IT Application Software Specialist – Fish and Fisheries Data Systems

Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is recruiting candidates to fill the role of IT Application Software Specialist – Fish and Fisheries Data Systems, located at headquarters office in Portland, Oregon.    

 

Group Definition: Applications Software Specialists design, document, develop, modify, test and implement new or existing systems and applications software.  Functions include analyzing and refining systems requirements; translating requirements into applications; writing, debugging and maintaining code; determining output media/formats; designing user interfaces; working with customers to test applications; assuring software and systems quality and functionality; writing and maintaining program documentation.  

Position/Project Specifics:   

The IT Application Software Specialist (Specialist) with be supporting regional fish and fisheries data systems that support collaborative data sharing among Tribal, Federal, State and non-governmental agencies. The Specialist will be working in a team environment, and due to the nature of our regional systems, will be expected to work collaboratively with external partners and contractors to inform development of new and maintenance of existing systems. The duty station is the PSMFC office in Portland, Oregon, and the selected candidate will be working at the office location. Anticipated start date would be between late-March 2026 and mid-April 2026. Based on the applicant pool, the hiring process may involve up to two rounds of interviews. 

The position requires someone who can step into existing codebases, understand and extend systems that have evolved over time, and make thoughtful, practical improvements. The selected Specialist will be expected to be comfortable working with modern application architectures, including relational databases and API-based systems, and to have experience with contemporary JavaScript frameworks or similar technologies. In addition, the successful candidate will also be expected to contribute to clear documentation, communicate technical information to non-technical colleagues, and present task updates to both technical and non-technical partners and contractors. 

The successful candidate will have demonstrated experience performing tasks as a mid-level developer and ideally will have several years of progressively responsible professional experience (typically three to seven years) building and supporting data-driven applications. The selected candidate should be a proven adaptable developer with demonstrated technical growth and sound judgment. The diversity of systems, expectation to evolve to best support internal users and external requires an adaptable approach and self-learning of new technology stacks, which is not conducive to a rigid or narrowly defined technology stacks 

Essential Functions: The functions listed are characteristic of the type and level of work associated with this group and pay band.  They are not all inclusive. Individual positions may perform some or all, as well as other similar work.   

• Define and analyze technical and functional requirements and specifications. Assure they are consistent with current and planned infrastructure and data environments.  

• Develop software components, data flow, relationship and other models and the data structures to implement the models.  

• Develop code, test, debug, document, write user instructions, and deploy systems software and application software.  

• Develop web-based application interfaces to databases. This includes development of graphical user web-based interface and stored database rules and procedures. 

• Maintain engineering control processes as a mechanism for s