Higher Data Scientist – Drone Pilot & Earth Observation Analyst Status: Vacancy Live - ( Ref : 6843 )

This role will lead and support the delivery of a range of Earth Observation (EO) projects, and

the wider development of EO skills in the team and across Natural England. In the Earth Observation Service, we undertake a wide range of EO work, including drone data capture

and processing, coastline monitoring, as well as wildfire and habitat mapping. We use data from drone, crewed aircraft and satellite platforms, and from a range of different sensors, including aerial photography, and multispectral, LIDAR and RADAR sensors.

We are seeking someone to be both an EOS Drone Pilot and Earth Observation Analyst, with significant experience and capability in both drone surveys and applying EO techniques. About half of the role’s time will be dedicated to planning and carrying out drone surveys for environmental monitoring and analysis, as described further below. You will be operating rotary drones including DJI M300 and Parrot Anafi USA, as well as a Fixed Wing drone (Sensefly eBee X), using multiple sensors, including aerial photography, multispectral, and thermal.

The other half of the role’s time will be dedicated to the other post holder responsibilities, including EO data analysis, contributing to and helping lead a variety of projects to support Natural England’s objectives. These may include analysis of sand dunes and coastal habitats, monitoring geomorphological change, and wild animal detection.

This role will require substantial traveling within England, including overnight stays, most likely around once or twice per month. A full driving licence is essential; as is the ability to swim (due to surveying near water).

The post holder will:

• Be an EOS Drone Pilot. Carrying out drone surveys across England, including planning, ground control, survey, post processing, data management and equipment maintenance. These surveys are carried out with our fleet of drones: a fixed wing Sensefly eBee X, with Aeria-X (RGB camera), MicaSense Red-Edge-MX (Multispectral Sensor) and Duet-T (Thermal Sensor); a Multi Rotor DJI Matrice 300, with DJI P1 (RGB Camera), MicaSense Dual (Multispectral Sensor) and DJI M30T; a Multi Rotor DJI Mavic 3 Enterprise, with integrated RGB Camera; and a Parrot Anafi USA with integrated RGB and thermal sensors.
• Carry out Drone data post processing. You will post-process and create ortho-mosaics for our own drone surveys as well as surveys carried out by pilots in other teams, following our existing GDPR/DPIA policy at all times.
• Contribute to EO Analysis. Develop and run EO analysis, including through data acquisition, handling, manipulation, integration, and analysis, using a variety of tools including standard EO software (and/or R and Python scripting), on different platforms, including cloud computing environments.
• Maintain and develop relationships with customers and partners. Engage with partners and end users to share knowledge on EO approaches and products, build partnerships on common problems and understand customer needs for EO data products/support.
• Support capability building, documentation and quality assurance. Work to help build and deliver technical skills training and create reproducible analytical pipelines and standardised products, including through documentation of methods and quality assurance approaches.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Earth observation/Remote Sensing qualification at Masters level or equivalent experience. (Essential)
• Good experience as a drone pilot, preferably with a GVC (General VLOS Certificate) for Fixed Wing and/or Multi-Rotor drones. (Essential)
• Good experience of processing drone data (Essential)
• Good experience of using and analysing data from a range of drone sensors, such as Aerial Photography, Multispectral and Thermal data. Experience with at least one type of EO data not acquired by drones, e.g. crewed aircraft or satellite data. (Essential)
• Confident in the use of at least one GIS or EO analysis tool (such as ArcGIS Pro/ArcGIS Online/QGIS, ERDAS Imagine, eCognition, R and/or Python) to visualise, manipulate and transform Earth Observation data. (Essential)
• Good technical experience of using EO techniques in natural environment applications such as land cover and habitat classification or land cover change detection in terrestrial and/or marine environments. (Essential)
• The postholder for this role needs to have a Full UK Driving License as frequent national travel is expected.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Earth observation/Remote Sensing qualification at Masters level or equivalent experience. (Essential)
• Good experience as a drone pilot, preferably with a GVC (General VLOS Certificate) for Fixed Wing and/or Multi-Rotor drones. (Essential)
• Good experience of processing drone data. (Essential)
• Good experience of using and analysing data from a range of drone sensors, such as Aerial Photography, Multispectral and Thermal data. Experience with at least one type of EO data not acquired by drones, e.g. crewed aircraft or satellite data. (Essential)
• Confident in the use of at least one GIS/EO analysis tool (such as ArcGIS Pro/ArcGIS Online/QGIS, ERDAS Imagine, eCognition, R and/or Python) to visualise, manipulate and transform Earth Observation data. (Essential)
• Good technical experience of using EO techniques in natural environment applications such as land cover and habitat classification or land cover change detection in terrestrial and/or marine environments. (Essential)
• The postholder for this role needs to have a Full UK Driving License as frequent national travel is expected.

Creating Resilient Landscapes and Seas

• Use and contribute to the evidence base on environmental and landscape change to support resilient landscapes and seascapes. (Practitioner)

Work Delivery

• Manage and deliver your work to meet agreed targets and deadlines. (Practitioner)
• Handle data responsibly, understand your role in good governance, and comply with delegations, policies and procedures. (Practitioner)

Personal Effectiveness

• Proactively communicate and present your data, evidence and analyses in ways that meet people’s needs so they can understand its implications and use it effectively to deliver positive outcomes for the environment. (Practitioner)
• Share expertise and knowledge with people and networks so that you can develop together. (Basic)

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