Intern, Graduate - Remote Sensing

USRA and the Science and Technology Institute is seeking a part-time graduate intern. The intern will innovate and produce satellite remote sensing–derived products, including analyzing, displaying, and distributing geospatial and non-geospatial information related to Biodiversity and Ecological Conservation Program within NASA Earth Action. Working under the guidance of the MSFC lead scientist (mentor), the intern will contribute to various projects related to NASA's Biological Diversity and Ecological Conservation (BDEC) programs.

The individual will participate in all stages of application development, collecting user requirements, designing solutions, documenting designs, writing code, testing, creating documentation, training, and maintaining systems. The role involves scientific and applied research activities related to product development, scripting, and analysis of optical, thermal, and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) remote sensing data. Experience with Python, working with Earth Observation data, and a strong understanding of remote sensing concepts are strongly desired.

The ideal candidate will be able to understand user requirements and translate them into functional and non-functional specifications, with an eagerness for continuous learning of the underlying technologies in this area. The applications developed or co-developed in this role have the potential to strengthen resilience and improve environmental management.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities: 

• Work under the guidance of the MSFC lead scientist to implement data processing workflows, translate user requirements to data products, and understand science requirements for model implementation, data processing, and development of satellite-derived products. 
• Collaborate with stakeholders/end users, scientists, systems engineers, and others to design and plan the development of research applications, automation scripts, and/or implementation of existing science methodologies to create satellite-derived products that meet user requirements. 
• Document the processing scripts, components, and make workflows and code available in public repositories like GitHub. 
• Collaborate with researchers and other team members from NASA, UAH, and/or USRA who are contributing to project implementation.  
• Test and debug applications developed by his/herself as well as by other developers in the Project as needed. 

Occasional Duties: 

• Train users to use the tools, scripts, and/or applications being developed.
• Prepare technical presentations and contribute to scientific and technical papers.
• Organize and coordinate joint activities with counterparts in the NASA BDEC network. 
• Perform other duties as assigned. 

Required Qualifications: 

Education:   

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Environmental or Physical Sciences, or equivalent training/experience. 

 Required Experience: 

• Structured workflows for geospatial data products.
• Optical, thermal remote sensing, and Synthetic Aperture Radar data, different data and image formats

Desired Experience: 

• Remote sensing, Earth observation, and satellite data analysis, 
• Land surface modeling, environmental monitoring. 
• Python, R, and JavaScript programming, and GIS
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) 
• Web mapping technology 
• Geospatial data processing/data management 
• Machine learning/artificial intelligence, and knowledge of AWS/cloud.
• Math, statistical & scientific data processing automation (using libraries, packages, or tools such as 
• SciPy, NumPy, ArcPy, gdal, R, Math.NET, MatLab, etc.) 
• Raster data, including processing of temporal datasets.
• Functional understanding of cloud technologies. 
• Linux and Windows operating systems. 

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:   

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. 
• Willingness to work closely with others in a team environment. 
• Discipline and initiative. 
• Planning/organization

Technology: Proficiency in Microsoft Office and its applications.    

Location: This position is eligible for remote work. 

Travel: No travel is expected for this position.