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The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full time UAS Aerial Sampling Support position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

The Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling (CEMM) conducts research to advance the Agency’s ability to measure and model contaminants in the environment, including research to provide fundamental methods and models needed to implement environmental statutes. CEMM’s research involves:

• Occurrence, fate, and transport in the natural environment;
• Regulatory methods and models;
• Tools to inform and evaluate environmental management practices and policies;
• Environmental indicators;
• Sampling for environmental characterization; and
• Contaminants of emerging concern.

ORD has recently initiated use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS, drones) to support its mission for environmental measurements. This position will serve on this UAS aerial sampling team.

What experience and skills will you gain?

As a team member, you will provide instrumentation development and testing; sampling study design; field measurements; post-processing data analysis of emission, meteorological, and camera data; and quality control of measurements.

Environmental Sampling Instrumentation Development responsibilities will include:

• Development of methods for environmental sampling using instrumentation aboard UAS including emissions, aerial photography, and meteorology;
• GIS (Geographic Information System) processing of data layers;
• Quality control of environmental data;
• Creation of metadata and fact sheets supporting the data products; and
• Literature reviews.
   

UAS-based Sampling Design and Analysis; responsibilities will include:

• Participating as a member of a multi-disciplinary research team;
• Interacting with other members of the aerial sampling team, other EPA scientists, and other federal, state, and university collaborators;
• Presenting work performed at a scientific conference as required;
• Contributing to authorship of scientific papers; and
• Development of software for analysis of data.
   

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Demonstrated education and/or experience in GIS (geographic information systems), geospatial data compilation, related software (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth), and analysis;
• Experience in interfacing environmental sampling instrumentation on a UAS;
• Knowledge and experience with UAS operations, including FAA UAS rules;
• Strong written, oral, and electronic communication skills;
• Experience programming in Python, R, or other scripting languages;
• Familiarity with Microsoft Excel; and
• Experience with UAS-based thermal and infrared video collection, processing, and analysis.

Location: This job will be located EPA’s facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $31.38 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin September 2023. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. The contract renews each May through 2025.

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a Master’s degree in the fields of geospatial science, geography, ecology, environmental science, engineering, physical sciences or a related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Any degree .
• Discipline(s):
  • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (12 )
  • Earth and Geosciences (1 )
  • Engineering (1 )
  • Environmental and Marine Sciences (1 )
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (48 )
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (1 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; a recent graduate with at least a Master’s degree in the fields of geospatial science, geography, ecology, environmental science, engineering, physical sciences or a related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.