Remote Sensing Engineer

Company Description
Founded in 2020 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., Impact Observatory develops and uses world-leading geospatial AI to unlock actionable insights from satellite imagery and geospatial data, improving decision-making for resource and risk analysis by governments, industry, and communities, and making a positive impact on our planet.
Purpose
In this position you will drive development of Impact Observatory’s change detection products from algorithm to operations. You will join the Product Development team, which focuses on iterating quickly toward solving customer problems.
We are looking for a remote sensing scientist-engineer. You should understand the physics of remote sensing and how algorithms exploit those signals, and be able to write scalable code that turns a method into a global pipeline. In this role, you will develop algorithms, implement them in production, and own their operational performance. You will start by improving existing products’ accuracy, reliability, and scalability. Over time, you will take ownership of the core algorithms and develop new methods to expand their capabilities.
Duties and Responsibilities
Develop and improve remote sensing algorithms and ML models for change detection.
Build and operate global-scale pipelines, from data ingestion and preparation through inference and delivery.
Manage cloud infrastructure, troubleshoot failures, and improve reliability, scalability, and processing efficiency.
Validate analytical results and automate product quality checks.
Maintain tested code, reproducible workflows, and clear technical documentation.
Translate customer needs into product improvements with scientific and engineering colleagues.
Required Qualifications
Bachelor’s degree in a relevant technical field and 3+ years of relevant professional experience.
Strong Python skills and experience independently building and operating production analytical workflows.
Applied understanding of remote-sensing physics and how sensors, acquisition conditions, and atmospheric effects influence results.
Experience with imagery time series or change detection, including masking, compositing, and seasonal variability.
Familiarity with geospatial libraries such as GDAL, Rasterio, PyProj, GeoPandas, and Shapely.
Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure, Git, and collaborative software development.
Clear communication and the ability to work collaboratively in a fast-moving, remote-work startup environment.
Preferred Qualifications (Optional):
Deep learning or computer vision for remote sensing, including production deployment.
Automated QA/QC and quantitative validation of geospatial products.
SAR or InSAR processing.
Environmental, conservation, or climate applications, including integration with socioeconomic or other ancillary data.
Benefits
Health, Dental & Vision
401K/Roth IRA
Paid Holidays
Paid Professional Development Days
Unlimited Flexible PTO Program
Extended Leave Program (Sick, Caretaker & Parental)
Fully Remote
Remote Work Allowance
Join the Team
Come join us at Impact Observatory! You’ll have the opportunity to help our users monitor, plan, and act to understand the impact of their actions and improve decision making for agriculture, development, and resource management, from a specific site to global scale.
Please apply to the posting with your tailored resume and cover letter. If you are requesting reasonable accommodation during the hiring process, please feel free to email your tailored cover letter and resume to careers@impactobservatory.com with “Remote Sensing Engineer” in the subject line and your accommodation request in the body of the email.
Impact Observatory is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability status, genetic information, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Work arrangement
Yes