Lidar Technician (12 months FTC)

Sylvera; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading environmental technology firm in London is seeking a lidar technician to help improve forest carbon mapping through advanced lidar technology. Responsibilities include processing lidar data, ensuring quality, and collaborating with scientists. The ideal candidate has experience with lidar data processing and enthusiasm for climate sustainability. This role promotes hybrid working, requiring in-person attendance for key meetings.

Benefits

Private Health Insurance

Unlimited annual leave

4 weeks/year work from anywhere

Access to Mental Health support

Office bar tab once a month

Weekly drinks in the office

Catered lunch once a month

Monthly Deliveroo allowance

Qualifications

• Experience with lidar data from forest ecosystems, particularly TLS co-registration and ALS pre-processing.
• Proficiency with 3D point cloud tools and coding experience in Python.
• Willingness to travel internationally for data collection.

Responsibilities

• Processing forest lidar data collected by the field team.
• Quality assurance of individual tree segmentation from TLS data.
• Collaboration with lidar scientists and engineers for delivering high-quality products.

Skills

Lidar data processing

3D point cloud tools (e.g. CloudCompare)

Coding experience (Python)

Understanding of forest ecology

GIS knowledge

Job description

What is Sylvera?

Sylvera provides trusted ratings, tools and data for carbon credits and CDR. Our mission is to incentivize investment in real climate action. Purchasing carbon credits and CDR through the carbon markets is a well-established way to channel finance to effective climate solutions and work toward societal net zero. Sylvera helps organizations ensure they make the most effective investments by providing trusted ratings, tools and data for carbon credits and CDR. Our data and software independently validate the impact of carbon projects that capture, remove, or avoid emissions, whether they are up and running or in development. Our data and tools help users optimise both climate and economic performance of projects and understand the past and future of the market. With Sylvera, businesses, governments and developers can confidently invest in, benchmark, deliver, and report real climate impact.

Our team is made up of leading minds in climate change from scientists to policy, finance, and carbon market experts. We work in partnership with scientific organisations, universities, governments, and think tanks to develop and implement rigorous and holistic project assessment methodologies, leveraging the latest technology. We also partner with actors and institutions across the market to improve data quality, standardisation and accessibility. Founded in 2020, Sylvera has 130+ employees globally with offices in London, New York and Singapore. We have raised over $96 million from investors including Fidelity, Balderton Capital, Index Ventures, and Insight Partners.

Sylvera's field data science team is pioneering new approaches to forest carbon measurement. Traditional methods rely on allometric equations—statistical models that estimate carbon storage based on tree measurements—but these can introduce uncertainties. Our team has developed multi-scale lidar methods using terrestrial, drone, and airborne laser scanning technology to directly measure forest carbon, eliminating dependence on conventional estimation models. Our dedicated field team collects data across diverse forest ecosystems worldwide, building one of the most comprehensive forest carbon datasets available. These data enable us to calibrate and validate Earth observations, unlocking accurate, timely and scalable insights on nature-based carbon projects to support better decision-making in the carbon markets.

What will I be doing?

Over the coming year, in collaboration with Scottish Forestry, the IUCN UK Peatland Programme and CivTech (Challenge 10.6), Sylvera will collect an unprecedented volume of field data to enable developers and investors in Woodland Carbon Code and Peatland Code projects to use Earth observation methods for monitoring project outcomes in a timely, accurate, scalable and low-cost manner. We are therefore looking for a dedicated lidar technician to strengthen our multi-scale lidar capabilities for initially 12 months, with possible extension.

Specific responsibilities

• Processing of forest lidar data collected by our field team, including co-registration of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and pre-processing of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, using a mix of in-house and manufacturer software.
• Quality assurance of individual tree segmentation from TLS data.
• Rigorous, punctual and consistent backup of large lidar datasets, and collaboration with lidar scientists, engineers and the field team for fast delivery of high-quality lidar products at scale.
• Continuously improving our lidar technology; keeping track of developments in science and industry.
• Occasional travel to join data collection missions, test new hardware or data acquisition protocols, and train the field team.

We’re looking for someone who

• Gets excited to build the most accurate and comprehensive forest carbon maps using multi-scale lidar data collected worldwide, using advanced technology.
• Has experience working with lidar data from forest ecosystems, particularly TLS co-registration and ALS pre-processing.
• Preferably has experience with lidar data collection in forests, automatic tree segmentation and/or quantitative structure modelling.
• Is proficient with 3D point cloud tools (e.g. CloudCompare) and has coding experience (ideally Python). Wants to stay up-to-date on developments in the scientific lidar community.
• Has a good understanding of forest ecology, GIS, and lidar principles.
• Is willing and able to travel internationally for a couple of weeks on occasion.
• Cares deeply about the climate and ecosystems of the earth.
• Is a self-starter who thrives in constantly evolving environments, ideally with early-stage experience.

We would like someone highly ambitious, motivated and eager to propel their career forward. We prioritise grit, positivity, and the willingness to get stuck in, and encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t exactly match this job description.

Benefits

• Private Health Insurance and Life Assurance
• Unlimited annual leave
• 4 weeks/year work from anywhere
• Access to Mental Health support
• Office bar tab once a month
• Weekly drinks in the office
• Catered lunch once a month in office
• Monthly Deliveroo/equivalent allowance

Location

London, Old Street. We foster hybrid working and require you to physically attend all 1-2-1, retros and divisional meetings in person.

Our Values

• Own it: We make new mistakes. We build on the momentum of our wins and reflect on and learn from our failures.
• Stay curious: We keep our focus on the long-term, even if that means short-term challenges.
• Do what’s right - even when it’s hard: We take a growth mindset to our work, our customers, our market and the opportunities ahead of us.
• Collaborate and challenge with empathy: Our teams deliver through active collaboration. We invest in each others’ success and make the company stronger in the long-run.
• Empower Customers: Make extraordinary efforts to exceed our customer expectations. If we’re serving our customers to the fullest, we can help direct more investment into real climate impact.

What if you’re a partial fit?

We prioritise grit, positivity, and the willingness to get stuck in, and encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t exactly match this job description.

Equal employment opportunity

Sylvera is an equal opportunity employer: we value diversity. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.