Vacant job

Department of Forest Resource Management

We are looking for a motivated Research Engineer with expertise in remote sensing, geospatial analysis, and scientific programming to support research on forest vulnerability under climate change. The position offers the opportunity to work with advanced earth observation data, reproducible analysis workflows, and interdisciplinary research that contributes to both scientific publications and applied assessments of forest risks.

About the Job

Forests in Sweden are increasingly exposed to interacting forest pests and climate-related stresses, including bark beetle attacks, drought, heatwaves, and spring frost. This project aims to develop and validate a spatio-temporal, phenologically adjusted risk framework to identify where and when spruce forests are most vulnerable to bark beetle attacks under changing climate conditions. As a Research Engineer, you will support the project by processing remote sensing data, conducting geospatial analysis, developing reproducible workflows, and producing map products. The work will include time-series analysis of satellite data for phenological mapping, integration of climate and environmental layers, validation with field, phenocamera, and UAV/hyperspectral observations, and the creation of data products that can support scientific publications and stakeholder-oriented risk mapping. The position suits a technically skilled person who wants to work at the intersection of forest remote sensing, forest damage risk assessment, and applied environmental data science.

As a Research Engineer, your main responsibilities will include:

• Processing, quality control, and organization of large geospatial and remote sensing datasets, including satellite time series, climate data, forest stand information, topography, soil, and validation data.
• Supporting the development of phenological layers for spruce, including indicators for season start and bud burst period, using Sentinel-2, MODIS, and/or other relevant earth observation datasets.
• Implementing and documenting reproducible workflows for raster/vector processing, time-series analysis, breakpoint detection, map validation, and uncertainty assessment.
• Assisting in the integration of phenological layers with bark beetle flight windows, drought and microclimate variables, and forest structure data.
• Contributing to scientific publications by developing analyses, figures, tables, method descriptions, and manuscript text.
• Contributing to project documentation, data management, code repositories, and communication materials in English.

Your Background

The applicant must have:

• A master's degree or equivalent competence in remote sensing, GIS/geoinformatics, physical geography, computer science, computer engineering, statistics, or another field relevant to the position.
• Documented experience in processing and analyzing satellite data at national to global scales.
• Strong programming skills for scientific or geospatial analysis, preferably in Python and/or R.
• Experience with GIS and processing of raster/vector data, for example using QGIS, ArcGIS, Google Earth Engine, GDAL, rasterio, xarray, geopandas, or comparable tools.
• Ability to work systematically with large datasets, metadata, version-controlled code, and reproducible workflows.
• Good written and oral communication skills in English.
• Ability to work independently, solve technical problems, document work clearly, and collaborate effectively in an interdisciplinary research environment.
• Documented scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals relevant to the position.

The following qualifications will be considered merits:

• Experience with time-series analysis of satellite data for forest dynamics, vegetation index curves, phenological metrics, leaf area index calculation, season start detection, or breakpoint and curve fitting methods.
• Experience applying remote sensing to monitor forest damage, such as bark beetle damage, drought, and forest health assessment.
• Experience using high-performance data processing, cloud-based processing, containerized workflows, Git/GitHub/GitLab, workflow managers, or open reproducible research methods.
• A strong publication record in peer-reviewed international journals, preferably in remote sensing.

About Us

The Department of Forest Resource Management conducts education and research in the areas of forest remote sensing, forest inventory and sampling, forest planning, forest mathematical statistics, and landscape studies. The department is also responsible for implementing the ongoing environmental analysis programs Riksskogstaxeringen (National Forest Inventory) and National Inventories of the Landscape in Sweden, which include inventories on coastal shores, in the mountains, in grasslands and deciduous forests, as well as butterflies and bumblebees. In our operations, research and environmental analysis are combined in cross-disciplinary projects, providing unique opportunities to develop holistic concepts for the sustainable use of natural resources. In total, we have approximately 120 employees and, during the summer half-year, an additional 90 seasonal employees in our field inventories.

More information can be found at http://www.slu.se/srh (http://www.slu.se/srh).

Read more about our benefits and what it is like to work at SLU at https://www.slu.se/om-slu/jobba-pa-slu/ (https://www.slu.se/om-slu/jobba-pa-slu/)

Location:

Umeå

Employment Type:

Fixed-term employment for 12 months

Scope:

100%

Start Date:

As agreed.

Application:

We welcome your application via the button below by 2026-07-15.

The application must include the following documents in English:

• A CV including contact details for three reference persons.
• A statement of your scientific interests, experiences, and motivation for the position.
• A copy of your degree certificate.

Union Representatives:

https://internt.slu.se/min-anstallning/facket/kontaktpersoner/ (https://internt.slu.se/min-anstallning/facket/kontaktpersoner/)