About this role
- 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.
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.