Senior Faculty Specialist

Job Description Summary Position Summary: The Senior Faculty Specialist will work in the Department of Environmental Science and Technology at the University of Maryland. This person will lead the Digital Agriculture Systems Hub (DASH) deployment team housed at the University of Maryland, overseeing and implementing day-to-day field and workshop operations and testing. Primary responsibilities will include coordinating a mid-Atlantic regional deployment of tractor-mounted sensor systems for mapping cover crops and delivering variable rate nitrogen recommendations, leading sensor technology testing and calibration for DASH, and coordinating and managing personnel, purchasing, equipment and vehicle maintenance and use, budgets, and travel for the (DASH) deployment team. Responsibilities: Lead the Digital Agriculture Systems Hub (DASH) deployment team housed at the University of Maryland, overseeing and implementing day-to-day field and workshop operations and testing. Coordinate a mid-Atlantic regional deployment of tractor-mounted sensor systems for mapping cover crops and delivering variable rate nitrogen recommendations in a public-private partnership with Willard, Growmark, and The Nature Conservancy. Lead sensor technology testing and calibration for the Chesapeake Bay region of USDA’s DASH (Digital Agricultural Systems Hub) initiative to identify weed and cover crop species and biomass mapping on experimental research stations. Work with DASH partners to identify unique implementations of their equipment to establish imaging platforms in a non-intrusive way to allow normal equipment operation. Lead training sessions with DASH partners to instruct users in data acquisition, operation, and best practices with imaging systems. Execute satellite calibration with ground-truth data for measuring, monitoring, and reporting platform used in cover crop use and performance mapping in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. Develop calibration protocols for cover crop quality estimates using hyperspectral imagery. Assist with automation of data acquisition and integration from a wide variety of data sources. Supervise and manage a team of technicians and undergraduate interns to complete research objectives in a timely manner, promote team-oriented research, and diagnose mechanical and electrical issues. Collaborate on research with a diverse set of academic and scientific partners spanning agronomic, environmental, computer science, engineering, and robotics disciplines. Procure and set up machining equipment for prototyping of custom equipment. Coordinate and manage personnel, purchasing, equipment and vehicle maintenance and use, budgets, and travel for (DASH) deployment team. Minimum Qualifications: Master’s degree in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), remote sensing, applied data science, or related field. Ability to work smoothly as part of a well-organized research collaboration with stakeholders from public and private entities to meet research objectives in a time sensitive manner. Experience troubleshooting electronics and computers on agricultural machinery; knowledge of electrical and mechanical requirements for operation. Experience with standard agricultural practices and implements in a variety of agricultural settings. Experience with standardizing data collection for quality control measures in agricultural research to be used at broad-scale implementation. Experience standardizing ground-truth data collection methods across multiple stakeholder/user groups to verify agricultural models. Experience with drones, handheld, and tractor-mounted cameras to support collection of agricultural data to verify, scale, and improve agricultural models. Experience with metal working, welding and fabrication of custom machine parts in a safe team-oriented environment (minimum 2 years preferred) Experience with procurement of metal machining equipment and understanding of manufacturing standards. Experience with organizing and…

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