(Temporary) GIS Specialist - Natural Resources and the Environment

West Virginia University • West Virginia, WV

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About The Position

The Entomology Program at West Virginia University is seeking a Geospatial Remote Sensing Analyst to support an interdisciplinary research project focused on international migratory moths. The candidate will work within a collaborative, multi-disciplinary team of entomologists, engineers and other researchers to develop spatial databases, analyze satellite and biological datasets, produce maps and geospatial products to support modeling of migratory moth occurrence and movement across geographic regions. The position will develop a geospatial framework for the early detection and spatial prediction of transboundary migratory pests. This position integrates advanced data-driven approaches in entomology including remote sensing, GIS, and machine learning with focus on processing, analyzing, and integrating satellite, UAV/drone, ground-survey, environmental, and pest-occurrence datasets. This will be a temporary position for up to 8.5 months.

Requirements

• Master’s degree in Geography, GIS, Entomology, Natural Resources, or a closely related field.
• Strong academic background with over five years of hands-on experience in GIS and geospatial analysis.
• Demonstrated research experience in agricultural remote sensing and analysis of satellite imagery for crop, vegetation, or environmental applications.
• Proficiency in ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, and Google Earth Engine for geospatial analysis, image processing, and visualization.
• Demonstrated experience processing and analyzing multi-source satellite imagery and UAV/drone-derived geospatial data.
• Experience developing reproducible geospatial workflows using Python and/or R.

Nice To Haves

• Ability to develop and maintain spatially aligned geospatial datasets and derived products to support multidisciplinary research and analysis preferred.
• Experience working with large and diverse geospatial datasets preferred.
• Experience with machine-learning applications in remote sensing preferred.
• Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary research team preferred.

Responsibilities

• Acquire, process, and analyze satellite imagery from appropriate platforms, and integrate remote sensing technologies to develop scalable monitoring and control strategies.
• Prepare spatially and temporally consistent satellite datasets and develop automated workflows using Google Earth Engine, ArcGIS Pro, Python, and R.
• Develop geospatial databases and maintain efficient data management systems.
• Conduct spatial alignment and resampling of datasets to produce common-framework for multimodal data fusion for satellite, drone and field data.
• Contribute to technical reports, project documentation and support peer-reviewed publication.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and international research teams.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level