Earth Observation Specialist

**Details**:
**Reference number**:

- 372811**Salary**:

- £33,590 - £36,000- A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%**Job grade**:

- Higher Executive Officer**Contract type**:

- Permanent**Business area**:

- Geospatial Services**Type of role**:

- Operational Delivery**Working pattern**:

- Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time**Number of jobs available**:

- 1Contents

Location

About the job

**Benefits**:
Things you need to know

Location
- Exeter, Leeds, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Nottingham, ReadingAbout the job

**Job summary**:
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is an executive agency of the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), delivering over £2 billion in payments to farmers, traders and landowners each year.

We are an Operational Delivery Profession organisation, with the majority of our people delivering day to day services to our customers and stakeholders.

We make excellent delivery happen, empowering agricultural and rural communities to create a better place to live. We manage over 40 schemes, and also make payments on behalf of Natural England, to ensure we have a healthy rural economy, strong and sustainable rural communities, and to protect and enhance the natural environment.

Our vision is to create a great place for people living in this country. We have developed a set of four strategic objectives covering our policy outcomes and corporate objectives. These objectives help us to deliver our ambitious vision to build our green and healthy future and provide a framework for all of the important work that we carry out.

Further information can be found on the Rural Payments Agency website: RPA Website

**Job description**:
As an HEO Earth Observation Specialist, you will be part of the Geospatial Team within the RPA, responsible for overseeing and delivering a range of geomatics capabilities. These include earth observation, the geospatial data supply chain, machine learning, spatial analytics, and designing enterprise geospatial information products and solutions. You will use advanced technology and data for surveillance, geo-intelligence gathering, and mapping of the natural environment and rural landscapes.

In this role, you will further develop and exploit data from airborne platforms and remote sensing satellites, contributing to strategic environmental programmes and business-critical initiatives within central government. You will collaborate with our existing team to advance remote sensing and machine learning capabilities that have already been embedded into our operational processes. You will gain experience working with various teams across the agency and broader government, delivering projects, collaborating with our supply chain, and working within an exciting, fast-growing business area.

As you progress, you will lead innovation efforts around the platforming of land data and intelligence, integrating it with systems within the RPA and across government departments. Your focus will be on driving environmental recovery and ensuring food and biosecurity. You will also develop new markers to broaden the scope of remote monitoring for schemes and help deliver a large-scale monitoring capability to assess strategic outcomes and policy directions.

Additionally, you will have the opportunity to develop new data products derived from imagery for the RPA, wider government, and the public. We encourage you to bring ideas for future projects and to collaborate with geospatial and Earth Observation experts from other government departments to modernise and improve the way we work.

**Person specification**:
Within this role, you will:

- Develop and implement new markers and classifications using machine learning and remote sensing, deploying these at scale.
- Assure the supply chain responsible for national remote sensing surveillance, ensuring adherence to the Sustainable Farming Incentive standards.
- Support the development new data products and processes that benefit both the RPA and Defra.
- Act as a consultant to internal teams, advising on how to exploit geospatial data and build capability across operational teams and the wider analytical and earth observation community.
- Champion the use of data science in the geospatial field throughout Defra and RPA.
- Participate in innovation and R&D projects with other Defra network agencies, supporting the development of workflows using geomatics and remote sensing technologies.
- Manage, mentor, and develop junior staff, encouraging their professional growth.

You will have the following knowledge and experience:

- A relevant degree or masters equivalent in Geography; Remote Sensing; Earth Observation; Geographic Information Systems/Science or relevant land/IT discipline, or have equivalent industry experience.
- Previous working experience in a remote sensing/geospatial analytical or technical role.
- Evidence of successful development and delivery of geospatial tools