Senior LiDAR & Geospatial Scientist

SENIOR LiDAR MAPPING SCIENTIST

Prairie Engineers is a small business engineering, surveying and mapping, and natural resources firm serving federal, state, and private clients nationwide.

We are hiring a Senior LiDAR Mapping Scientist to own LiDAR production - from acquisition specifications through classified point clouds, surfaces, accuracy assessment, and client delivery - and to build that capability into a repeatable practice.

You will lead office production and mentor UAV Pilots and existing mapping staff who already field collect LiDAR and perform basic geospatial production. You will set methods, tool selection, quality control, and level-of-effort estimates and will report directly to our Mapping Discipline Lead (who additionally oversees hydrographic survey, Subsurface Utility Engineering (SUE), and Geospatial practices). You also will support land survey, hydrographic surveying, and engineering staff on multidisciplinary projects.

Field acquisition and partner manned-aerial collection are in place. This role industrializes classification, surface production, accuracy reporting, and production standards so Prairie can deliver mapping-grade products consistently across UAV, mobile, terrestrial, SLAM, and partner aerial datasets. Anticipated salary range is $80,000/year to $135,000/year depending on ability, experience, certifications, and education.

• Specify internal acquisition methods and vendor/flight requirements for UAV, airborne, mobile, SLAM, and terrestrial LiDAR and limited photogrammetry projects.
• Process, calibrate, classify, and deliver point clouds and derived surfaces (DEM/DSM, break lines, contours, hydro flattening).
• Design Quality Control workflows; assess vertical/horizontal accuracy against ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standards and project specifications.
• Diagnose failed trajectories, weak control, datum issues, classification errors, and surface artifacts. Identify root causes and implement practical corrections before data delivery.
• Prepare levelofeffort and cost estimates for mapping task orders and proposals.
• Mentor junior mapping scientists and technicians and develop repeatable production standards along with support for hydrographic, GIS, engineering, and other staff on multidisciplinary projects.

Prairie acquires data with NDAA-compliant LiDAR sensors flown on Blue List sUAS platforms, plus mobile, terrestrial, and SLAM systems. We partner with other mapping firms for larger manned-aerial LiDAR and imagery.

Current production tools include the Terrasolid Suite (Terra Scan and related modules), Spatial Explorer Pro, Phoenix Lidar Mill, LP360, Global Mapper, TopoDOT, Pix4

Dmatic, ArcGIS Pro, Civil 3D and Recap, Bentley Open Roads Designer, HyPack/HySweep, Applanix Pos Pac. You will own recommendations to improve this suite for efficiency and accuracy.

Deliverables include design-scale topographic mapping, transportation corridor mapping, levee/flood mapping, and occasional topo-bathymetric LiDAR tied to in-house hydrographic survey.

• 8+ years producing mapping grade LiDAR products for design or engineering clients not visualization alone. Additional photogrammetric experience a plus.
• Demonstrated classification, surface modelling, and written accuracy reporting. Additional experience with Python, scripting, batch processing, or other geospatial workflow automation is a plus.
• Experience estimating mapping scopes for government and private clients.
• Comfort working directly with licensed surveyors, pilots, and design engineers. Federal AE or state DOT mapping experience is a plus.
• Bachelor's degree in geomatics, photogrammetry, surveying, geography, or a related field preferred; equivalent production…