Data Analyst / Junior ML Engineer - AIS Analytics

About Us SkyServe is pioneering real-time geospatial intelligence and autonomous observation systems. Our Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) platform ingests and fuses high-frequency data streams—including satellite and terrestrial AIS, radio frequency (RF) dark-vessel signatures, and high-resolution Earth observation (Optical & SAR) detections—to monitor critical sea lines of communication, detect sanctions evasions, uncover illegal transshipments, and safeguard Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). Our Maritime Analytics squad develops the analytical backbone that exposes illicit activities across global waters. We track hundreds of thousands of vessels daily to detect sanctions evasions, environmental crimes, and security threats for coast guards, maritime security agencies, and commercial stakeholders. Position Overview As an AIS Analytics Associate / Engineer, you will focus on high-volume vessel tracking data. You will design, implement, and evaluate algorithms to reconstruct vessel movements, spot deceptive behaviors, and predict maritime paths before events unfold. The Problems You Will Solve

• Intentional AIS Blackouts ("Going Dark"): Differentiating between benign signal loss (poor satellite reception, high-density traffic collisions) and deliberate transponder shutdowns used to mask illegal operations.

• Spoofing & Identity Manipulation: Detecting GPS position spoofing, circular or erratic spoofed tracks, simultaneous transmissions from multiple locations using one MMSI, and identity laundering via false IMO/MMSI combinations.

• Illegal Transshipments & Ship-to-Ship (STS) Transfers: Identifying covert rendezvous between vessels at sea (e.g., fuel bunkering, illicit oil transfers, catch transfers) by analyzing relative speeds, headings, encounter durations, and drift physics outside recognized anchorages.

• IUU Fishing & Marine Protected Area (MPA) Incursions: Profiling behavioral signatures of fishing gear deployments (longlining, trawling, purse seining) and flagging unauthorized activities within national Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) and marine conservation zones.

• Trajectory Interpolation & Forecasting: Reconstructing the probable paths of "dark" vessels using kinematic dead reckoning, historical route graphs, bathymetric constraints, and sequence models (Kalman Filters, LSTMs, Transformers) to predict destinations and interception windows. Key Responsibilities

• Spatio-Temporal Data Processing: Clean, normalize, and process billions of raw terrestrial and satellite AIS messages (Message Types 1, 2, 3, 5, 18, 19, 24, etc.) into clean, queryable trajectory datasets.

• Feature Engineering & Heuristics: Engineer behavioral features (rate of turn changes, speed over ground variations, draught changes, distance-to-coast, port proximity) to identify anomalous operational patterns.

• Trajectory Modeling & Interpolation: Develop and benchmark algorithms for track smoothing, gap reconstruction, and future-path estimation across varying lookback intervals.

• Statistical & ML Anomaly Detection: Implement unsupervised clustering and supervised classification models (e.g., Isolation Forests, DBSCAN, XGBoost, recurrent architectures) to automate threat scoring.

• Cross-Validation with External Data: Correlate anomalous AIS events with auxiliary data sources such as SAR/optical satellite detections, dark RF pings, and global vessel registries.

• Product Collaboration: Work closely with backend engineers and GIS frontend developers to integrate risk models into real-time alerting systems and interactive map visualizers. What We Are Looking For Must-Have Qualifications:

• Educational Background: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Geoinformatics, Aerospace Engineering, Ocean Engineering, Statistics, or a related quantitative field (Graduation years: 2023–2026).

• Programming Skills: Strong proficiency in Python and its scientific data ecosystem (pandas, NumPy, SciPy, scikit-learn).

• Spatial & Geospatial Fluency: Solid foundation in spatial operations, coordinate reference systems (WGS84, projections), and geospatial libraries (GeoPandas, Shapely, PySAL, H3/S2 indexing, or MovingPandas).

• Database & Querying: Hands-on experience writing analytical queries in SQL (PostgreSQL/PostGIS, DuckDB, or BigQuery/ClickHouse).

• Foundational Modeling: Clear grasp of trajectory mechanics, kinematics, and core machine learning fundamentals (supervised/unsupervised models, regression, clustering, error metrics). Why Join SkyServe?

• Real-World Impact: Your algorithms directly assist in intercepting maritime smuggling, safeguarding ocean biodiversity, and upholding maritime sovereignty.

• High-Leverage Work: Solve complex physical problems with large, live streaming datasets rather than synthetic or toy benchmarks.

• Rapid Growth: Direct mentorship from seasoned aerospace, remote sensing, and AI engineers in a fast-paced environment.