WILDLABS
World Wide Fund for Nature/ World Wildlife Fund (WWF)
Job Description
Arribada is seeking a motivated Technical Research Officer to manage and co-ordinate the regular deployment, configuration and testing of conservation technologies developed for Operation Pangolin in Cameroon and Gabon. View the full job post here.
Working together with Operation Pangolin’s local field partners in the field, you will be instrumental in supporting Arribada’s technical development team to deploy, configure and test a range of new conservation technologies, as well as training field researchers to use and optimise them to specifically support Operation Pangolin’s research objectives. Technologies we are both utilising and developing include telemetry devices, camera traps, passive acoustic recorders and thermal camera traps that will be deployed arboreally.
The position will primarily be based in Cameroon, with free accommodation provided in Yaoundé for the duration of your contract. You will spend 4 – 6 months working in country supporting field staff and researchers in the field, with 2 international flights per year provided to join Arribada’s team in the United Kingdom so we can work together in person for several weeks, or to return home and take your holidays if you are not a resident of Cameroon.
Responsibilities
The successful candidate will be asked to;
- Provide weekly reports on the performance of prototype technologies being trialled, data collected and the operational status / configuration of devices as we improve or modify them over time.
- Record and log any issues, or troubleshoot devices with remote support from Arribada’s technical team if and when required.
- Act as a key liaison for local partner’s, communicating questions regarding user interface design, data quality, suggested changes / features, or modifications to the design of the technologies we are deploying and trialling.
- Work with computer equipment (networking hardware, software packages) provided by Arribada to debug and test devices in the field.
- Store and organise data recovered from devices for inspection by Arribada’s engineers.
- Support Arribada’s team of hardware / software developers remotely via online meetings.
Person Specification
Essential:
- Must be able to speak basic French.
- Experience working with conservation technologies such as camera traps, passive acoustic recorders or other similar devices.
- Able to live and work in Cameroon for up to 6 months at a time.
- Able to work in the field (fit and healthy), which will primarily include walking for long periods of time and camping in Cameroon / Gabon’s rainforests.
- A keen interest in the use or development of conservation technologies or a relevant background in computing / IT.
- Able to work independently, self-motivated and adept at problem solving to help plan and deliver successful field work.
Of further benefit:
- Open to the opportunity to be trained to access the canopy (tree climbing) by Arribada’s in-house tree climbing instructor.
- Have travelled to West / Central Africa before, or have experience working in West / Central Africa.
- Experience processing data (i.e. using R) and / or organising and presenting data for review and analysis.
- Experience working with software / hardware or a background in IT or computing in general.O
- Experience deploying and configuring camera traps.
- Experience deploying and configuring passive acoustic recorders, specifically the AudioMoth.
- Must be able to adapt and be open to changing plans based on the availability of local field researchers.
- Experience working with conservation technology software (i.e SMART / QGIS).
- Experience teaching or training field researchers to use, config and deploy conservation technologies.
Position Details
This position is full-time, based on working 5 days per week, 8 hours per day. The initial contract is for a 2 year period, starting immediately. Remittance is £24,362 annually (£2,030.16 monthly), with 2 international flights per year provided and free in-country accommodation in Cameroon for the duration of the contract. You will be expected to travel to Gabon when necessary to complete field research work there too, train local researchers, and will be provided with temporary accomodation when in-country in Gabon.
How to Apply
Applicants will need to send in a CV and covering letter detailing relevant experience and skills, stating why they are interested in the position and including details of availability. Please send this to [email protected] stating the Job ID code in the email subject “OP-TFO”.
Further questions? Free free to email us at the same address, [email protected].