TREE AID
Job description and person specification template
Job title: Carbon & Geospatial Analyst
Location: Bristol, United Kingdom (location is negotiable)
Duration: Fixed-term (18 months) with possibility of renewal
Working hours: Full time
Salary: £33,130 per annum
Start date: As soon as possible
Responsible to: NbS and Carbon Manager
Responsible for: Occasional volunteers
Overall aim:
Tree Aid is at the forefront of high-integrity, community-led forest carbon. We work with people in the drylands of Africa to tackle poverty and the climate crisis by restoring land, growing trees and strengthening livelihoods. Since 1987, we have supported the planting and regeneration of over 32 million trees, working alongside more than 1.8 million people.
We are now entering an ambitious new phase in our carbon journey. Tree Aid was the first organisation in the world to register an afforestation, reforestation and revegetation (ARR) project under Verra’s VM0047 methodology, and we are building on this foundation with new pipeline projects designed to break new ground in community-centred carbon programming across Africa.
To help lead this next chapter, we are recruiting a Carbon and Geospatial & MRV Analyst.
Key objectives:
This is an exciting opportunity for a data-driven and technically skilled professional to contribute directly to the implementation of nature-based solutions projects. This role offers hands-on experience in high-integrity carbon projects, including exposure to ARR methodologies and MRV systems used in leading carbon standards.
You will work under the supervision of the NbS & Carbon Manager and play a key role in:
Preparing Project Design Documents and key milestones for the development and delivery of high-integrity NbS carbon projects across the full project life cycle.
Produce spatial analyses and maps to assess tree cover, land use and ecosystem change over time at project and landscape scale
Analyzing satellite and field data in the scope of carbon quantification and modelling for forest and restoration projects under recognised standards and methodologies (notably Verra ARR methodologies, including VM0047).
Working closely with the M&E team to acquire, analyse and quality-assure geospatial data collected for carbon projects’ Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) processes
Key roles/ tasks:
Geospatial Analysis & Remote Sensing (GEE-focused)
• Analyze and process geospatial datasets (satellite imagery, GPS data, shapefiles)
Support land-use and land-cover classification using remote sensing data (e.g. Sentinel, Landsat)
• Produce high-quality maps and spatial outputs for project design and monitoring
Data & Automation (Python-focused)
• Develop and maintain Python scripts (e.g. pandas, geopandas, rasterio) for:
o data cleaning
o spatial analysis
o workflow automation
• Contribute to the development of scalable data pipelines
Ensure data quality control (QA/QC) across datasets
Carbon & MRV Support
Support analysis of forest inventory and field datasets
• Assist with biomass and carbon estimation workflows
• Contribute to MRV systems and reporting processes
Support integration of field and remote sensing data
Field & Team Support
• Provide technical support to country teams on data collection tools
Support integration of mobile data collection and GPS data
Contribute to improving data management practices across projects
Person specification:
E = Essential criteria D = Desirable criteria
Qualifications:
Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in forestry, forest biometrics, natural sciences, D
natural resource management, environmental science, environmental data
science, ecological modelling, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional
experience.
Experience:
Experience using GIS software applications (preferably QGIS) for processing and E
visualising spatial data
Experience using Python for data analysis and visualisation, particularly in the E
context of spatial data (pandas, geopandas or similar)
Experience working with geospatial datasets (vector & raster) E
Experience with remote sensing (Sentinel, Landsat, or Google Earth Engine) E
Experience in environmental, forestry or climate-related projects D
Experience working with field data (e.g. forest inventory) D
Exposure to carbon projects, MRV systems or climate data workflows D
Personal Qualities:
-A passion for international development and to issues affecting rural smallholder E
farmers in dryland Africa
-Able to work independently as well as within a team E
Skills/ knowledge:
Strong scientific and technical skills in data processing, analysis and statistical E
computing
Strong data management and data cleaning skills E
Good analytical and problem-solving abilities E
Excellent MS Office including MS Excel, MS Word, and MS PowerPoint E
Excellent written and verbal communication skills (English) E
Enthusiastic and positive attitude; flexible and adaptable
Good working knowledge in French D