Project Assistant at SESAC (PA2026/2546)

Lund University was founded in 1666 and is repeatedly ranked among the world’s top universities. The University has around 46 000 students and 8 500 staff based in Lund, Helsingborg and Malmö. We are united in our efforts to understand, explain and improve our world and the human condition.

Description of the workplace
The position is placed at the Department of Human Geography and attached to SESAC – the Swedish Competence Centre for Satellite Enabled Social Science Analytics. SESAC is funded by the Swedish National Space Agency and run by Lund University together with Chalmers University of Technology, Linköping University and Karlstad University. The mission of the centre is to make satellite data and Earth observation usable in social science research – on sustainability, public health, urbanisation, population dynamics and crisis preparedness – and to build bridges between academia, public authorities, industry and civil society.

You will work in a small, interdisciplinary environment where human geographers, physical geographers, remote sensing specialists and data scientists work side by side, and where activities span four universities. The role is the hub of the centre: you hold the practical and administrative work together, working closely with the centre’s director and principal investigator (PI). You will be based in Lund.

We work actively for a good working environment through a clear introduction, regular appraisal meetings, an open seminar and meeting culture, and a reasonable workload across the year.

Read more about the centre:

www.sam.lu.se/en/sesac

www.sesac.se

We offer
Lund University is a public authority which means that you receive particular benefits, generous annual leave and an advantageous occupational pension scheme. We also have a flexitime agreement that creates good conditions for a balance between work and leisure.

Read more on the University’s website about being employed at Lund University: 

Work for us | Lund University

Work duties and areas of responsibility
The position combines coordination of the centre’s activities with qualified technical work on geospatial data. You will have particular responsibility for planning, structuring and following up SESAC’s activities, in close cooperation with the PI.

Your duties will include:

• planning and carrying out the centre’s activities – conferences, workshops, courses, webinars and hackathons – from invitations, registrations and logistics to budget, delivery and follow-up
• coordinating the cooperation between the four universities: convening meetings, preparing agendas and supporting documents, documenting decisions and following up on their implementation
• structuring the centre’s ongoing work with timelines, project overviews and deadlines, and contributing to reporting to the funder
• supporting the PI in daily operations with background material, presentations and summaries
• taking responsibility for parts of the centre’s external communication, such as the website, newsletters and social media
• acting as contact person for partners, visiting researchers and visitors
• compiling, processing and quality-assuring satellite and geospatial data, and producing maps and visualisations
• contributing to documentation of data, code and workflows so that they are open and reusable
• developing and maintaining training and demonstration material for the centre’s courses and webinars

The position involves travel within Sweden and occasional travel abroad.

Requirements for the position are:

• a Master’s degree in human geography, physical geography, GIS/remote sensing, data science, a quantitatively oriented social science subject, or another subject relevant to the position
• documented experience of independently planning and carrying out activities such as conferences, workshops, courses or seminars
• experience of structuring and coordinating work in projects with several partners, including scheduling, documentation and follow-up
• good knowledge of GIS and/or remote sensing, for example QGIS, ArcGIS or Google Earth Engine
• experience of programming in Python and/or R for data processing and analysis
• very good ability to express yourself orally and in writing in English
• good ability to cooperate, as well as the ability to work independently, in a structured and accurate manner, and to take initiative

Great emphasis will be placed on personal suitability.

Additional qualifications that are meritorious:

• experience of working in a university or research environment, for example in research administration or project finance
• experience of externally funded research projects and of reporting to funders
• experience of working with Copernicus/Sentinel, Landsat or high-resolution satellite data
• experience of machine learning or AI applied to image data
• experience of version control with Git, reproducible workflows and cloud-based data processing
• experience of science communication, web publishing or editing newsletters and social media
• experience of international collaboration
• a category B driving licence

Further information
This is a fixed-term employment of one year at 100 per cent, starting as soon as possible or by agreement. Interviews are planned to be held at our offices in Lund during week 39/ 40.

Contact: Ola Hall, Director of SESAC, [email protected], +46 46 222 84 09.

How to apply
Applications are submitted via the University’s recruitment system. The application must include a cover letter stating why you are interested in the position and in what way the position matches your qualifications. The application must also include a CV, degree certificate or equivalent, and anything else you wish to invoke (copies of grade transcripts, contact details for referees, letters of recommendation, etc.).