Job Specification: Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa) is seeking an Earth Observation Data Scientist to support its science team.
Location: Johannesburg-based or Remote
Reports to: Science lead
Contract Type: 9 months full-time contract
Position Overview
DE Africa, hosted by the Research Institute for Innovation and Sustainability (RIIS), seeks a skilled and capable Africa-based data scientist with experience managing spatial datasets in cloud computing environments. The successful candidate will use their skills to prototype new continental-scale data products and develop workflows for cloud processing of spatial data. They will be responsible for writing annotated scripts (Jupyter Notebooks) and developing workflows for large-scale processing of spatial data. Key Responsibilities The Data Scientist will work with the science and platform teams and will be responsible for:
• Assisting a team of scientists to prototype a novel water quality data product by up-scaling workflows for larger amounts of data on cloud infrastructure (AWS, Google etc.).
• Developing methods of accessing, analysing, and fusing Digital Earth Africa data with other datasets in a range of cloud environments such as Google Colab and AWS SageMaker.
• Writing and developing protocols for the use of Digital Earth Africa data at scale, e.g. HTML, markdown in Jupyter Notebooks, and standard operating procedures.
Essential Requirements
• 2+ years of experience working with spatial data in Python.
• Experience working with spatial data on cloud as implemented through AWS and/or Google Cloud.
• Knowledge of satellite-based Earth Observation/remote sensing principles.
• Knowledge and experience with common markup languages such as YAML, HTML, JSON and Markdown. Desirable Requirements
• Experience using GitHub and GitOps.
• Knowledge of spatial data storage and metadata management, such as SpatioTemporal Asset Catalogs (STAC) and the Open Data Cube. Contract Terms
1 July 2025 – 31 March 2026
Working Conditions
• Hybrid working with the main office in Rosebank, South Africa.
• Generally, the team works remotely.
• Ideally, available for in-person engagements in Rosebank as and when required.
• Occasional travel may be required within and outside South Africa.
Application Process
Should you be interested in this post and meet the above requirements, please send your detailed CV, cover letter and references to hiring@riis.africa with the subject line Application: DE Africa Earth Observation Scientist.
Closing date: 6 June 2025 COB (SAST)