Senior Geospatial Data Scientist
Job description
A consultant data scientist role supporting Meridia's first-mile intelligence work, building models and datasets for production area assessment and supply shed analysis across commodities and origin countries. It is an independent consultancy assignment, initially 3 months at 2-3 days per week, fully remote.
At a glance
- Employment
- Contract · Independent contractor
- Work mode
- Remote
- Languages
- English – full professional proficiency
What you'll do
- Develop accurate, high-quality models and datasets for production area assessment and sourcing area (supply shed) analysis across multiple commodities and origin countries
- Leverage Meridia's in-situ farm plot datasets to train and validate models
- Adapt existing machine learning models to local agricultural contexts to improve prediction accuracy
- Create scalable and reproducible methodologies that work across different geographies and commodities
- Deliver a methodology and codebase: an organised folder with all source files
- Deliver full documentation including operating workflow, methodology, sources (including retrieval and licensing details)
What we're looking for
- Advanced degree (MSc or PhD) in Remote Sensing, Geospatial Science, Computer Science, or related field
- 10+ years of practical experience in applying statistical and earth observation techniques to agricultural applications
- Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in geospatial analysis and machine learning (Python, R, Google Earth Engine)
- Knowledge of agricultural systems and supply chains in tropical and subtropical regions
- Experience with modelling approaches relevant to supply chain analysis, such as optimisation, spatial allocation, entity matching or network analysis across heterogeneous datasets
- Strong geospatial data engineering skills: spatial databases (e.g. PostGIS), GDAL/geopandas or equivalent, and handling of large raster and vector datasets
- Experience building reproducible, version-controlled analytical pipelines (Git; containerisation such as Docker is a plus)
- Proven ability to document methodologies rigorously, including data provenance, assumptions, limitations and licensing
- Ability to work independently in a remote setting, with strong communication skills and full professional proficiency in English
Nice to have
- Familiarity with agri-commodity sectors (e.g. palm oil, soy, rubber, cocoa, coffee) and their data landscape, including production statistics, mill or processor lists, and sourcing structures with producers and intermediaries
- Familiarity with (agricultural) supply chain transparency and traceability approaches, logistics, procurement and certification
- Working knowledge of relevant frameworks (EUDR, DCF/NDPE, certification schemes) and how production area and sourcing area information supports risk assessment under them
- Experience validating models against ground-truth or in-situ field data, and quantifying and communicating uncertainty
- Experience working with production statistics and yield data in data-scarce environments
- Track record of peer-reviewed publications or public technical documentation in a related domain
- Prior experience in Southeast Asia and/or Latin America
Benefits
Work on a data lake covering 20%+ of the world's agricultural land, alongside a team of 70+ agriculture, data and tech experts
- Initial 3-month engagement, with possible extension depending on progress and mutual fit
- 2-3 days per week
- Fully remote
- Software subscriptions provided by Meridia where applicable
- Monthly invoicing against agreed milestones and deliverables
- Direct impact on EUDR, DCF and Scope 3 compliance work
Apply
About Meridia Land
Meridia is an agtech company built around the first mile: the plots, farmers and aggregation points at the origin of every agriculture supply chain. Its first mile intelligence combines what field teams see on the ground and what satellites see from above, in the context of local law, foreign regulation and international frameworks. It rests on over a decade of field experience, a data lake covering 20%+ of the world's agricultural land, a network of origin experts across the global South and a team of 70+ agriculture, data and tech experts.
Key facts
- 70+
- agtech
- Data lake covering 20%+ of the world's agricultural land
- Over a decade of field experience
- Network of origin experts across the global South
- Team of 70+ agriculture, data and tech experts
- Meridia Verify® checks supply chain field data against regulatory and voluntary sustainability frameworks
- Meridia Illuminate® supports secure sourcing decisions and resilient supply chains