Remote Sensing Manager

Company Description:

Aistech Space is focused on generating affordable, recurrent, high resolution thermal imagery of the planet to provide a new perspective of Earth's changing resources. The company is based in Barcelona and aims to revolutionize remote sensing for environmental monitoring and resource management.

What you will do:

Aistech Space is looking for
Remote Sensing Manager
to lead and coordinate a multidisciplinary team of remote sensing specialists, ensuring the development and delivery of high-quality Earth Observation products, from VNIR to the company focus on Thermal Infrared (TIR) data.

Your leadership will be pivotal in aligning technical capabilities with business objectives, fostering innovation, and maintaining high-quality standards in our remote sensing operations.

The main tasks are focussed on:

• Understand Aistech Space mission objectives and technology.
• Work together with the Space and Ground Infrastructure team, SW Infrastructure team and the ENABLER Payload team to define, plan and implement remote sensing SW tools, algorithms and high-quality imaging data products for our client base.
• Lead the L1 processing chain development for the VNIR and TIR bands for our ENABLER imager.
• Lead the implementation of a new L2 processing chain for our TIR bands of ENABLER imager.
• Collaborate with the SW team to perfect the KPIs of our on-ground radiometric processor for our calibration campaigns of the ENABLER instrument.
• Use your experience to process VIS, NIR and TIR data from other remote sensing platforms, identifying new use cases for Aistech.
• Lead the development of an end-to-end system simulator of our imaging sensors.
• Lead the in-orbit calibration campaigns of the ENABLER v1.1 (launching in October 2025) using ground calibrated sites (for VNIR and TIR).
• Lead the on-ground calibration campaigns of the successive ENABLER payloads to be launch in 2026.
• Identify processes that can be automated or improved and work closely with the SW manager for its implementation.
• Work closely with the Business Development team to validate client's imaging products requirements against our imaging data products.
• Contribute to competitive EU, ESA, AEE, CDTI proposals, including development of specific tasks for the remote sensing department.

The key skills required for this position are:

• Team Leadership:
  Manage and mentor a multidisciplinary team, including roles such as Remote Sensing Scientists, Engineers and Business Developers, overseeing task allocation, performance evaluations, and professional development.
• Strategic Planning:
  Develop and implement strategies for the acquisition, processing, and analysis of remote sensing data, ensuring alignment with company goals and client needs.
• Project Management:
  Oversee remote sensing projects from conception to completion, ensuring timely delivery, budget adherence, and quality assurance.
• Technical Oversight:
  Provide expertise in remote sensing methodologies, including data calibration, atmospheric correction, radiative transfer models and image processing techniques across various spectral bands (VIS, NIR, TIR).
• Collaboration:
  Work closely with cross-functional teams, including Business Development, Satellite Operations, and Space/Ground Infrastructure, to integrate remote sensing insights into broader company initiatives.
• Innovation:
  Stay abreast of emerging technologies and methodologies in remote sensing, recommending and implementing advancements to enhance capabilities.
• Stakeholder Engagement:
  Communicate complex remote sensing concepts and findings to internal stakeholders and clients, facilitating informed decision-making.

In general, other aspects to be considered into the global objectives of the position are:

• Actively engage in the development of documentation to build out the company procedures and specification manuals.
• Write articles regarding different areas of interest to be published in our Aistech News magazine and on our website blog.
• Participate in our team building activities.

Who you are:

Must:

• BsC or MsC in Physics, Atmospheric Sciences, Mathematics, Remote Sensing, Geoinformatics, Earth Sciences, or a related field. Ph.D. will be advantageous.
• Open minded Remote Sensing Manager / Developer with 3 -5 years' experience in remote sensing roles, with at least 2 years in a managerial or leadership position.
• Experience in working with remote sensing data in the thermal infrared region (e.g. Landsat, Aster, Sentinel-3, MODIS,...).
• Experience about radiative transfer of radiation, and models such as MODTRAN, 6S, etc.
• Experience in remote sensing software (e.g., ENVI, ERDAS Imagine) and GIS tools (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS).
• Experience in the realms of data science, software engineering, and geospatial data analytics with strong programming skills in languages such as Python or R for data analysis and processing.
• Experience in integrating state-of-the-art scientific advancements into groundbreaking data products.
• Knowledge of data structures to accommodate both vector and raster geospatial datasets into ingestion pipelines for a geospatial platform.
• Knowledge of APIs for data acquisition and data dissemination (FastAPI,…)
• Experience with relational and NoSQL database technologies (PostGIS, QGIS, ArcGIS, STAC, STAPI, Xarray, GeoPandas, pyproj, GDAL, Zarr, NetCDF, …)
• Excellent leadership and team management abilities.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, in English; proficiency in Spanish or Catalan is beneficial.
• Ability to work collaboratively in a multidisciplinary and multicultural environment.

Nice to have:

• Experience with at least one Remote Sensing thermal data use case (for example wildfires, precision agriculture, etc…).
• Professional experience in customer success, technical support or a related field.
• Knowledge of Agile methodologies.

What You'll Gain by Joining Us

Be part of a passionate, collaborative, and respectful team.

Enjoy a stable, permanent contract with a fast-growing company.

Flexible working hours and hybrid work: 5 days/month from home.

Competitive salary and flexible retribution through Cobee.

Free access to paddle tennis courts and an on-site gym.

Daily fresh fruit and coffee to keep you energized.

Work in an international, diverse environment.

23 vacation days, plus December 24 & 31 off.