Principal Environmental Intelligence Lead: Earth Observation

Principal Environmental Intelligence Lead

Location: UK Remote / Hybrid

Type: Full-time

Salary: £55,000 – £68,000

Eligibility: Applicants must have the legal right to live and work in the United Kingdom at the time of application. Unfortunately, Argans is unable to provide visa sponsorship for this position.

About Argans

Argans Ltd is a specialist Earth Observation (EO) and environmental intelligence company, a member of the ACRI-ST group (with companies in France, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Canada, Morocco, Spain and India), manned by some 250 scientists, delivering scientifically credible solutions for climate, environmental, and institutional programmes.

Our work sits at the intersection of Earth Observation, climate adaptation, resilience, environmental risk, and related operational decision support. We develop monitoring systems, analytical services, and environmental intelligence capabilities that help organisations better understand environmental change and support evidence-based decision-making.

We deliver projects for organisations including the European Space Agency (ESA), national space agencies, development-focused initiatives, and international institutional partners.

The Opportunity

Alongside our established space-agency activities, Argans is expanding its work in climate adaptation, resilience monitoring, and environmental reporting for climate-finance-related applications. Recent international agreements at COP30 in Belém reinforced the growing scale of climate-finance mobilisation, with ambitions reaching US$1.3 trillion annually by 2035.

As a small, science and technology focused organisation among a wider group, we offer something increasingly rare: substantial individual influence, genuine technical autonomy, and the opportunity to directly shape emerging environmental intelligence capabilities and services.

Why This Role Is Different

This is not a narrow technical delivery role restrained by bureaucracy, nor is it an endless cycle of grant-chasing.

This role is aimed at someone who wants to help establish Earth Observation and environmental intelligence as core components of climate adaptation, resilience, environmental reporting, and climate-finance activities, where operational use of EO remains surprisingly limited.

Working closely with the Argans’s Director of Science and Operations and the ACRI-ST Group’s head of the Business Unit “Decision Support Projects/Services”, you will help translate EO and environmental analytics into practical monitoring, reporting, risk, and decision-support capabilities for climate adaptation and resilience applications.

Operating within a small expert team and partnering with the expert teams of the ACRI-ST group, you will contribute across scientific development, operational delivery, institutional engagement, technical business development, and, mainly, strategic growth (with yearly objectives related to orders/funding & technical performances + corporate knowledge & know how). The role will involve interaction with a wide range of organisations and stakeholders, including space agencies, research groups, climate funds, multilateral development banks (MDBs), implementing entities, technical partners, and institutional delivery teams.

This role offers unusually broad exposure across science, operational systems, institutional engagement, climate-finance activities, and strategic development. For the right candidate, it provides the chance to help shape a rapidly evolving area of environmental intelligence while building experience across technical leadership, climate adaptation, environmental analytics, and the wider climate-finance ecosystem.

What You Will Do

Applied Leadership

Lead the development of practical EO and environmental intelligence capabilities, including analytical approaches, monitoring systems, and operational workflows.

Bridge the Gap

Translate complex EO data and environmental analytics into practical tools, monitoring systems, and decision-support approaches for real-world climate adaptation and environmental applications.

Strategic Growth

Contribute to technical business development, proposal preparation (including ESA programmes), and identification of emerging opportunities in climate adaptation, resilience, environmental reporting, climate finance, carbon markets, and environmental-finance activities.

Stakeholder Engagement

Lead technical discussions and represent Argans confidently in scientific, institutional, and client-facing engagements.

Mentorship

Support, guide, and mentor junior technical staff as the team grows.

What You BringEssential

• Professional background in Earth Observation, environmental intelligence, climate adaptation, environmental risk, geospatial systems, or related applied environmental fields. A PhD or equivalent is welcome.
• Experience leading environmental, Earth Observation, or multidisciplinary activities and engaging confidently with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Good understanding of how Earth Observation and environmental intelligence can support practical monitoring, reporting, risk, and decision-making applications.
• Practical technical capability spanning geospatial systems, analytical workflows, coding, or environmental data platforms.
• Comfortable operating across scientific, operational, strategic, and business-facing activities in evolving project environments.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills.
• Self-motivated, adaptable, and comfortable taking ownership with limited supervision.
• Interest in climate adaptation, resilience, environmental reporting, climate finance, or environmental intelligence applications.

Desirable

• Climate adaptation, climate finance, carbon markets, resilience investment, or environmental reporting frameworks
• Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV), monitoring and evaluation, or decision-support systems
• Proposal development, technical business development, or environmental intelligence services
• ESA or other institutional EO programmes
• Python, Google Earth Engine, machine learning, or operational EO workflows

What We OfferHigh Autonomy

Flat structure with genuine influence over technical direction and business decisions.

Flexibility

Remote and hybrid working arrangements.

Real Impact

Work on internationally relevant environmental and climate challenges linked to major climate adaptation and climate-finance initiatives.

Broad Growth

Exposure across science, operational systems, strategy, institutional engagement, and business development.

Collaborative Team

Work with an agile, expert team of experienced scientists and engineers.

To apply, please send your CV and a short covering note outlining your suitability and interest in the role to ***email_hidden*** with subject line: PEIL application

Applications are welcome immediately. Shortlisting and review of applications will commence after 29 June 2026.