About this role

Mission

- Adjudicate the identifications that automated detection cannot resolve: attach a verified identity to dark, spoofed, or low-confidence contacts, with sourced evidence and an explicit confidence level.

- Investigate identity manipulation and evasion: AIS gaps and dark periods, GNSS and position spoofing, duplicated or borrowed MMSI, name and flag changes, and vessel substitution.

- Apply open-source intelligence tradecraft: interpret satellite and optical imagery, work ship-photo databases and vessel registries, corporate and beneficial-ownership records, port-state and terminal records, classification and insurance sources, and open reporting.

- Reconstruct pattern-of-life and ownership-over-time, building the history that turns a single detection into an explained vessel.

- Produce structured identification records with clear provenance: every conclusion traceable to its sources, confidence stated plainly, and reporting language disciplined and defensible.

- Feed the model-improvement loop: return ground truth and edge cases to the data science team, and help define where automation should focus next.

- Uphold sourcing and data-integrity standards across the team, keeping the record accurate, current, and trusted.

Experience & Background

Essential:

- 3+ years in intelligence, investigations, maritime analysis, or a related open-source (OSINT) research discipline, with a track record of turning fragmentary evidence into defensible conclusions.

- Working knowledge of the maritime domain: vessel types and particulars, AIS, registries, flag and ownership structures, and shipping operations.

- Genuine OSINT tradecraft: source discovery and evaluation, cross-referencing across independent sources, and disciplined handling of uncertainty and provenance.

- Confidence interpreting imagery (satellite, optical, and ideally SAR) well enough to reason about what a detection is showing.

- Meticulous, evidence-led documentation and clear written assessments, with careful use of confidence and caveat language.

Desirable:

- Familiarity with sanctions, trade compliance, and evasion typologies (shadow-fleet behaviour, ship-to-ship transfers, chokepoint activity).

- Experience contributing labelled data or ground truth to machine-learning workflows, or working alongside a data science team.

- GIS and geospatial tooling, and comfort with large datasets.

- Additional languages relevant to major shipping and registry jurisdictions.

Behavioural Competencies

- Rigorous and evidence-led, with an instinct for corroboration and a low tolerance for unsupported claims.

- Comfortable with ambiguity, and able to reach and defend a judgement when the picture is incomplete.

- Structured, methodical, and able to prioritise a queue of investigations under time pressure.

- Strong communicator, able to write for analysts, compliance teams, and senior stakeholders alike.

- Curious and collaborative, with a continuous-improvement mindset and a willingness to strengthen the tools around you.

Qualifications

- Bachelor's or Master's degree in international relations, security or intelligence studies, maritime studies, geography, data or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.