Remote Sensing Technician

Remote Sensing Technician, Spekboom Restoration Project Technical and Carbon Department, Eastern Cape (Gqeberha), South Africa

Location: Gqeberha, Eastern Cape

Reports to: GIS and Data Team Lead

Are you ready to embark on an extraordinary adventure that will revitalise landscapes, combat climate change, and promote sustainable agriculture? Join NatCarbon Africa: a mission-driven, proudly African organisation dedicated to high-quality implementation of large-scale carbon, climate, and biodiversity projects. We embrace the power of innovative technology to enhance project execution. Community engagement lies at the heart of our projects, driven by a genuine commitment to meaningful and inclusive participation and co-benefits, such as biodiversity conservation and socioeconomic upliftment.

NatCarbon Africa seeks a Remote Sensing Technician in the Technical and Carbon Department for the large-scale Spekboom Restoration Project in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces of South Africa.

With our partner, Imperative Global, our aim is to restore up to 100,000 hectares of degraded subtropical thicket biome. The Project entails planting Spekboom (Portulacaria afra) on privately owned land to improve ecosystem functioning and agricultural productivity over time, promote biodiversity, improve soil filtration, enhance water storage capabilities, and to reduce soil erosion. The Project is estimated to permanently store large quantities of Carbon Dioxide over the Project life, thus positively contributing towards climate change mitigation.

Position Summary The Remote Sensing Technician will support the acquisition, processing, and analysis of satellite and UAV-derived imagery to inform restoration monitoring, carbon accounting, and ecological assessment.

Working closely with the Technical and Carbon Team, this role involves managing large spatial datasets, developing analytical workflows, and producing high-quality outputs that enhance NatCarbon's ability to monitor vegetation recovery and landscape change.

The position requires strong technical and analytical skills in remote sensing, image processing, and geospatial data analysis, with an interest in applying emerging technologies such as automation, machine learning, and cloud-based geospatial platforms to ecosystem monitoring.

This role provides an opportunity to work at the intersection of ecological restoration, carbon monitoring, and advanced geospatial technologies within one of South Africa's largest landscape-scale restoration initiatives.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Acquire, process, and analyse RGB, multispectral, and lidar data to assess vegetation dynamics, biomass accumulation, and land cover change.
• Contribute to the development and implementation of automated remote sensing workflows, cloud-based processing pipelines, and scalable analytics that support restoration monitoring and carbon quantification.
• Integrate remote sensing outputs with GIS datasets, UAV imagery, and field data to support multi-scale ecological analysis.
• Develop and maintain spatial databases, data catalogues, and metadata for remote sensing products.
• Produce high-quality maps, visualisations, and spatial analyses for internal reporting, project management, and external stakeholders.
• Support the validation and calibration of satellite-derived products using field data collected from restoration sites.
• Apply image classification, change detection, and time-series analysis to monitor vegetation recovery and ecological trends.
• Develop and apply machine learning and AI-based approaches (e.g., supervised classification, object-based image analysis, and predictive modelling) to improve vegetation mapping, change detection, and ecosystem monitoring.
• Contribute to research and innovation initiatives exploring AI, machine learning, and advanced geospatial analytics for ecosystem monitoring, carbon estimation, and landscape-scale restoration assessment.
• Collaborate with the Technical and Carbon Team to ensure spatial products align with project objectives, scientific standards, and carbon monitoring requirements.
• Maintain software tools, scripts, and technical documentation to ensure reproducibility, efficient data management, and long-term accessibility of spatial datasets.

General

• Embrace a culture of continuous learning by adapting to evolving job responsibilities, driven by NatCarbon Africa's commitment to innovation, personal growth, and shifting operational priorities.
• Some travel within the Eastern and Western Cape may be required, including to remote locations, with occasional weekend or holiday work to accommodate schedules. Work hours may be irregular.

• This outline of duties and responsibilities is not exhaustive. The employer reserves the right to assign additional duties or responsibilities at any time, provided they are reasonably aligned with the scope of the role or necessitated by operational requirements. The functions and responsibilities detailed within this job description may be subject to modification at the employer's discretion, based on evolving operational requirements, while remaining consistent with the parameters of the employee's position.

Skills

• Strong technical skills in remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and image processing.
• Proficiency with remote sensing and GIS platforms (e.g., Google Earth Engine, ENVI, ArcGIS, QGIS, or similar geospatial analysis environments).
• Proficiency in Python, R, or similar programming languages for geospatial data processing, automation, and analytical workflows.
• Experience or familiarity with machine learning approaches applied to geospatial data (e.g., Random Forest, gradient boosting, convolutional neural networks, or other classification models).
• Ability to manage large geospatial datasets and develop automated or cloud-based processing workflows.
• Experience working with time-series satellite datasets such as Sentinel or Landsat advantageous.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a high level of attention to detail.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Strong organisational skills and the ability to manage multiple tasks under pressure.
• Commitment to environmental restoration, sustainability, and scientific integrity.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English (Afrikaans and/or isiXhosa advantageous).

Qualifications A relevant tertiary qualification in Remote Sensing, Geomatics, Geography, Environmental Science, Data Science, or a related technical field.

Knowledge and Experience

• 5 to 10 years' experience working with remote sensing and geospatial data.
• Demonstrated experience processing and analysing satellite or UAV imagery.
• Experience applying vegetation indices, land cover classification techniques, and change detection methods.
• Experience applying machine learning or advanced statistical methods to remote sensing datasets for ecological monitoring or land cover mapping advantageous.
• Familiarity with cloud-based geospatial platforms such as Google Earth Engine or AWS.
• Experience integrating remote sensing outputs with field-based ecological datasets advantageous.
• Understanding of ecological restoration, vegetation monitoring, or environmental monitoring programmes advantageous.
• Valid Driver's Licence (off-road driving experience advantageous).

Working Conditions

• Frequent travel within the Eastern and Western Cape anticipated, including to remote locations. Travel may on occasion cross weekends and holidays to accommodate schedules. Work hours may be irregular
• You will join a great team! We are:
• From diverse locations and backgrounds, but all experts in our respective fields. We bring together a wide range of cross-sector experiences, ideas, and skills
• Relentless in our pursuit of excellence and innovation, always pushing the boundaries and challenging the status quo. But it is not all work for us - we also believe in celebrating our successes, recognising individual contributions, and taking time to support each other's growth and development
• At our core, explorers, constantly learning, evolving, and seeking new ways to deliver impactful solutions. We are not afraid to dream big, take risks, and step out of our comfort zones because we know that together, we can achieve great things

Compensation To help us attract and retain top talent, NatCarbon Africa pays employees competitively to the market, depending on experience. Salary is one component of NatCarbon Africa's total compensation package which also includes health care and life insurance, contributions to each employee's retirement plan, paid time off and funds to support professional development. We will recognise employees who go beyond expected performance with salary increases and/or promotions.

In return, we expect each employee to, at a minimum:

• Meet expectations in terms of work effort and performance.
• Take the initiative to build the skills and knowledge needed to do their job effectively; and
• Embody the values of NatCarbon Africa.

How to Apply To apply, please send us the following:

• Cover letter (not to exceed one page).
• Resume/CV (not to exceed three pages).

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