About this role
About VITO The Environmental Intelligence unit at VITO processes petabytes of Earth Observation (EO) data. We specialize in extracting reliable, actionable information from vast amounts of satellite imagery for customers worldwide. Within this unit, the Copernicus Services team designs, builds and operates large-scale, end-to-end EO processing chains for vegetation, land cover and agriculture monitoring, in the context of the Copernicus program and related European and international initiatives. To strengthen our scientific capacity within operational services, we are looking for an experienced and highly motivated Scientific Expert – Earth Observation Services. Your Role at VITO As a Scientific Expert, you play a key role in the scientific design, evolution and credibility of our operational EO services. You combine strong scientific expertise with operational thinking, ensuring that EO products and indicators are scientifically sound, state-of-the-art, traceable and fit for use by institutional stakeholders such as ECMWF, ESA, EUMETSAT, EEA, FAO and JRC. You work at the interface between science, engineering and stakeholders, contributing to both service delivery and future service evolution. Key responsibilities Contribute to the design, maintenance and evolution of EO services and processing chains from a scientific point of view Translate user, policy and service requirements into scientifically robust EO products and indicators Ensure scientific quality, consistency, traceability and documentation of algorithms, methods and outputs Perform validation activities, uncertainty analysis and performance assessment of EO products Collaborate closely with software engineers, service operators and external partners to bridge science and operations Contribute to technical documentation, scientific reports and reviews Support proposal writing, service negotiations and contract follow-up within European framework and service contracts Represent VITO in technical and scientific fora with clients, partners and consortia