We are a fast-growing, Series A NatureTech company (backed by leading investors AzureX Space Ventures, Equinor Ventures, and Intercontinental Exchange) on a mission to enable zero deforestation and degradation and support mass forest restoration by producing the highest-quality nature mapping data and insights products.
Data is at the heart of Space Intelligence. We process large volumes of satellite data and analyse it within a machine learning framework to produce valuable nature mapping products for our clients.
Our products are trusted by developers and investors in nature-based solutions, including Apple, Climate Asset Management, Everland, and WCS. They are also used to support the validation of compliance with the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) through our partnership with ICE’s Commodity Traceability Service (COT).
We are a group of passionate, dedicated individuals with deep technical and scientific knowledge necessary for producing reliable, high-quality data and insights. We have a strong understanding of our customers’ needs and develop long-term relationships that add value.
We are a values-driven organisation, embodying these principles in our daily work: we are Science-driven, with a Commitment to Quality, always Acting with Integrity. We focus on Innovation to create better products for our clients and an overall commitment to Equality. We are striving to create a commercial culture that is meritocratic and outcome-oriented.
Role Overview
This position is part of our Science team, reporting to our Head of Mapping and Carbon Science. The key focus of this role is to lead the production of landcover and forest carbon maps from remote sensing data and forest inventory plots. This will involve directing the work of a small team of data scientists, data analysts, and ecologists, and working alongside other team leads who will be leading similar teams producing maps for other clients. Additionally, this person assists with the research and development programme, helping to improve the process of producing our current maps under our HabitatMapper and CarbonMapper processing chains, and producing new products.
Key Responsibilities
* Lead a small interdisciplinary team (pod) of data scientists, analysts, and ecologists, including:
o Provide on-the-job training to improve the skills of less experienced members of the team.
o Line manage the team.
* Lead the creation of satellite-based landcover or forest carbon stock maps and projects, interpret them and present results, specifically:
o Sign off projects and project pre-contract checks.
o Use your expertise to decide:
+ Which remote sensing datasets to use, or what pre-processing steps are needed.
+ Improve our models to create high-quality maps.
o Lead on the critical analysis of results, identify problems and implement solutions to improve the performance of the models and the accuracy of the maps.
o Select appropriate machine learning methods, and use them to train models that capture relationships between remote sensing data and specific land characteristics.
o Work with the engineering team to ensure optimal use of cloud resources.
o Lead and review the generation of reports.
o Review maps to achieve high quality.
* Report to the Head of Mapping and CS, both general progress as well as possible areas of concern or opportunity.
* Communicate with and present results to clients, including leading regular meetings during and at the end of a project.
* Help the Solutions Team with the creation of reports.
* Review deliverables to fulfil quality requirements.
* Coordinate with the Senior Operations Manager on estimates of timing for different project components, and on progress with delivery of maps. Identify likely issues with delivery time early and ensure these are mitigated where possible, and communicated effectively.
Additional responsibilities:
* Use technical knowledge to find solutions to bespoke problems.
* Collaborate with the engineering team to produce and maintain code. Improve modelling and mapping pipelines.
* Collaborate with the Research team to participate in R&D projects. Help develop new products and lead projects independently.
* Direct and evaluate scientific solutions.
* Contribute to white papers, scientific publications and/or blog posts.
* Collaborate with Sales and Marketing teams.
In addition to the above general responsibilities, people may specialise in particular areas. For example, land cover change, carbon biomass, econometrics, uncertainty analysis, machine learning etc. They will be assisted by other specialised roles.
A particular specialism may not be permanent; there could be opportunities to move around depending on organisational need and personal preference.
The above is not exhaustive; this is a highly varied role with a range of opportunities available.
Key Qualifications and Requirements
Education and experience
* PhD in Earth Observation for mapping parameters of the Earth surface or related discipline, or equivalent experience gained in an industry or research environment over 4+ years.
* 2 or more years of experience post-PhD.
* Published reports or peer-reviewed papers.
* Experience with managing people, demonstrated by having line managed people for at least 3 years of your career.
Programming experience
* Experience with processing multiple types of satellite imagery, ideally from both optical and SAR sensors.
* Some experience with machine learning and statistical models.
* Experience using Python for the production of geospatial maps.
* Experience with R.
* Experience using GitHub or another version control system.
* Experience using cloud computing services like Azure (or AWS).
General background and interests
* Fieldwork experience for the purposes of ground truthing Earth Observation-derived maps.
* Experience training others to collect training data using high-resolution remote sensing data, for example polygons of different land cover types.
* Experience using cloud-based services for the production of geospatial maps. E.g. having used one of Google Earth Engine, Microsoft Planetary Computer, AWS/GCP/Azure during your work would be helpful.
* Experience making maps of landcover or forest carbon stocks from satellite data (for example for government or for conservation projects or mapping forest carbon stocks at a University or space agency).
* Scientific mindset – you’re able to create hypotheses and experiments to test them, as well as recording and sharing your findings in a concise manner.
* Strong ability to prioritise and focus.
Salary £43,000 – £53,000. Placing depends on experience/qualifications.
At Space Intelligence, we offer a competitive salary and benefits – 33 holiday days per year, an extra day off for your birthday, a good pension plan offering salary sacrifice for tax efficiency, an Employee Savings on Purchases Platform and an Employee Assistance Programme, as well as other benefits. We have a friendly, fun and supportive workplace, and we strongly value work-life balance. We are emphatically not a company with a long-hours culture; we are family-friendly and support flexible working and part-time, where possible. We also schedule a range of events including lunches, escape rooms, pub trips, crazy golf, bowling and much more. In addition, we do company and team away days.
We are, proudly, a diverse, multicultural team and our employees come from 11 different countries.
Where will I work?
We are looking for a candidate who will be based in our office on George Street, Edinburgh. Most of our team are in the office most days, and we feel you will learn fastest if you are in the office most days too. However, we support hybrid working and would be happy for you to work 1-2 days a week from home.
If you have work you can share e.g. GitHub profile, scientific papers then please include too. If you can’t share due to confidentiality reasons, please explain that in your cover letter.
Please note, that if you don’t currently have the right to work in the UK, we do not sponsor visas so please check out the UK Government website for further information about visas before applying.
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