Remote Vegetation Ecologist

KBR • Sioux Falls, SD

4d • Remote

About The Position

BELONG. CONNECT. GROW. with KBR. Around here, we define the future. We are a company of innovators, thinkers, creators, explorers, volunteers, and dreamers. But we all share one goal: to improve the world responsibly and safely. KBR’s Science and Space division is seeking a Vegetation Ecologist to support our Technical Support Services Contract (TSSC) at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Earth Resources Observation & Science (EROS) Center ( http://eros.usgs.gov/ ) near Sioux Falls, SD ( http://www.siouxfalls.org ). The primary focus of this position is to process and manipulate spatially referenced data to update maps of existing vegetation type, cover, and height for the United States to support the USGS EROS Center’s Landscape Fire and Resource Management Planning Tools (LANDFIRE) Program. This position works with the existing team to process and analyze raster and vector data as well as other databases to assist in keeping vegetation after disturbance up to date and creating fire regime products which support fire and landscape management planning.

Requirements

• Candidates must meet the requirements listed below to be considered for this position; please note required items on your resume. This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a national agency check and background investigation after hire to obtain credentials for facility access and user accounts.
• Must have a minimum 3-year residency in the United States
• Education: Advanced Degree or equivalent experience in remote sensing, ecology, landscape ecology, forestry, or other relevant field
• Years of Experience: Must have minimum 5 years of recent and related work experience in ecology and knowledge with plant community dynamics across the landscape
• Fundamental knowledge of vegetation and land cover mapping using supervised classification of raster products
• Strong background in GIS analysis and data processing for land cover mapping
• Experience using ground observation in conjunction with remotely sensed data such as satellite and lidar to generate models for vegetation mapping
• Expertise in remote sensing, computer programming, and raster product generation
• Thorough understanding of a wide range of ecosystems and dominant species characteristics across the United States including trees, shrubs, and herbaceous vegetation
• Strong interpersonal communication, technical writing, editing and presentation skills and an advanced knowledge of Microsoft office tools for reporting and documentation of processes and procedures

Nice To Haves

• Highly skilled in processing geospatial frameworks using ArcGIS/ArcPro
• Experience with Python, R, or other common computer programming languages
• Experience with Classification and Regression Tree (CART) models for predicting landscape-level vegetation cover, height, and type such as See5, Random Forest or XGBoost
• Experience with vegetation classification for categorizing species data and mapping vegetation such as Ecological Systems and National Vegetation Classification System
• Basic knowledge of land cover mapping methods for differentiating open water, natural barren (rock/sand), agriculture, development, and other human-made features
• Good understanding of typical field data collection methods such as areal cover estimates and point-transect sampling

Responsibilities

• Produce vegetation maps including Vegetation Type, Cover, and Height
• Serve as Subject Matter Expert for vegetation products
• Understand the inner workings of data sources, production processes, and steps taken for producing vegetation maps
• Perform accuracy assessments on map products using cross-validation, regressions, and other standardized testing methods
• Investigate ways to improve existing production methods and work with team of scientists to innovate new ways to map vegetation through trials and iteration
• Create Python scripts to produce geospatial data products
• Work with technologies such as ArcGIS Pro, QGIS, Jupyter Notebooks

Benefits

• Competitive benefits: 401K with match, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, flexible spending, disability, paid time off, flexible schedule.
• Career advancement through professional training and development.
• Benefits may be aligned with partner companies for government contracting.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees