Visiting Staff Scientist

About the Role:

We are seeking a distinguished Visiting Staff Scientist to join our AI Research (AIR) team for a one‑year sabbatical residency. In this role, you will play a pivotal part in our mission to create a "Queryable Earth" by leading the development of Planet's proprietary geospatial foundation models (GFMs).

• Develop Planet's Proprietary GFM: Lead research and development of a foundation model specifically trained on Planet imagery, incorporating a time‑axis to create high‑cadence time‑series embeddings.
• Benchmark Geospatial Architectures: Systematically evaluate and compare existing GFMs (e.g., Terra Mind, Prithvi, Clay) against Planet Scope data to assess performance, computational cost, and transferability.
• Capture Dynamic Earth Events: Design embeddings and workflows optimized for detecting short‑lived, high‑impact events such as floods, rapid surface‑water expansion, and fire.
• Multi‑Sensor Integration: Explore synergy between Planet Scope, Sentinel‑1 SAR, and other commercial SAR data to ensure robust time‑series analysis even under cloud cover.
• Human‑in‑the‑Loop Innovation: Use embeddings to design active learning workflows that prioritize labeling and reduce the annotation burden for time‑sensitive mapping tasks.
• Academic & Technical Leadership: Publish findings in top‑tier journals and present at conferences (e.g., IGARSS, CVPR), highlighting Planet Scope's unique value in the foundation model ecosystem.
• Mentor & Collaborate: Oversee the technical direction of a dedicated postdoc and collaborate with Planet's research scientists to transition prototypes into operational products.

• Distinguished Academic Background: PhD and current Faculty/Professor status in Geospatial Analytics, Computer Science, Remote Sensing, or a related field.
• Deep Domain Expertise: 12+ years of experience in remote sensing and satellite image analysis, with a proven track record in building AI‑based models for environmental change (e.g., flood‑extent, water dynamics).
• Multimodal AI Fluency: Extensive experience with foundation models, contrastive learning (CLIP‑like models), and multimodal vision‑language models (MMVLMs).
• Advanced Geospatial Toolkit: Proficiency in multi‑sensor integration (Landsat, Sentinel‑2, Planet Scope, Sentinel‑1) and high‑resolution mapping at varying scales (3m, 10m, 30m).
• Technical Proficiency: Expert‑level Python skills and experience with the scientific stack (xarray, Dask, Num Py, Rasterio, Geo Pandas) and deep learning frameworks.
• Scale‑Minded Research: Experience building automated pipelines for preprocessing and labeling planetary‑scale datasets.
• Collaborative Spirit: A history of leading research labs and a desire to work in a fast‑paced, industrial R&D environment.

• Specialized environmental research, especially in flood damage quantification and methane‑related water dynamics.
• Proven funding & publication record, including leadership of NASA‑funded or similar high‑impact geospatial research projects.
• Architectural knowledge, with direct experience fine‑tuning or modifying specific GFM architectures like Terra Mind or Prithvi.

A mix of deep academic rigor and the ability to prototype rapid‑change monitoring tools for operational readiness.

August 11, 2026 by 11:59p / 23:59 CET (Central European Time)

• Comprehensive Medical, Dental, and Vision plans
• Health Savings Account (HSA) with a company contribution
• Generous Paid Time Off in addition to holidays and company‑wide days off
• 16 Weeks of Paid Parental Leave
• Wellness Program and Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
• Home Office Reimbursement
• Monthly Phone and Internet Reimbursement
• Tuition Reimbursement and access to Linked In Learning
• Equity
• Commuter Benefits (if local to an office)
• Volunteering Paid Time Off

The US base salary range for this full‑time position at the commencement of employment is $231,500 – $289,400 USD in San Francisco. Additionally, this role might be eligible for discretionary short‑term and long‑term incentives (bonus and equity).

Pursuant to…