🛠 Tech Stack

💼 About This Role

You'll lead the development of Planet's proprietary geospatial foundation models on the AI Research team. Your work will capture dynamic Earth events like floods and fires using high-cadence time-series embeddings. This one-year sabbatical residency offers a chance to shape Planet's in-house AI and publish in top journals.

🎯 What You'll Do

• Lead research and development of Planet's proprietary geospatial foundation model
• Benchmark existing GFMs against PlanetScope data for performance and transferability
• Design embeddings optimized for detecting short-lived, high-impact environmental events
• Publish findings in top-tier journals and present at conferences

📋 Requirements

• PhD and current Faculty/Professor status in Geospatial Analytics, Computer Science, or related field
• 12+ years of experience in remote sensing and satellite image analysis
• Proven track record building AI-based models for environmental change detection
• Expert-level Python skills with scientific computing stack and deep learning frameworks

✨ Nice to Have

• Experience with flood damage quantification and methane-related water dynamics
• History of leading NASA-funded geospatial research projects
• Direct experience fine-tuning GFM architectures like TerraMind or Prithvi

🎁 Benefits & Perks

• 🏥 Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• 💰 Health Savings Account with company contribution
• 🏖️ Generous Paid Time Off plus holidays and company-wide days off
• 👶 16 Weeks Paid Parental Leave
• 📚 Tuition Reimbursement and LinkedIn Learning access

📨 Hiring Process

Estimated timeline: 2-4 weeks · AI estimate

1. 1Recruiter Phone Screen· 30 min
2. 2Technical Interview· 60 min
3. 3On-site Presentations· 90 min

🚩 Heads Up

• Mismatch: role title 'Visiting Staff Scientist' but requires 12+ years experience, typically for senior-level, but title implies temporary/visiting
• Heavy academic focus (publishing required) in an industry R&D role may conflict with fast-paced delivery