Earth Observation Specialist - Peterborough, United Kingdom - Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC)

Description

This post will have a base in either Peterborough or Aberdeen.

JNCC has adopted a hybrid working approach, allowing colleagues to benefit from time in
the office, with the flexibility also to work from home. Employees are expected to work from
our office base for - 2 days a month as a minimum, this will vary by team and the exact
balance will depend on the nature of your role. We can provide more details at the interview
and offer stages.
Why JNCC?

We're small enough (c.270 staff) that your voice is heard by everyone including the
CEO, but big enough that we have all the skills, resources and people you'll need to get the
job done. All our staff are passionate about conservation and making a difference to the world
we live in. We have a very flexible, inclusive and welcoming organisational culture. Our
Executive Management provides employees with the freedom and tools you will need, and our
friendly team will assist you in your role.

JNCC is committed to maintaining employee health and wellbeing, whether it is
physically, emotionally, financially or socially, and offers a range of benefits to support
employees in this. Such benefits include the option to join the Civil Service Pension Scheme,
professional and personal development opportunities as well as an exciting job in a unique
environment.


Hours of work:
Full-time

Normal minimum hours of attendance for the post are 36 hours per week over a 5-day period,
Monday to Friday.

Flexi time is available. This post may also be suitable for job share.


Annual Leave:

The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year after 5 years
service. There are also 12 days public and privilege leave. Part-time staff will receive this
on a pro rata basis.
The annual leave allowance is 25 days per year, rising to 30 days per year
after 5 years' service. There are also 12 days public and privilege leave. Part-time staff will
receive this on a pro rata basis.


Short Summary:
Post background

The Ecosystems Analysis Team helps JNCC's stakeholders meet the challenges of managing our
environment and the benefits it provides. Recent projects have included modelling and mapping
ecosystem services in the UK and overseas (e.g. understanding the role of natural capital in
providing resilience against disasters in the British Virgin Islands); creating 'apps' to help
land managers consider the trade-offs for nature based solutions, developing an indicator to
show the global environmental impact of UK consumption; working with partners to improve
diversity and inclusion in citizen science monitoring, using machine learning and deep learning
to identify potential areas of peat restoration from Earth observation (EO) imagery; and
building an 'app' to aid remote habitat change detection for restoration, biodiversity net gain

An Earth Observation Specialist is needed to help JNCC deploy habitat and feature mapping
methods, develop products to detect change in habitat condition or management, and provide
biophysical parameters for environmental modelling. The post would contribute to projects
across the work of the team, and to projects led by other teams in JNCC, bringing technical
evidence skills and insight into integrating evidence on land use and land use change in the UK
and overseas, mainstreaming biodiversity into Official Development Assistance, and contributing
innovative solutions to country monitoring programmes

JNCC's interdisciplinary Ecosystems Analysis Team brings together three elements:
A set of long-term partnerships with organisations undertaking species surveys in
terrestrial, coastal and freshwater ecosystems using networks of volunteers.

An analysis and modelling capability producing rapidly deployable models. These include a
range of models focussed on predicting outcomes from changing land uses and environmental
pressures.

An Earth observation data processing and analytical capability with expertise in using EO
to provide high-quality evidence on biodiversity and ecosystems to inform environmental
decision making.

The post will focus on EO analyses but will also work collaboratively with other analytical,
data science and data infrastructure skills across the Ecosystems Analysis and Digital and Data
Solutions Teams. The current team focus is on analysing EO data for mapping habitat extent,
detecting habitat condition, management activities and change in both, and linking these to
changes in ecosystem services, but stakeholder needs are diversifying.

The post will help build the team's skills across scales and sensor types within EO but will
mapping and condition monitoring, illegal waste detection, upland fire risk and burn mapping,
and monitoring intertidal habitats for wetland bird conservation. Whilst much of the work of
the team is terrestrial, some work on marine environments is likely.

Post Duties

The post will be managed by a Senior Natural Capital Evidence Specialist and work with
other EO sp