Earth Observation Scientist - Coal Mine Methane

Ember is recruiting an expert in satellite data to work in our team of analysts working on coal mine methane (CMM). This crucial role includes obtaining and curating satellite data on methane emissions, understanding its limitations, analysing data, and writing reports that highlight the findings and the implications for real-world monitoring and reduction of CMM emissions. 

Ember’s methane team is unique in that we work specifically on emissions from coal mining - a source of methane emissions as important as gas or oil, but which is neglected by comparison in the scientific, advocacy and political worlds. Our mission is to understand the scale of the problem, highlight its importance, and move governments and industry towards better monitoring and abatement.

As our satellite analyst you will play a critical role in generating analysis and reports that highlight the scale of the problem. Working with our regional analysts based in countries such as India, Indonesia and Australia, you will generate some of the accurate and compelling data that is necessary to underpin effective advocacy and drive progress

Key responsibilities

• Use open and commercial satellite data products to generate insights into methane emissions from coal mines.
• Produce detailed reports, media- and social media-ready content to raise awareness and profile of coal mine methane.
• Help develop interactive dashboards that combine satellite and global methane datasets to support wider sharing of information and findings.
• Stay up to date with the latest scientific literature on methane, identifying useful datasets and extracting key messages from publications that can support and inform Ember’s research
• Establish and nurture networks with NGOs, academia, and the remote sensing community to inform Ember’s work and encourage engagement on coal mine methane.
• Represent Ember at academic conferences and events, planting the seeds for two-way engagement: identifying valuable data from researchers while also encouraging future research directions aligned with Ember’s priorities

Requirements

Must have

• Experience working with satellite remote sensing and geospatial data, particularly in relation to GHG emissions
• A background in the physical sciences
• Proficiency in handling geospatial file formats (e.g. raster, shapefile, netCDF) using a programming language (preferably Python using geospatial libraries like GeoPandas, Rasterio, Shapely, PyProj)
• Experience with version control (GitHub) and geospatial data visualisation (e.g. QGIS, ArcGIS, Python)
• Strong written communication skills, with the ability to craft clear, accurate reports for non-academic audiences
• Self-motivated and curious, with the ability to work independently in a globally distributed, multidisciplinary team (including policy analysts, journalists, and scientists)
• Skilled at communicating complex ideas to audiences with varying levels of expertise
• Ability to pivot between detailed technical work and public-facing outputs 
• A passion for tackling climate change
• Proficiency in written and spoken English
  

Nice to have

• Familiarity with specific methane sensors (e.g. TROPOMI, GHGSat, EMIT) and how they function
• PhD or MSc in climate science, atmospheric science, or remote sensing
• Experience using Google Earth Engine to extract and process satellite data
• Knowledge of gridded methane inventories (e.g. EDGAR, GFEI)
• Project management experience
• An established network in the satellite observation community, incorporating both academia or industry
• Language skills for countries where CMM is a major issue

Benefits

Salary: £33,907 - £54,251, dependent on experience and on local cost-of-living. Salaries are adjusted depending on local cost-of-living, which will be shared with interview invitations..  Salaries may be adjusted depending on a location cost of living formula, but will not be below 75% of advertised figure.

Contract: Full time (but only working 9 days every fortnight with no reduction in pay), permanent subject to a 3 month probationary period.  For employees based outside of the UK, a local payroll contract is available, dependent on the country.

Remote culture and diverse team:Ember is a remote-first organisation, with talents of diverse backgrounds from 15+ countries over the world.

Further benefits:We offer a competitive benefits package, including:

• We operate a nine-day fortnight meaning our full-time staff are given every other Friday off work with no reduction in pay
• A minimum of 25 days holiday, plus public holidays and Christmas week-off
• For each year that you're part of the team at Ember you'll receive an additional day of holiday, up to a maximum of 5 additional days.  
• Generous paid maternity and paternity leave
• Flexible working conditions, including the opportunity for part-time work and home working.
• Access to a local working space can be arranged
• In-person meet-ups (on average 2 meet-ups per year)
• Allowance for home office equipment
• Free annual eye tests
• Access to a counselling service
• Funding and allocated time for your training and development
• Paid volunteer day
• Four paid days off to enable low carbon travel
• Time off to donate blood

About Ember

Ember is an independent, not-for-profit energy think tank that aims to accelerate the clean energy transition with data and policy. We gather, curate and analyse data on the power sector and coal mine methane emissions, and use our findings to improve energy and climate policy.

See our work athttps://ember-energy.org/andhttps://x.com/ember_energy