Temporary Research Software Engineer
Worcester Polytechnic Institute - WPI · Worcester, MA
$20/hrfrom the description
Jun 29, 2026
Worcester, MA
Jul 20, 2026
What this job asks for AI summary
A temporary, part-time role focused on containerizing an existing research software platform used in a chronic pain and music therapy study. The core work involves designing a Docker-based deployment architecture, packaging web applications and databases into reproducible environments, and writing documentation so that external research teams can install and run the system with minimal technical overhead. Suits a software engineer with hands-on Linux and containerization experience.
Junior level · Remote · Temporary
“or” means any one of them counts — you don't need all of them.
We read this from the posting text with AI. Skim the description below before ruling yourself out.
How this req sits in the market our data
Roughly 131,000 people nationally plausibly meet what this posting asks for (software developers). range 78,500–196,500
Applicant volume Heavy — This req sits in a large pool with little in its requirements to thin it, and auto-apply tools fire at everything in the occupation. Applying early and leading with the rare skills below is what gets read.
Most people in this occupation already list these. Still required — just not what gets you shortlisted.
What the occupation pays Median $135,980 (middle half $105,210–$171,980). This posting is about at that midpoint.
Estimated from BLS employment for this occupation and area, per-skill prevalence across our listing corpus, and published wage benchmarks — as of Jul 28, 2026. It is a model, not a headcount.
Why we read it this way (9)
The posting is physically located in Worcester, MA, but the caller has declared this a fully-remote, national-pool role — no metro is set.
This is a part-time (15 hrs/week), grant-funded temporary position, likely targeting a student or recent graduate; seniority is assessed as Junior accordingly.
Degree requirement is set to None: the JD accepts 'current enrollment' in lieu of a completed degree, so no formal degree is hard-gated.
Web application deployment and server administration are listed as required qualifications but name no specific technology, so they are not emitted as discrete skills.
Docker Compose and Kubernetes appear together under Preferred Qualifications as interchangeable orchestration options and are captured as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
Server-side frameworks (Node.js, Python, PHP) are listed under Preferred Qualifications as interchangeable examples and are captured as a single preferred skill with alternatives.
The SOC confidence is Medium: the role's primary work is containerization/deployment architecture, which sits at the boundary between software development (15-1252) and systems/infrastructure administration (15-1244); the emphasis on designing and implementing a deployment platform tips it toward 15-1252.
Posting is for a temporary engagement — the market benchmarks below price full-time roles, so read the comp comparison with that in mind.
Caller marked this a fully-remote role — scored against the national candidate pool.
Read the full posting
The employer publishes the full description on their own site — read it there ↗. Or sign in to read it here — it's free, and it also lets you track this application.