Merlin Video Project Lead & Community Builder

Cornell University Library; Town of Ithaca, Northern (NY, KY); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 73,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work arrangement

Health benefits

Educational benefits

Job summary

The Lab of Ornithology seeks a Merlin Video Project Coordinator to lead video resource expansion and dataset development. You will work with a global network of birders, researchers, and software teams to curate high-quality bird video content and support ML initiatives.

The role requires active involvement in the birding community, strong coordination skills, and collaboration across engineering and outreach teams. Hybrid work is available.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree and 2–4 years relevant experience in biology, ecology, or related field.
• Extensive experience in birding, outreach, and community engagement.
• Experience with data management and bird video datasets.

Responsibilities

• Serve as ambassador to the birding community and foster participation in Cornell Lab projects with global partners.
• Recruit, support, and train contributors who provide video content to the Macaulay Library archive.
• Develop regional expert networks to support Merlin's global growth and gather user feedback.
• Manage collection, organization, annotation, and quality review of bird video content.
• Collaborate with ML engineers and product teams to prepare datasets for video models.
• Partner with software engineers, project managers, and outreach teams to test and improve Merlin tools.
• Participate in software testing, troubleshooting, and release coordination.
• Deliver trainings, presentations, and educational resources.

Skills

Birding expertise

Project coordination

Communication

Stakeholder management

Data curation

Engineer collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree

Tools

eBird

Merlin

Macaulay Library

Job description

The Lab of Ornithology seeks a Merlin Video Project Coordinator to lead video resource expansion and dataset development. You will work with a global network of birders, researchers, and software teams to curate high-quality bird video content and support ML initiatives.

The role requires active involvement in the birding community, strong coordination skills, and collaboration across engineering and outreach teams. Hybrid work is available.