Vacancy Title:  Maritime Applications Developer – Earth Observation

Refº. Unit Request: Earth Observation Laboratory (EO Lab)

Location: Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal – Headquarters of the AIR Centre

Contract Duration: 2 years

Part/full Time: Full time

Hours per Week: 40 hours per Week

Salary: 2.700 EUR monthly gross salary, subject to negotiation

Application Deadline (Midnight Lisbon Time Zone): 17^th March 2024

Preferable Starting date: 1^st April 2024

OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE POST

The Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) has a vacancy for a Maritime Applications Developer for its Earth Observation Laboratory (EO Lab) to develop work in scope of the implementation of the New Space Portugal, a Portuguese Recovery and Resilience Plan funded project, as well as in other AIR Centre related activities.

You will be joining a dynamic and multidisciplinary team and work in the diverse and emerging fields of Earth Observation (EO) in the maritime domain, such as detection of marine litter, essential biodiversity variables, object detection and classification.

As an application developer, you will work with a blend of technical, scientific, industrial and outreach activities while supporting and identifying new opportunities. You will develop new services and products for the Atlantic region along with AIR Centre partners including AIR Centre UNEP GRID (United Nations Global Resource Information Database), the European Space Agency and AIR Centre Members. You will also work in a high-throughput edge-computing node for EO data processing, as well as with a satellite direct receiving station. Among other opportunities for professional development, contributions to open-source Projects are encouraged.

TASKS AND RESPONSABILITIES

• Manage and develop projects related with EO including technical, outreach, training, and dissemination of results;
• Analyze and understand different types of remote sensing data (satellite, high altitude, aerial, thermal, radar, optical, etc..) including satellite constellations;
• Design, implement and supervise the development of algorithms using real world data and automate remote sensing and geospatial workflows;
• Conduct performance evaluations and validation of developed algorithms using appropriate metrics and benchmarks;
• Deploy and maintain early service prototypes of algorithms;
• Liaise with stakeholders (including end users) to derive system requirements;
• Lead and support the preparations of proposals and identify new opportunities and consortia;
• Stay updated on the latest advancements in Earth observation technologies, machine learning techniques, and maritime domain knowledge.

QUALIFICATIONS AND REQUIRED SKILLS

• Relevant Msc degree with at least 6 years of experience in fields of Remote Sensing and Earth Observation Systems, Physics, Environmental Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or a related field;
• Solid understanding of Earth observation principles and techniques, with a focus on maritime applications, including processing of geospatial data such as Sentinel, MODIS, Worldview, Landsat;
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, or MATLAB;
• Experience with geospatial data processing libraries (e.g., GDAL);
• Able to work in dynamic teams, with excellent inter-personal and communication skills;
• Excellent English verbal and written communication skills.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Familiarity with implementation of machine learning algorithms for automated feature detection, classification, and tracking;
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks (e.g, PyTorch);
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).

WORKING PLACE

The Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) is an international collaborative framework to address global challenges and local priorities in the Atlantic Ocean. It promotes the voice of the Atlantic by the fair cooperation between national and regional organizations that share a common commitment to the Ocean and to their communities, focusing on an integrative approach to climate and ocean issues, supported by emerging technological innovations and advances in space, renewable energy and data science, and through international cooperation. The Headquarters of the AIR Centre are located in Terceira island, Azores and an office in Lisbon. The location of this position is in Terceira island, Azores.

The EO Lab is a dedicated unit of the AIR Centre, located in the TERINOV Technological Park (Terceira island, Azores) and is established as ESA_LAB@Azores, a laboratory to set-up an institutional link between academia, high-tech enterprises, research institutions and European Space Agency to explore innovative applications of space technologies of observation in the Atlantic area.

The EO Lab contributes to maximise the integration of a distributed space ecosystem, extending the use of space technologies and applications to support societal challenges, public demands and policies in the Atlantic space and contributing to a better knowledge of understudied areas. It is also a laboratory to test procedures and methods to connect peripheral regions into globally competitive technological sectors by supporting research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The aim is to set-up a collaborative framework to identify, consolidate, sustain, stimulate, promote and build capacity for existing, new and future EO-based services of use for Atlantic Ocean countries.

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS

Interested candidates should send until March 17^th, 2024 a single PDF file (please name it: Name_EOLAB.PDF), to recruitment@aircentre.org containing:

1) Motivation Letter

2) Detailed CV

3) Contacts of 2 references

The deadline for application submission is March 17^th, 2024.

The evaluation of candidates is based on the criteria in the vacancy notice. The best ranked candidates will be invited for an interview by via videoconference. The selected candidate will be the one with higher score in the interview process.

The jury for this recruitment process is composed by Miguel Miranda, AIR Centre Executive Director; Mafalda Carapuço, AIR Centre Deputy Executive Director and Pedro Silva, AIR Centre Chief Technology Officer.