Web Data Collection Specialist

The Mission Support Operation is currently soliciting experienced web-based data collection specialists (also known as a Webscraper or Web Collection Specialist) with special knowledge and experience in finding and extracting various data types. Successful candidates will be part of an Open Source Exploitation Technology Team supporting an Intelligence Community customer in the National Capital Region (NCR). Web Data Collection Specialists will use technical tools to identify and collect data and content from publicly accessible websites, format the data, and deposit the data into curated repositories.  Work location is customer site in Reston, VA.

** All applicants MUST possess TS/SCI clearance with a polygraph.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• The web data collection specialists collect data from publically available sources using manual and automated methods, including authoring and maintaining scripts.
• Workflows, scripts, and methods are designed to research, assess, and collect data having geographic attributes or keys in support of intelligence mission requirements.
• The successful candidate will perform a variety of data collection and discovery tasks, including crawling selected web sources to determine content, structure, and metadata, formatting data to be compatible with necessary systems and performing API pulls. 
• The successful candidate will be able to work both independently with minimal supervision, as well as within a team environment. 
• The candidate will interact with customers to understand and document geospatial data production processes. 
• The successful candidate will be responsible for crafting the scripts for collection via available programing languages (Python, JavaScript etc.) to retrieve and format data, testing, troubleshooting, and debugging of programs related to webscraping with minimal supervision to satisfy specific web collection requests.
• Use of industry proven techniques and open source tools are encouraged, along with a dedication to staying educated on current technology trends and safe/secure web practices. 

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

• Requires a BS/BA degree and 4-8 years of experience related to web technologies or technology-based data collection. Additional experience may be considered in lieu of degree.
• Knowledge of webscraping, current web technologies and concepts including: HTML5, Python’s requests and URLLIB modules, JSON, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, REST, XML, HTTP Methods

• SECURITY CLEARANCE: Active TS/SCI with a polygraph

• Experience developing  and deploying custom scripts within existing government or commercial owned/managed resources to provide open source collection
• Understand how to code scripts or software routines to perform and control reliable web collection to include use of Python to design, implement, and maintain efficient and reusable code
• Proficient in parsing HTML and JSON data
• Ability to identify discoverable metadata tagged content
• Ability to work independently and as a contributor to a team
• Self-starter with curious mindset and desire to solve problems and learn new skills
• Strong organizational skills, time-management skills, attention to detail, and strong initiative
• Candidates must possess excellent oral and written communication skills to interact with team members, customer representatives, external customers, and functional peer groups

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of ArcGIS, ArcMap and related ESRI GIS products
• Training, coursework, or experience in digital curation, metadata, digital libraries, electronic records management, big data analytics for the Web and text, ontologies, data semantics, information visualization, digital publishing standards and systems, and data management for big data
• Experience working with various types of digital map, imagery, GPS, and other location-coded data sets in raster, vector, and related formats
• Experience with: Python, SQL & Database, AWS - Amazon Web Services, Web Security Concepts