Senior Lidar Systems & Geospatial QA Lead

KBR Careers; Sioux Falls (SD); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K plan with company match

Medical insurance

Dental insurance

Vision insurance

Life insurance

Flexible spending account

Disability insurance

Paid time off

Flexible work schedule

Job summary

KBR’s Science and Space Division seeks a Senior Lidar Systems & Geospatial Engineering Lead to drive lidar dataset QA/QC, accuracy assessments, and scalable processing for large airborne programs like 3DEP. The role blends lidar expertise with algorithm development and professional leadership.

Candidates will lead a multidisciplinary team, collaborate with USGS and ECCOE, and publish results while advancing geospatial analysis and standards in a hybrid work setting in Sioux Falls, SD.

Qualifications

• MS in physics, mathematics, remote sensing, geospatial science, geomatics, environmental science, or a related field.
• 8+ years of lidar-related experience.
• Fundamental programming skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead QA/QC and characterization of airborne lidar datasets and elevation products against 3DEP, ASPRS, and project requirements.
• Develop methods for evaluating point density, spatial distribution, and density; implement Voronoi-based approaches.
• Perform vertical accuracy assessments using GNSS, TLS, UAS, and other reference datasets; analyze bias and RMSE.
• Design scalable Python-based tools for processing tens of millions of points per tile and thousands of datasets.

Skills

Fundamental programming skills

Education

MS in physics/remote sensing/geospatial science (or related)

PhD preferred

Tools

PDAL

laspy

LASTools

Job description

KBR’s Science and Space Division seeks a Senior Lidar Systems & Geospatial Engineering Lead to drive lidar dataset QA/QC, accuracy assessments, and scalable processing for large airborne programs like 3DEP. The role blends lidar expertise with algorithm development and professional leadership.

Candidates will lead a multidisciplinary team, collaborate with USGS and ECCOE, and publish results while advancing geospatial analysis and standards in a hybrid work setting in Sioux Falls, SD.