Arbetsbeskrivning

As Lead Software Engineer on Drone Imagery Services you take the lead over the development of the Drone Tasking Manager, making it a fl agship product for drone pilots to collaboratively generate high resolution imagery over a larger area, democratizing drone imagery generation. At least for the coming 6 months, the main focus will be to improve the Drone Tasking Manager based on iterative feedback from fi eld tests in projects in our regions as well by doing internal testing. A backlog of issues and requests exists as a starting point for improvements.

The client is a small technology team and we need an allround profi le for this position: including prioritization of work, including doing both frontend and backend development, infrastructure enhancement, as well as testing. Ad hoc, we will have other developers that can support the development, and the lead software engineer will steer their work and mentor/coach more junior profi les. The role will work in close collaboration with the client product managers and product owners as well as external partners and volunteers to ensure products are built in line with clients principles.

Key responsibilities

Drive the product development: defi ne priorities, lead the product development implementation, test with users.

This includes following responsibilities:

- Continue the development of the backend API, built using Python and FastAPI. This will require improving underlying Python modules for drone fl ightplan generation or porting them to client-side (mobile or Web), in addition to interfacing with geospatial fi le formats such as Cloud Optimised Geotiff for DEMs, and potential deep-dives into the waypoint fl ight implementation for specifi c drone models.

- Build upon the proof-of-concept implementation of phone-only workfl ows, including direct injection of fl ight plans to drone controllers from a phone.

- Improve the interfacing of the backend API with OpenDroneMap, the integrated imagery processing tool. This may involve some elements of infrastructure planning to handle autoscaling of processing jobs via Kubernetes, and possibly some minor usage of workfl ows in AWS.

- Frontend development of the DroneTM web-app, using TypeScript. Improvements to user experience will primarily be mediated via the DroneTM UI, so iterative design and feedback should be used from fi eld pilots and the community. If we really want to push the boundaries, this may involve integrating WebAssembly libraries for geospatial processing, or 3D visualization.

- Integrate more drone models: both the new DJI SDK allowing direct control of the DJI Mini 4 Pro (and any other models we may want to support, including new ones), other drones such as the Potensic Atom line, and drones using the open Ardupilot and PX4 fl ight control stacks (the eventual goal for HOT is to support open hardware community mapping-optimized drones).

- If required, refi nements to the database schema and data model used for DroneTM, involving usage of Postgresql, PostGIS, and direct SQL usage. We also implement a task splitting algorithm in PostGIS, with a proposed refi nement to use more complex (but efficient) hexagon based task splitting to replace square task areas.

- Test the product in the projects in countries, with the support of local partners.

- Collaborate with and coordinate various contributors or contractors working on the product, steering the overall development and direction of the Drone Tasking Manager.

- Provide general technical advice and support to members when needed (advisory and ad hoc support).

- Help with outreach and help secure funding for the client in a proactive manner.

Essential requirements/qualifi cations

- Passionate about technologies for the greater good

- 10-15+ years of demonstrated experience in software development, covering all aspects of product

Development (frontend development, backend development, database management, infrastructure management)

- Rich understanding of the open data and open source technology environment as well as technology trends

- Experience in working with remote sensing products (working with raster data)

- Experience developing business proposals, TORs and MOUs

- Good communication, advocacy and negotiation skills

- Proficiency in working in English (additional languages are a plus)