Senior Geospatial Systems Specialist

About The Opportunity

FADA is seeking a visionary and highly skilled Senior Geospatial Intelligence Specialist to lead the development, integration, and delivery of a next-generation geospatial imagery and intelligence platform. This pivotal role spans from translating mission priorities into concrete system behaviors to shaping how the platform is engineered, deployed, and evolved over time.

This hands-on role combines deep domain expertise in satellite imagery and GEOINT workflows with strong technical skills to develop and implement scalable geospatial systems that support operational tasking, data integration, and mission-oriented workflows. The ideal candidate will work across satellite data ingestion, tasking workflows, visualization layers, and analytics integration, turning complex operational needs into technical solutions that directly serve mission-critical users.

This is an unparalleled opportunity to contribute to a globally recognized leader in advanced technology, shaping the future of geospatial intelligence. The Geospatial Intelligence Specialist will report to the Director of Space Data Intelligence.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain core components of FADA’s geospatial imagery and intelligence platform, including imagery ingestion, cataloging, tasking workflows, and mission-specific visualization tools.
• Contribute hands-on to the platforms architecture, ensuring modularity, scalability, and maintainability in alignment with cloud-native and microservice design principles.
• Translate operational and mission needs into technical requirements, defining and prioritizing platform capabilities in line with product milestones.
• Lead and implement system integration and interoperability, connecting with satellite providers, ground segments, ISR systems, GIS platforms, and external data feeds.
• Define and implement ingestion and data fusion strategies for EO/SAR and other geospatial sources, ensuring high-quality metadata and analytics readiness.
• Help define the UX architecture strategy to ensure an intuitive, responsive, and mission-aligned interface.
• alidate platform behavior across demo, MVP, and operational environments, helping refine features, resolve integration issues, and improve performance.
• Provide hands-on guidance and architectural leadership to the technical team, ensuring best practices in secure coding, version control, and CI/CD processes.
• Establish technical standards, documentation protocols, and architecture review practices to ensure technical consistency and system ownership.
• Collaborate with data scientists to integrate advanced analytics and AI/ML modules (e.g., computer vision) into user workflows and develop scalable solutions for multi-source analysis.
  
  

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Geospatial Science, Remote Sensing, Computer Science, Aerospace Engineering, or a closely related technical field.
• 8+ years of progressive experience in geospatial intelligence (GEOINT) platforms, GIS, or space-based intelligence applications, with a strong focus on imagery systems and data integration.
• Deep hands-on experience in developing and maintaining geospatial software, including data ingestion, cataloging, tasking, and visualization tools.
• Strong understanding of GEOINT workflows, satellite imagery interpretation, and geospatial platforms within defense, intelligence, or space organizations.
• Strong understanding of modern software architectural patterns (e.g., microservices, event-driven architectures) and cloud-native principles.
• Familiarity with geospatial data standards (e.g., STAC, OGC), imagery formats, and geospatial databases.
• Proficiency in Python, JavaScript, or similar languages for geospatial development.
  
  

• Expertise in designing and implementing scalable frontend and backend architectures for geospatial applications (e.g., WebGL map renderers, distributed microservices).
• Proficiency in Python for image processing, geospatial libraries, APIs, and microservices.
• Strong experience using ML/deep learning frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow) for imagery analysis (e.g., object detection, change detection, time-series).
• Proven ability to build/maintain robust data pipelines for ingesting, transforming, and indexing large multi-source geospatial data.
• Experience fusing diverse EO/geospatial data (climate, terrain, in-situ sensor data) for enhanced multi-source intelligence.
• Expertise in GIS software (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS) and remote sensing.
• Experience analyzing space-based remote sensing data (optical, SAR, multispectral, hyperspectral imagery).
• Experience with ortho-rectification, atmospheric correction, DEMs, and georeferencing.
• Direct experience with satellite-based ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance), satellite tasking, and data acquisition/mission execution.
• Deep understanding and practical experience optimizing geospatial data processing pipelines for performance/scalability (e.g., GPU acceleration, parallel processing, data indexing).
• Practical experience/familiarity with major cloud-based EO platforms (Google Earth Engine, SentinelHub, OpenEO).
• Experience with cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP) for geospatial workloads.
• Good understanding of defense and intelligence operational workflows, strategic mission planning, and C2 systems.
• Familiarity with defense cybersecurity protocols, data handling regulations, and secure system design.
• Experience with data quality control, governance, and metadata management for geospatial assets.
• Proven ability to establish rigorous technical standards, best practices, and architecture review processes for team-wide quality and maintainability.