Survey Coordinator & Analyst III — Mesophotic Deep Benthic Communities (MDBC)

Think Tank•Panama City Beach, FL

2d•Onsite

About The Position

Position is Subject to Contract Award Onsite Position at SEFSC Laboratory or at Sea in Panama City, FL Position Overview SEFSC-PEMD personnel are critical collaborators in restoration work responding to the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, surveying mesophotic and deep benthic reef communities (50–1,800 m) via ROV/AUV platforms, acoustic mapping, and ground-truthing. This role serves as Survey Coordinator, Field Party Chief, and/or Survey Watch Stander for MDBC surveys and participates in other PEMD resource surveys as requested.

Requirements

MS degree (or higher) in Marine Science or a related field, or BS degree plus 5 years of relevant experience.
Computer literate with common word processing, database, statistical, and graphics programs, including PRIMER, Microsoft SQL, and ArcGIS (Spatial, Geostatistical, and 3D Analyst extensions); capable of college-level reports and oral presentations.
Proficient in fish, invertebrate, and protected species identification; knowledge of mesophotic and deep reef taxa.
10 years of experience in at-sea data collection using ROVs, HOVs, and AUVs.
Ability to collect, process, label, and track marine specimens for analysis or museum vouchers, including barcode label creation.
Expert knowledge of acoustic mapping methodologies, including multibeam, side-scan, and synthetic aperture sonar analysis (e.g., ArcGIS, Caris, Seabird, Fledermaus).
Knowledge of procedures for encountering endangered or threatened species.
Sea-going contractors on OMAO NOAA ships must submit a NOAA Health Services Questionnaire (Form 57-10-01) and Tuberculosis Screening Form (NF 57-10-02) annually/biennially, and must have a current tetanus vaccine (within 10 years).

Responsibilities

Assisting MDBC Project Management Leads with survey preparation, execution, and completion, including schedules, supply/equipment coordination, and selection of survey vehicles (e.g., AUV).
Ensuring cruise instructions/reports and participant clearance forms are completed and submitted on time.
Ensuring adherence to MDBC data-collection SOPs; executing at-sea mapping and ground-truthing missions as Field Party Chief or Watch Leader.
Pre- and post-survey inventory and maintenance of equipment and gear.
Coordinating daily vessel activities, personnel, vessel position/movements, ports of call, and weather/sea conditions.
Conducting data collection and sampling per prescribed MDBC SOP.
Reporting weekly progress (or issues requiring plan changes) to MDBC Project Leads.
Completing incident reporting procedures per NOAA Small Boat Program requirements (small boat operations only).
Subject-matter expert identifying marine fishes in all life stages from mesophotic and deep reef habitats.
Video annotation, review, and data QA/QC of ROV-based footage; review of data entry.
Management of review/tracking sheets; updating project management and annotation tracking tools.
Developing a data management strategy, including data-entry template design with NCEI and NCCOS Biogeography Branch.
Ingesting existing bathymetric data (U.S. EEZ Gulf of Mexico, 50–1,800 m) into the MDBC database.
Helping manage the MDBC database, applications, and survey SOP (including metadata).
Managing data backups/security with OMI personnel.
Integrating new automated data outputs to meet AI/ML interoperability standards.
Managing video data annotation entry projects and project management tools.
Collating existing biological data and mining acoustic/bathymetric data for mesophotic and deep benthic reefs in the U.S. Gulf of America EEZ.
Prioritizing new and repetitive locations for surface and subsurface acoustic mapping.
Maintaining knowledge of relevant literature; supporting data analyses and summaries.
Managing analysis projects; developing reports, publications, and presentations per SEFSC procedures.
Coordinating abstracts, presentations, and publications with the GCRF Branch Chief.
Attending professional meetings and publishing in peer-reviewed literature.
Participate in public outreach and education efforts, e.g., school programs, science fair judging, facility/ship tours, and outreach booths.
Prepare for and present, facilitate, or participate in position-related workshops, scientific meetings, symposiums, and public forums, presenting scientific results as required.