Junior Research Assistant × 2

You would work on the Blue-BII pipeline: satellite and LiDAR processing on the carbon side, or underwater video and computer vision on the biodiversity side. We will shape the split around your strengths, and you will be expected to develop across both over the year.

What the work involves

• Processing Sentinel-2 and NASA GEDI data into carbon stock estimates for mangrove sites
• Annotating and analysing underwater stereo-video with computer vision models
• Fieldwork at Mwache Creek, Mombasa, and other Kenyan coastal sites
• Writing reproducible analysis code, and contributing to the papers that come out of it

What we look for

• A degree in geospatial science, geomatics, environmental science, computer science, or something adjacent
• Working Python. You do not need to be an expert — you need to be able to read code, break things, and fix them
• Familiarity with GIS or remote sensing tools (QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine) is a strong advantage
• Genuine interest in coastal ecosystems. This is field-adjacent work, not purely desk-based

We particularly encourage applications from candidates who would not normally see themselves in a research group. If you meet most of the above and are unsure about the rest, apply anyway and say so.

How to apply

Send a CV and a short statement — half a page is plenty — explaining what draws you to this work and what you would want to learn. Email it to apply@sieal.org, with your name in the subject line.

Postgraduate students

If you are applying for an MSc or PhD in the Department of Geomatic Engineering and Geospatial Information Systems at JKUAT and want to work on blue carbon, marine biodiversity or GeoAI, get in touch before you apply. Admission runs through the department, but it helps considerably if we have spoken about a project first.

Collaborations and internships

We work with conservation organisations, carbon project developers, and researchers across the Western Indian Ocean. If you have a coastal site that needs measuring, or a dataset that needs a pipeline, contact us.

There is no standing internship scheme, but we do take on short student projects when they fit the current work. Write with something specific in mind rather than a general enquiry.