Remote Sensing Specialist at Natural State

Role and responsibilities

• The Remote Sensing Specialist will lead in the development of the technical capabilities for remote sensing within Natural State. The incumbent will work with the technical team and stakeholders to develop a set of remote-sensing based models to monitor changes in Carbon, Biodiversity and Social wellbeing and inform verification data requirements needed to under pin financial mechanisms.
• The Remote Sensing Specialist will spearhead Natura lState’s efforts to build strategic partnerships to leverage worldclass remote sensing expertise and state-of-the-art remote sensing data and products for integration with Natural State’s Impact Monitoring systems. The incumbent will work closely with the technical, biometrics, carbon and restoration programs teams to build Natural State’s internal remote sensing capabilities, to contract bespoke remote sensing product development to third-party entities, and to deliver usable outputs for restoration partners.
• This is a senior technical role, for which the incumbent is expected to be technically proficient and have a track record of developing deployable remote sensing products. The incumbentis expected to be able to be self-motivated and work remotely, while ensuring their work quality maintains the highest standards. Attention to detail regarding data analysis and data management are crucial.

Core functions include:

• Initiate and coordinate myriad collaborations and consultancies to develop best-in-class methods for monitoring changes in biodiversity, soil, carbon and social well-being via satellite and aerial remote sensing.
• The Remote Sensing Specialist will work with the wider IM team and external collaborators to identify potential partners for delivering best-in-class models of standing carbon, soil carbon, ecosystem intactness, vegetation structure, ecosystem services (e.g., energy provisioning) and social wellbeing. The Remote Sensing Specialist will then coordinate projects to deliver functional models that can be integrated into uKweli, Natural State’s data management platform.

Maintain a long-term remote sensing strategy

• The Remote Sensing Specialist will continuously conduct horizon scans to identify emergent remote sensing products and technologies that can advance Natural State’s mission to revolutionise impact monitoring for restoration and nature-based solutions. The Remote Sensing Specialist will work closely with the Restoration Programs and Financial Mechanisms teams to identify how remote sensing capabilities best meet market demandsfor verifiable, scalable,cost-effective impact monitoring. The Remote Sensing Specialist will advise senior management on resource allocation based on short-, mid- and long-term developments in remote sensing capabilities.

Streamline and augment Natural State’s internalcapacity for managing and analysing remote sensing data.

• The Remote Sensing Specialist will work with the wider IM team and external collaborators to automate the application of open access remote sensing products to predictive models of species richness, population abundance and biomassin the uKweli platform. This work will entail programming cloud-based applications to automatically acquire, standardise and extract remote sensing datasets both at specific field sampling locations and across broaderlandscapes, as well as identifying the best available remote sensing datasets and derived products to incorporate into predictive models. The Remote Sensing Specialist will further build capacity within Natural State by training the Spatial Data Officer, the Head of Project Implementation and the Natural State Field Researchers in remote sensing data management and processing.

In addition,the Remote SensingSpecialist will be expected to:

• Ensure that NS remote sensinganalyses meet the strictest scientific standards of reproducibility and robustness.
• Maintain meticulous documentation of all remote sensing datasetsand data streams.
• Input into proposals, project design documentsand standard operating procedures.
• Contribute to reports,publications and whitepapers.
• Work with the Director of Impact Monitoring to design and implement the Natural State remote sensing strategy and resourcing plan.

Requirements

Minimum requirements for the position:

• PhD in remote sensing or equivalent and at least 5 years of work experience, or a Master’s Degree in Geospatial Information Science and related fields. and at least 10 years of work experience.
• Demonstrable experience developing remote sensing products.
• Strong geospatial analysis and programming skills, including proficiency in Python and Earth Engine.
• Up to date with currentremote sensing productsand trends in remote sensing.
• Familiarity and experience with the use of machinelearning techniques in developing remote sensing products (e.g., Remote Sensing Foundation Models, Neural Networks, Vision Transformers, Random Forests, Support Vector Machines).
• A good understanding of cloud-based infrastructure and deployment of spatial products into a production environment.
• Strong publication record in peer reviewed journals
• Strong academic networkand proven abilityto collaborate.
• Fluency in spokenand written English.

Advantageous

• Ecological background and experience in delivery of models estimating and monitoring ecosystem related variables such as biomass, ecosystem services, or spatially explicit population abundance.
• Experience inmanaging a team of technical experts and stakeholders.
• Experience in project management.

Data protection:

• The Remote Sensing Specialist will ask the permission of the Director of Impact Monitoring before publishing any of the scientific outputs of this role.

Capability tests

• All staff candidates will have their technical competencies tested and reviewed by the Natural State technical team

This is a one-year position with the potential for annual renewal. This is a remote position and the incumbent will be expected to spend time at Natural State’s research centrein Northern Kenya. The fellow will be compensated commensurate with experience plus benefits that include a pension scheme, medical cover, and a total of 33 days holiday per year (including annual leave and public holidays) and additional office closure days in December