Lead for Earth Observation (EO) in Wallingford

Jeremy Benn Associates Limited (JBA Consulting) is strengthening its Earth Observation (EO) capability to support the delivery of trusted, engineering grade decision support across flood risk, resilience and environmental consultancy. Earth Observation is a strategically important growth area for JBA, enabling the application of satellite derived data and analytics to real-world environmental and infrastructure challenges.

We are seeking a Lead for Earth Observation to provide technical leadership and strategic direction for EO capability across the business, ensuring it is robust, validated, and integrated into both consultancy services and digital platforms. You will be joining an award-winning environmental and engineering consultancy which puts innovation, sustainability and resilience at the heart of its work. We are independent and staff-owned under a stewardship model which drives long term decision making and investment. We have offices in the UK, Ireland, Romania, India, Singapore and Australia. Our people are all important and we invest heavily in life-long learning and skills development. We support hybrid working which provides for greater flexibility with the way that we work. We are always on the lookout for talented, committed and inspiring people to join us in our ambition to lead in the pursuit for resilience to climate change. In return, we offer rewarding careers with continued opportunities and dedicated support for personal development. Build your career with us and help us to build a more resilient future.

The role: As Lead for Earth Observation, you will lead the technical development, deployment and governance of EO capability across JBA. The role is focused on the design and assurance of engineering grade EO systems, semi-automated analytics pipelines and validated outputs, rather than the resale of commodity EO data. In this role, you will:

• Provide technical authority for EO system design, analytics pipelines and validation.
• Lead EO integration into JBA digital platforms and consulting workflows.
• Build on our specialist EO team and lead its expansion and development.
• Shape EO-enabled consultancy propositions with other disciplines across the Company.
• Support bids, innovation programmes and client engagement.
• Manage partnerships with EO data, analytics and cloud providers.
• Provide governance, assurance and risk management for EO outputs.

The team member we are looking for: You are a credible technical leader with deep expertise in Earth Observation (EO), remote sensing, or applied systems engineering. Operating comfortably at the intersection of R&D, digital platforms, and applied consultancy, you excel at translating complex EO capabilities into trusted decision support services. To succeed in this role, you will bring:

• A strong understanding of multi-sensor EO data.
• Experience designing and delivering operational decision-support tools.
• The ability to work seamlessly with senior consultants, clients, and multidisciplinary technical teams to achieve our growing recognition in this field.

You will work closely with colleagues across consulting, digital platforms and research to help develop and sustain strategic partnerships within the Earth Observation ecosystem, using collaborative bidding, research programmes and innovation initiatives to build capability and credibility.

Applicants will have:

• An advanced degree (MSc or PhD, or equivalent) in EO, Remote Sensing, Geospatial Data Science, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related technical discipline.
• Robust professional experience in applied EO, with a track record of delivering operational solutions in a commercial, engineering, or environmental consultancy environment.
• Understanding of modern EO architectures, including programming (Python), cloud-based processing (AWS), and scalable data pipelines.
• Experience building or overseeing semi-automated geospatial analytics pipelines.
• Experience integrating Machine Learning and AI with optical, SAR, and other remote sensing datasets.

The right candidate for this role will have a systems-thinking mindset paired with sharp commercial awareness. Effective communication and collaboration skills will be invaluable.

Desirable attributes for the role:

• Professional membership or Chartership with a relevant industry body (e.g., RSPSoc, CGeog, CEng).
• Domain knowledge in flood risk management, climate resilience, water management, water companies or infrastructure.
• Proven experience scaling and line-managing technical, multidisciplinary teams.

Location: The role can be based at either our Skipton, North Yorkshire BD23 3FD or Wallingford, Oxfordshire OX10 9BS offices and is offered on a hybrid basis. You will be expected to work in a collaborative space (JBA Office, client office, site) at least 3 days per week.