Geospatial Data Analyst, Remote Sensing

Burnt Island Ventures; New York (NY); Remote; USD 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is seeking a passionate Geospatial Data Analyst to join its Technology team. This role focuses on leveraging remote sensing and geospatial data to enhance flood risk assessment and insurance solutions. You will collaborate with scientists and commercial teams to extract valuable insights from satellite imagery and other data sources, directly impacting climate-vulnerable communities. If you're motivated by the challenge of using technology for positive environmental change and have a strong background in GIS and remote sensing, this opportunity is perfect for you. Join a mission-driven team dedicated to making a difference in flood management and climate adaptation.

Benefits

Equity Compensation

Competitive Benefits Package

Regular Salary Reviews

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in geospatial data science and remote sensing.
• Proficient in Python and QGIS for data analysis and visualization.

Responsibilities

• Extract and analyze flood information from satellite data and hydrologic models.
• Create engaging maps and animations to showcase flood data to stakeholders.

Skills

Geospatial Data Science

Remote Sensing

QGIS

Python Programming

Cartographic Best Practices

Data Analysis

Client Communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Geography

Bachelor's degree in Earth Sciences

Tools

Geopandas

Rasterio

GDAL

Rio

Xarray

Job description

ABOUT FLOODBASE

Floodbase is changing the way businesses and communities adapt to increasing risk of climate change impacts from flooding. Last year, we launched a solution enabling re/insurers and public sector organizations to profitably design, underwrite, and monitor parametric flood insurance products, extending coverage to historically uninsurable locations and risks. Built on nearly a decade of industry-leading and peer-reviewed science, our proprietary solution continuously monitors flooding globally. Floodbase is backed by investors like Lowercarbon Capital, Collaborative Fund, and Floating Point, and trusted by NASA, The UN, Google, FEMA, and more.

About the Role

We are looking for a talented and enthusiastic Geospatial Data Analyst with a Remote Sensing focus to join our Technology team. You will collaborate with fellow analysts, scientists, and particularly commercial team members to understand client needs, extract relevant flood information from Earth observation sensors, and leverage internal and external GIS/RS tools to analyze and propose creative solutions. The results of your work will have a direct impact on increasing financial protection for climate vulnerable communities around the world. The role is remote, with core hours in EST or hybrid based in Brooklyn, NY.

Here’s what you’ll do

• Extract actionable flood information from large structured and unstructured datasets of satellite observations, hydrologic model outputs, and auxiliary records (stream gauges, water occurrence, etc.) that can be incorporated into the Floodbase parametric insurance product.
  • Example project: Use Floodbase generated flood index along with satellite observations and a stream gauge record to understand how flood impacts Clayton County in Georgia. Investigate whether other data sources need to be incorporated to better represent the flood dynamics of that specific region.
• Analyze and validate historical flood time series using secondary data sources to ensure that damaging flood events are well represented.
  • Example project: Analyze FEMA claims at the census block group scale and geolocated mentions of flooding on social media to quantify severity of a historical flood event.
• Identify and rectify false positives and false negatives in flood maps to ensure the highest possible quality, while working with the Research and Development team to rectify persistent problem areas to improve our flood mapping techniques.
  • Example project: Analyze imagery from ESA Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 over Emilia-Romagna in Italy and quantify the amount of false positives and false negatives in the machine learning derived flood map corresponding to each sensor.
• Create visually attractive and engaging maps and animations (e.g., GIFs) to showcase our flood maps to clients, journalists, and other stakeholders.
  • Example project: A major hurricane has impacted the east coast and our collaborators at FEMA want to understand the impact through a map that combines flood severity derived from flood maps at disparate temporal and spatial resolutions. This map also needs to be tweaked visually to send to national media.
• Identify and explain discrepancies between time series data and valid historical events, and propose relevant solutions to meet client needs.
• Collaborate with the team by contributing to existing tools and workflows, and propose improvements where needed.

Who you are

• A curious individual with a keen interest in flood science, remote sensing, and climate change issues, motivated to work on novel beneficial technology to make a positive impact in the world.
• Organization skills, meticulousness, and a keen attention to detail are required.
• Holds a Bachelor’s degree in geography, earth sciences, or a related quantitative field, with a focus or demonstrated interest in GIS and remote sensing. Advanced degrees are a plus but not required.
• ~3 years of experience working with geospatial data science in general. Experience working with earth observation imagery using remote sensing tools is a plus. Good proficiency using QGIS is required.
• Proficient in Python programming within the open-source geospatial ecosystem, particularly with tools like Geopandas, Rasterio/GDAL, Rio/Xarray, etc.
• Familiarity with various raster and vector formats and best practices (e.g., GeoTIFF, COG, GeoJSON).
• Experienced in creating production quality maps that adhere to cartographic best practices.
• Ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences including but not limited to scientists, software engineering, internal commercial team stakeholders, insurance industry stakeholders, disaster managers at organizations like FEMA, etc.
• Experience in client-facing technical product delivery role is a plus.
• Basic familiarity with Git source control and code documentation standards.

Salary range

Floodbase offers competitive salaries with regular reviews and adjustments based on performance and industry standards. Additionally, this individual will receive equity compensation and a competitive benefits package.