GeoAI developer

Position Title: Consultant – GeoAI developer

Client: Agency of the United Nations

Duty Station: Rome (offsite)

Rate: Based on Experience

Period of Assignment: 60 days, December-April 2026 (possible extensions)

Organizational context

An important element of the Agency’s work is the provision of updated information systems that enable operational activities. In this context, a key component is the enrichment of information platforms on using consolidated corporate data, including the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and related datasets to visualize the spatial context of the Agency interventions and understand and monitor landscape use for effective project design. The Agency has setup an Enterprise GIS system, using open source tools (MerginMaps, QGIS, PostGRE/GIS, Geoserver, Geonode, OpenLayers, Leaflet, etc.). The GIS system has custom integration with PowerBI (custom widgets) and it is harvesting a number of external data. The system has scaled up with a number of additional applications around the core infrastructure, which needs support, updates and enhancements.

The specific goal of this project is the development of a GeoAI Python Unit as part of robust infrastructure, leveraging the existing gesopatial infrastructure, embeding additional very-high resolution imagery, adding STAC components for high-resolution imagery, and API based integration with other Agency systems, leveraging Foundational models/LLM and/or classical and novel GeoAI models (e.g. geospatial reasoning, segment anything in remote sensing application). 

A GeoAI developer with hands-on experience in open source GIS tech stack, GeoAI models and remote sensing expertise is needed to assist in with the development and scale of comprehensive GeoAI framework in the Agency, which will be based on established pipeline for field data collection, external ML data quality assurance and verification, very-high resolution imagery validation and depending on final use cases options for AI feature extraction, image classification & segmentation, change detection over time.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Under the supervision of the ICT Solutions Coordinator and members of ICT-GIS team, the Consultant will support ICT in the following tasks:
• Familiarize with the current GIS infrastructure, familiarize with the structure of the project specific database (both raster and vector). Familiarize with the current AI infrastrucuture and main building blocks.
• Familiarize with the overall project requirements and particular tasks for GeoAI requirements.
• Assist and advise in the selection of final technological stack for system setup.
• Assist and advise DevOps team on the setup of staging and production environment.
• Provide comments and feedback on the overall data pipeline, including field data collection, ML verification based on third-party data sources, data structure for the portal needs.
• Development of python based GeoAI “unit” as part of the overall AI infrastructure with functions for feature extraction based on satellite imagery, change detection and field data validation.
• Assist in development of various use cases for model training (or usage of pretrained models) for landcover classification, surface water mapping, wetland mapping,
• Provide technical documentation on the setup.
• Any other duties, relevant to GeoAI functionality as required.

Qualification and experience

• Proven experience in the area with at least 5 years of work experience in geospatial domain (please indicate minimum two reference projects/links of GeoAI projects/activities in the CV).  
• Proven experience and knowledge of overall FOSS4G tools: PostgreSQL/ PostGIS/ Geoserver/ Geonode/ GDAL;
• Earth Observation experience: good knowledge of high-resoultion optical, SAR, hyperspectral imagery from providers like Airbus, Maxar, Planet, etc.
• AI & GeoAI: previous experience in object detection, feature extraction, predictive models, training AI models.
• Big data and cloud platforms: experience in processing of planetary-scale geospatial data via platforms like Google Earth Engine, AWS, Microsoft Planetary Computer.
• Knowledge of OGC-compliant web services (WMS/WMTS/WFS/CSW), Rest APIs, STACs, vector tiles.
•  Basic knowledge on Containerized infrastructure Kubernetes.
• Ability to produce technical documentation.

Required competencies

Problem solver – you can propose solutions in a clear and understandable manner to non-technical users. Ability to work with other to brainstorm and develop practical and innovative solution.   

Team Worker - you develop and maintain a positive relationship with end users; able to consult and deal effectively with all levels of the organization and establish working relations of openness and trust in a multicultural setting.

Planner and Organiser – you prioritize and organize the work (own and consultants) for effective resolutions of functional and technical problems.

Performer – you demonstrate success in the design, implementation and quality control of the GIS solution; and are able to develop clear and concise proposals for system implementation.

Languages

Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English essential.