Ocean Networks Canada
Job Summary
Ocean Networks Canada is a world-leading organization supporting ocean research and discovery, and ocean observing technology innovation. ONC is a not-for-profit society that operates and manages cabled observatories in the coastal and deep Pacific and Arctic Oceans on behalf of the University of Victoria that supply continuous power and Internet connectivity to various scientific instruments located in coastal, deep-ocean, and Arctic environments. ONC's cable arrays host hundreds of sensors distributed in, on and above the seabed along with mobile and land based assets strategically located, instruments that address key scientific and policy issues (subsea earthquakes and tsunamis, ocean acidification, marine biodiversity, etc.) within a wide range of environments.
The core ONC user base is composed of scientists accessing the facility and data archives to conduct world-leading research. The ONC Science Services department provides a wide range of services to assist in the planning, execution, and completion of marine research, with the primary outcome being world leading scientific publications.
Within the Science Services department, itself a part of the User Engagement Division, Junior Staff Scientists contribute to the execution of science-based services as articulated in the Strategic Plan of ONC, in which serving the research users and providing scientific solutions to stakeholders are core mandates. The Junior Staff Scientist, Benthic and Pelagic Biodiversity with focus on image analysis works with and reports to Senior Staff Scientists to facilitate research support activities for ONC users and stakeholders, particularly focusing on their respective area of competency. In conjunction with staff from the ONC Data Team, the Junior Staff Scientists are responsible for validating data quality through managing sample collection and analysis. They are also responsible for ensuring users receive the data necessary to support their research objectives. In this capacity, they may also be responsible for collecting and transferring field samples to external science users. Under the direction of the Staff Scientists, they assist with multivariate earth-ocean data analysis.
The Junior Staff Scientist also works with Data Team members to assemble and publish observatory data sets. Junior Staff Scientist assists in the planning and execution of annual maintenance expeditions and other field-based activities as they relate to instrument preparation, data integrity, and sample collection. Together with the other members of Science Services, they also support workshops, conference presence and other user engagement activities as required.
The Junior Scientist assists the Senior Scientist in identifying signals in the suite of long-term oceanographic time-series as possible breakthrough discoveries, as well as to help external scientists already engaged in a particular research question or project. The Junior Scientist assists with quality control, analyze and package datasets specific to research projects led by external principal investigators, the Senior Scientists, undergraduate and/or graduate students. The Junior Scientist assists the Senior Scientist in disseminating research results by attending and presenting at international conferences, in the co-writing of scientific manuscripts for peer review, and in the co-organization of workshops.
Job Requirements
The successful applicant will have a minimum of a Masters (M.Sc.) degree (PhD desirable) in Marine Sciences with emphasis on marine biodiversity of either benthic and/or pelagic ecosystems with at least 2 years of experience with the acquisition, analysis and interpretation of high-throughput marine imaging data.. An equivalent combination of education, training, and work experience may be considered where appropriate.
Essential qualifications include:
- Oceanographic expedition experience, including collecting, processing, and analyzing samples at sea
- Significant work experience using advanced programming environments (e.g. MATLAB, R, Python, or IDL) to analyze and integrate multi-dimensional, multi-variate data
- Significant work experience in data visualization and the presentation of data analysis
- Experience in producing accurate scientific communications, including peer-reviewed publications, conference abstracts and presentations, and summaries for broader audiences
In addition, the following attributes and experience are highly desirable:
- Experience with the optical constraints of marine imagery
- Ability to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of various types of imaging systems (e.g., mono and stereo-video, still photography, laser-scanning, baited systems, photogrammetry, video, etc.);
- Experience with deployed either autonomously on moorings or lander configurations, attached to underwater autonomous and remotely operated systems, or connected directly to the cabled observatory networks.
- Experience with modeling and computer simulation
- Experience with web content management and web-based interactive collaboration environments
- Experience with web-based data access technologies
- Experience in organizing, running, and summarizing scientific workshops
- Experience in preparing regular briefings and status reports
- A sound reputation in the marine science community, either locally or nationally combined with data related marine science publications either as the lead or with a co-author.
- Expertise in video and still image pre- and post-processing, high-throughput image data analysis with knowledge of the most used programming languages such as Matlab, R, and Python, and experience with image annotation software.
- Familiarity with computer vision and machine learning techniques for the automatic identification and classification of target marine species or assemblages.
- Familiarity with a range of the most conspicuous faunal groups occurring in the marine benthos and meso- and bathypelagic environments.
Assets include:
- Excellent analytical, critical thinking and problem solving skills
- Superior communication skills, both written and verbal
- Ability to build and maintain productive working relationships with all stakeholders
- Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment
- Proven track record achieving project goals on time and produce deliverables of a high quality
To Apply:
Submit your resume and cover letter to https://uvic.mua.hrdepartment.com/hr/ats/Posting/view/7622
Persons with disabilities who anticipate needing accommodations for any part of the application and hiring process may contact: uviccareers@uvic.ca. Any personal information provided will be maintained in confidence.