Digital Twin Lead

KAUST in partnership with NEOM is executing the world's largest coral reef conservation, enhancement, and restoration project. The project will involve work across a 100-hectare reefscape near Shushah Island in the north-eastern Red Sea as well the construction and operation of the world's largest coral nursery that will produce nearly a half million corals per year for coral reef restoration and enhancement. KAUST seeks to develop an operation which will utilize existing and new state-of-the-art coral restoration techniques combined with industrial-scale aquaculture practices to maximize efficiencies and reduce labour demands through automation.

The Digital Twin Lead will work alongside within our Monitoring, Data Management and Visualization team to develop a plan and lead the execution of the implementation of a digital twin of the reefscape which will showcase the work to the world digitally and helps researchers and scientists around the world to collaborate on the data gathered from the project.

The position will be based at KAUST’s main campus with frequent travel to the Reefscape and Coral Nursery in NEOM.

Major Accountabilities

• Lead the execution of developing and managing the Digital Twin of Shushah Island’s Reefscape, following the roadmap created.

• Develop timelines, deliverables, and plans (communication and execution plans) to ensure all relevant project components are completed as expected.

• Develop and administer plans to conduct field work related to the collection of digital twin imagery.

• Facilitate the collection of multi-beam, LiDAR, or other mapping components needed to complete or advance the digital twin.

• Communicate with the greater Shushah Project on the development and integration of all project aspects into the digital twin.

• Maintain high value assets and equipment inventory.

• Build and manage a team of technicians, scientists, and/or managers needed to support the development of the digital twin and related outputs.

• Identify cyber infrastructure needs for the digital twin and facilitate creating the best path forward for storage, processing, and serving data.

• Engage and work with internal and external stakeholders and consultants to sketch out the path for developing and delivering the digital twin as planned.

• Deliver project component updates at Monitoring Team meetings and participate in larger project meetings where relevant.

• Other relevant duties as assigned. 

Person Requirements

Competencies

• Desire to be part of the world's largest coral reef restoration project embedded within the world's most high-tech & sustainable new-city masterplan.

• Knowledge of coral reef ecosystems and classification of marine habitats

• Ability to be adaptable in challenging and remote environments that will be developing during the life of the project.

• Ability to organize workload, adapt quickly to change, and deliver under the pressure of deadlines Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in Marine Science or related field Experience

• Minimum of 6 years of experience in photogrammetry and mapping using advanced technologies.

• Experience in developing the infrastructure for digital twins. • Ability to work with multiple different types of data and software tools and platforms.