Vacancy: Earth Observation Remote Sensing Scientists

Renowned internationally for its research excellence supporting a sustainable ocean, Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) has an exciting opportunity for two Remote Sensing Scientists.

It is a crucial time for the ocean with key international drivers being the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the “double decade” of action – The Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, and the Decade of Ecosystem Restoration.

PML has c. 180 employees, as well as students and visiting researchers. Approximately 70% of our employees are scientists, with the remainder being spread across operational groups.

The successful candidates will get the opportunity to work alongside Dr Gemma Kulk, Dr Thomas Jackson and Dr Shubha Sathyendranath all prestigious in their field of research.

Job Details

The roles available are within our Earth Observation Science team with candidates using remote sensing to study the ocean carbon cycle and/or water quality in relation to human health.

This will involve working together with other team members and partner organisations such as the European Space Agency (ESA) to produce research on a number of ongoing projects along with exciting new opportunities currently in the planning stage.

The EOSA team are forecasting a busy period as we move into 23/24, aided by successful new funding streams, including the Wellcome Trust-funded project WADIM, to boost research into EO and Human health.

You will:

• Improve remote sensing algorithms for mapping various biologically-relevant carbon pools and fluxes in the upper ocean, including primary production, phytoplankton carbon, particulate organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon and particulate inorganic carbon.

• Study water quality in relation to water-borne diseases using EO.

• Develop epidemiological models for predicting water-borne disease outbreaks. 

To achieve this, you will have knowledge and or experience with:

• PhD in oceanography or allied fields, or equivalent experience.

• Versatile, dynamic and self-motivated person who is willing and eager to learn new science.

• Comfortable with computer coding and dealing with big data.

• Good inter-personal skills and the ability to work with people from different cultural backgrounds in international projects. 

The following skills and experience would also be beneficial:

• Background in satellite data processing.

• Willingness to travel to meetings and sampling in the field.  

The role is based in our laboratory in Plymouth, with an open-ended full-time contract of 37 hours per week. You will have a generous 30 days of annual leave plus 8 days of public holiday and 2.5 days of privilege leave (dates set by PML), a company pension with up to 10% company matched contributions, and a host of other benefits such as access to union membership, welfare, and sports societies. 

PML is committed to equity, diversity and inclusion, and our EDI policy can be found on our 'Working with us' page. We are proud to have achieved the Athena SWAN award as recognition of our achievements in gender equality. As part of this, we offer opportunities to discuss flexible working and whilst the selection process will be based on merit, we particularly welcome applications from female candidates, currently underrepresented here at PML.