Senior Scientist in Ocean Colour Research

Job Summary

The fields of Ocean Colour and associated Ocean Carbon, Human Health and Biodiversity research are areas of PML’s strength with world class leadership and reputation as evidenced, inter alia, by leadership in Europe of the European Space Agency (ESA) Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC CCI), ESA Satellite-based observations of Carbon in the Ocean: Pools, Fluxes and Exchanges (SCOPE) and involvement in the second Simons Collaboration on Computational Biogeochemical Modeling of Marine Ecosystems (CBIOMES-2) that brings together international scientists. All of these projects are underpinned by the ESA OC-CCI time series products.

This post will be at PML Senior Scientist level and will involve leading development, and supervising generation, of the ocean colour time series products in support of the ESA CCI and the European Copernicus programmes. It will entail innovative research into new sensors and their characteristics with respect to climate quality, methods for inter-sensor bias correction, merging and uncertainty characterisation.

The post-holder will also undertake research utilising the ocean colour ECV in relation to climate indicators, regional drivers and impacts. The post-holder initially will report to the current Principal Investigator  of OC CCI but with the expectation of taking over leadership of the project once the incumbent has grown into the role.

We will consider candidates who have many of the required skill sets, even if it is not the full set, in the expectation that the successful candidate would be able to acquire the additional skills required, over time. Outstanding candidates at fresh post-doctoral level would also be considered.

• Reporting to: Ocean Colour CCI Principal Investigator
• Reporting on: Ocean colour research software engineer

Key Deliverables

• Lead research into development of multi-sensor, merged, long-term time series of ocean-colour data records as an essential climate variable (ECV); working with a research software engineer for data production and the project principal investigator, Prof Shubha Sathyendranath
• Carry out research on utilisation of the ocean-colour ECV in studies of the ocean carbon cycle

Skills Specification

• PhD in oceanographic Earth Observation or ocean optics, allied fields or with equivalent experience and post-doctoral experience ideally in the field of ocean colour.
• A track record of high-quality peer review publications, including contributions at an international level contributing to new knowledge, ideas or techniques likely to have long lasting influence
• A track record in writing successful research proposals

Desirable qualities

• Candidates should be versatile, innovative, dynamic, self-motivated, willing and eager to learn new science, and comfortable with computer coding and dealing with big data
• Good inter-personal skills, ability to engage with people from different cultural backgrounds, and willingness to travel to meetings, and work.

Applicant Information

Interviews for this position will be held in October 2024 (date to be confirmed)

You can find out more about working at PML here and view our company benefits here.

For more information about living and working in Plymouth please click here.

If you require a visa to work in the UK please click here to find out more.

Please note that this position is a Hybrid role that will require at least 50% of the jobholder’s time to be spent in our Lab. We are not able to support fully remote working for this role.

If you have any questions about this position please email careers@pml.ac.uk.