BIOACOUSTICS RESEARCH FELLOW – NATURAL STATE

The San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance (SDZWA) and Natural State share the vision of revolutionising the field of biodiversity monitoring. Both organisations aim to transform and scale robust monitoring solutions while decreasing the time and cost needed to collect highly accurate and timely data.

The two organizations are supporting a collaborative research fellowship to advance bioacoustics in ecosystem monitoring. Through this position, both organisations aim to develop, test and refine field- ready solutions to assessing and measuring changes in biological communities that can be deployed in multiple biomes, starting with savanna grasslands and tropical forests. This role will be primarily based at the Natural State Research Centre in Kenya and managed by Natural State’s Head Biometrician, with technical support from SDZWA’s Head of Conservation Technology and his team.

In consultation with SDZWA’s Head of Conservation Technology, , Natural State’s Head Biometrician and other scientists from the two organizations, the fellow will design and pursue an ambitious agenda to make bioacoustic monitoring more robust, more efficient, and more generalizable.

Principal areas of interest include:

1. Machine learning for bioacoustics, applying state of the art methods for species identification and soundscape modelling.
2. Optimized sampling design to maximize the spatiotemporal efficiency of surveys.
3. Improved acoustic data engineering including streamlined model tuning and validation processes and data compression.
4. Scalable applications of emergent bioacoustic methods such as abundance estimation and individual recognition.

The fellow will be expected to:

• Lead in the development of these new capabilities.
• Develop and manage partnerships with relevant institutions related to these new technologies including existing collaborations with academic institutions.
• Be able to work independently in a variety of remote environments.
• Be able to work flexibly and collaboratively with multiple teams across different time-zones.
• Provide technical expertise and support grant writing and reporting activities.
• Provide mentorship to build capacity of NS and SDZWA young scientists.

To be successful, applicants must have the following expertise:

• Demonstrated excellence in applied bioacoustics for scientific research.
• Programming proficiency in Python and common packages including Numpy, Pandas, SciKit-Learn, and machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Applications of acoustic classification algorithms such as PERCH and BirdNET or a strong background in neural networks.
• Familiarity with the principles of ecological monitoring and common analytical methods. Applicants with expertise in population or community ecology will be preferred.
• Experience using collaborative software tools with rigorous documentation.

Additionally, applicants must be Kenyan citizens or be eligible to work in Kenya. This is a one-year position with the potential for annual renewal. The fellow will be based at Natural State’s Research Centre in Northern Kenya and will be expected to spend time at San Diego Zoo with potential travel to other field sites. The fellow will be compensated commensurate with experience plus benefits that include a pension scheme, medical cover, and a total of 33 days holiday per year (including annual leave and public holidays) and additional office closure days in December.