation, validation, and access obligations, consistent with OAIS principles.

Archival Metadata Definition & Standards Alignment

• Define the minimum essential metadata required to ensure archived data can be:

• Correctly interpreted by designated user communities

• Reliably preserved and validated over time

• Discovered, accessed, and reused appropriately

• Map documentation-derived requirements to appropriate internal schemas and external metadata standards.

• Ensure metadata definitions support automated validation, quality control, and archival workflows.

• Update and refine existing metadata and documentation when ingest targets, storage environments, or system architectures change (e.g., transitions from on-premises systems to AWS S3–based storage).

Provenance, Lineage, and Context Modeling

• Capture and document provenance and lineage elements such as:

• Observing system, platform, or scientific program

• Processing level, quality control, and verification status

• Responsible organizations and points of contact

• Ensure clear distinctions between raw observations, processed products, and derived datasets are consistently represented in metadata.

• Maintain traceability between source documentation, stewardship responsibilities, and implemented metadata, including updates as operational environments evolve.

Technical Collaboration & Implementation

• Collaborate with data stewards, archivists, software engineers, and scientific teams to ensure metadata is:

• Scientifically accurate

• Operationally and contractually consistent

• OAIS-aligned and technically implementable

• Contribute to and review Python-based code used to support metadata ingestion, validation, and archival processing.

• Participate in code review and validation of scripts and tools developed by other team members.

• Work within a GitLab-based version control environment.

• Support metadata and validation workflows operating in AWS cloud environments, including S3-based archival targets.

Collaboration, Documentation & Accountability

• Produce clear documentation, metadata field inventories, crosswalks, and implementation guidance aligned with archival best practices.

• Attend and actively participate in team meetings, technical discussions, and coordination sessions.

• Commit to and complete assigned work tickets by agreed-upon due dates.

• Proactively communicate risks, blockers, or dependencies and propose mitigation strategies.

• Provide accurate weekly status reports detailing:

• Work completed

• Current ticket status

• Identified risks or issues

• Planned upcoming work

Required Skills & Experience

• Experience performing scientific or technical metadata analysis

• Demonstrated ability to extract and encode meaning from authoritative documentation, not just apply templates

• Strong understanding of archival data lifecycle concepts, including ingestion, preservation, validation, access, and reuse

• Familiarity with OAIS (Open Archival Information System) concepts and terminology

• Experience working with Python for data or metadata-related tasks

• Familiarity with version control systems (e.g., GitLab)

• Excellent written communication and documentation skills

Desired Qualifications

• Experience with climate, weather, environmental, oceanographic, or physical science data

• Familiarity with metadata standards such as ISO 19115, Directory Interchange Format (DIF), and Climate and Forecast (CF) conventions

• Experience working in AWS cloud environments, including S3-based storage

• Experience supporting archive validation, quality control, or preservation workflows

• Experience working with long-term scientific data archives

Deliverables

• Metadata definitions and documentation derived from authoritative documentation sources

• Metadata crosswalks and implementation guidance

• Updated metadata and documentation supporting changes in ingest targets or archival architecture

• Documentation supporting archive-ready data ingestion, validation, and governance

• supporting archive-ready data ingestion, validation, and governance

At CSS, we are committed to fostering an inclusive and merit-based workplace. We provide equal employment opportunities to all individuals, ensuring that hiring and employment decisions are based on qualifications, skills, and performance. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training.

Equal employment opportunity, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

PI281217509