Job Opportunity for GIS and Vegetation Analyst at Wildlife Conservation Society in Hyderabad

No. of position: 1 

Location: Hyderabad; though the candidate should be ready to travel to remote areas in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana 

Programme/Sector: Eastern Ghats and Telangana Programme

Duration: One-Year fixed term 

Expected travel: Up to 30-50%, as required to field sites and to coordinate with Field Staff 

About us: The Wildlife Conservation Society-India works to conserve wildlife, backed by science. We work in partnership with governmental and non-governmental organizations to deal with conservation challenges such as human-wildlife interaction, combating wildlife trafficking, conservation of marine ecosystems and species, conservation of endangered species, livelihood development of local communities, and so on. Committed to wildlife conservation and the ecological world view that recognizes the inextricable link between human welfare and protection of wildlife and wild spaces, WCS-India endeavors to inspire positive attitudes in people towards wildlife. 

WCS-India is an Equal Opportunity Employer and encourages applications from qualified individuals regardless of race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability. 

About the Position: The GIS and Vegetation Monitoring Analyst is an entry-level position situated in WCS-India’s Eastern Ghats Program. This new position will play a key support role to WCS-India’s efforts to map and conserve natural ecosystems. Geospatial support is needed at several stages, from the identification of our conservation landscapes to the quantification of ecosystem services and benefits of potential interventions. The GIS and Vegetation Monitoring Analyst will coordinate with a team of both headquarters and global level landscape focused WCS experts in forestry, spatial analysis, and conservation.  

Responsibilities 

• Mapping and change detection of the habitats in Eastern Ghats and other project sites using freely available satellite imagery such as Landsat, Sentinel-2 or Rapid-Eye. 
• Curate and maintain database on Geospatial datasets relevant to our area of interests 
• Provide technical advisory support to country offices on activities such as sampling designs for field data collection, interpretation of imagery, and spatial modelling of land cover change risk. 
• Make easy to use tutorials for WCS-India staff and other relevant stakeholders on using open-source GIS software and allied techniques. 
• Conduct ecosystem services assessment using methods using recognised and available rapid assessment techniques using open-source platforms including R, Python or Google Earth Engine 

Requirements 

Experience and Knowledge 

• This is an entry level position with people having 2 years or more experience who can apply.
• Advanced proficiency in both raster and vector-based GIS analysis using open-source desktop and web GIS 
• Understanding of the fundamentals of optical remote sensing as it applies to vegetation monitoring, land cover change monitoring 

Experience  

• Integrating field-based data collection into a GIS through use of GPS, mobile data collection, natural history notes etc. 
• Foundation in statistical analysis sufficient to design and interpret field-based environmental sampling efforts. 
• Quantification of ecosystem or vegetation properties through analysis and interpretation of field and remote sensing data. 
• Foundation in terrestrial ecology and/or forestry. 
• Demonstrated ability to lead the authoring of high-quality, clearly written reports covering methods and results from geospatial analyses, sufficient for non-specialists to comprehend 

Education 

• An advanced degree in geography, geospatial science; with a focus in natural ecosystems  
• An advanced degree in an environmental science such as terrestrial ecology, forestry; with a focus on geospatial analysis, geostatistics, or remote sensing 

Technical Skills 

• Excellent written and oral language skills are required in English and Telugu.
• Very strong command of industry standard GIS, and must additionally be familiar with scripting like Python
• Programming in a cloud-based raster analysis suite like Google Earth Engine or SEPAL a plus
• Knowledge of GIS techniques related to predicative spatial modelling (TerrSet-LCM, MaxEnt, etc.) 

Compensation: Offered as per the qualification and experience. 

It’s time to apply: 

To apply, please send together in one file – a cover letter and an updated resume. Submit your application through email using the position title “GIS and Vegetation Monitoring Analyst-HYD” in subject line and send us on careers@wcsindia.org  latest by July 10, 2022.

Candidates to share three professional references mandatorily. 

All applications will be reviewed however only shortlisted candidates will be notified for further process.