Ask HN: Are there any software jobs in nature/animal conservation?

Hi HN. Lately I have been thinking about what I really want to do in life; what really brings meaning and joy to my life. I am currently finishing up my solo "start-up" project, and we will see where it goes, but in the mean time I have been doing some introspection and thinking about the future.

I am a software developer (mostly backend, some frontend and some data analytics). I personally don't really have any desire to work at FAANG. I also don't really have any desire to write CRUD for some generic company that pays well either.

I want to explore more meaningful avenues of work. Preserving nature, animals and their habitats, is one cause I have been thinking about. I know that most projects are very hands-on, requiring mostly hard labour or specialised research efforts. However, I've been wondering if there is a demand for software in these projects? Particularly in terms of specialised tooling and/or data analytics?

I suspect that most research projects don't have the funding to afford anything beyond the bare requirements. The same probably goes for government sponsored programmes; again, this is all speculation.

Does anyone have experience as a software dev in these fields? Where might one start looking ?

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Because I am sure some people will mention it, yes, volunteering is an option. But money is an unfortunate living requirement in today's society (unless you plan on going off-grid entirely).

I don’t know of any opportunities, but if anyone’s taking ideas for products in this domain then I would like an app or website that links volunteers with animal shelters, farmstays and other places that could use a few extra hands.

It could be like a combination of Airbnb and Couchsurfing etc. that serves a specific niche.

A few years ago Bret Victor wrote a long and wonderful essay lamenting the lack of attention to climate change in the tech industry. No specific job opportunities, but it's a wonderful read about how technologists can contribute to solutions.

http://worrydream.com/ClimateChange/

Start investigating biodiversity informatics. There are a lot of different aspects in this space: genomics, georeferencing, image processing for feature extraction, etc, as well as typical distributed systems infrastructure.

Your website says you studied science and have built software for spreadsheets and for 3D printing.

I work with oceanographers. There are many who get by with rudimentary programming skills but love the help of developers who can help them build tools to analyze and disseminate their data. They love spreadsheets because they don't know how to make databases.

Having mechanical or electrical engineering or CAD skills helps them design enclosures for instruments, having software skills helps them add autonomy.

However it is not a field where, at least as I've seen, engineers have free rein to improve processes simply for the sake of improving them.

You are right that research funding is tight and in most of the world it is getting tighter. Right now many projects are burning through funds while scientists babysit their kids; the research vessels are only now trying to resume operation.