Description
The Pacific Community (SPC) is the principal scientific and technical organisation in the Pacific region, supporting development since 1947. We are an international development organisation owned and governed by our 27 country and territory members. In pursuit of sustainable development to benefit Pacific people, our unique organisation works across more than 25 sectors. We are known for our knowledge and innovation in such areas as fisheries science, public health surveillance, geoscience, and conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture.
The Climate Change and Sustainability (CCS) Division enables the SPC to strengthen and streamline its climate change actions by consolidating the Organization’s existing work under strategic and technical leadership. Furthermore, it guides the SPC’s actions on climate change and environmental sustainability, works collaboratively with the Organization’s regional and international partners, and promotes the integration of these issues into all development activities conducted by the Organization’s divisions.
The role – the Digital Earth Pacific Platform Engineer will provide technical direction and hands-on platform engineering to operate, maintain and continuously improve the Digital Earth Pacific (DE Pacific) cloud-native infrastructure and services. The role ensures reliable ingestion, processing and access to Earth observation datasets and derived products, supports SPC teams and member countries to use DE Pacific capabilities effectively, and works with internal and external regional and international stakeholders to successfully deliver DE Pacific services.
The key responsibilities of the role include the following:
Cloud Infrastructure Management
- Provision and manage Kubernetes clusters for deploying and scaling earth observation and scientific data processing workloads on the cloud.
- Configure and optimize cloud storage solutions for efficient storage and retrieval of large geospatial datasets.
- Automate infrastructure deployments and configuration management using tools like Terraform, Helm and Flux.
- Optimise large-scale data processing scalability with on-demand instances.
- Enable orchestration of multiple parallel workflows for compute intensive long-running jobs.
- Provide secure and effective user and access management.
Earth Observation Infrastructure Management
- Deploy and maintain cloud-native applications for processing and analysing large-scale earth observation data.
- Integrate Earth observation data with other data sources for machine learning applications in geospatial analysis.
- Maintain a deep understanding of existing and emerging Earth observation sensors (e.g., spatial/temporal resolution, bands, calibration and processing levels) to guide prioritisation and successful integration into the Digital Earth Pacific platform.
- Build APIs and web services to expose Earth observation data and processing capabilities to external users, including SPC member countries.
- Operate Open Data Cube and STAC API to catalogue and serve DEP datasets/products, ensuring consistent metadata and interoperable access.
Monitoring and Observability
- Implement monitoring and logging solutions for Kubernetes clusters and scientific computing applications.
- Develop dashboards and visualizations to track the health and performance of cloud-based Earth observation workflows.
- Troubleshoot issues related to data processing, application deployments, and Kubernetes cluster management.
- Incident management, timely communications to stakeholders.
- Maintaining security and integrity of infrastructure and data.
- Identify any risks and coordinate the mitigation of these risks with the SPC ICT Security and Risk Specialist.
Data Management and Processing
- Design and implement data pipelines for ingesting, processing, and storing Earth observation data, scientific models and in-situ data on the cloud platform using high-performance tooling.
- Develop and maintain data processing workflows using containerized frameworks running on Kubernetes.
- Implement data quality checks and ensure data integrity throughout the processing pipeline.
Capacity Building and Stakeholder Engagement
- Deliver training, coaching and mentorship to SPC staff and member country users on cloud deployment, operations (management/monitoring) and good practice.
- Build institutional capability by producing and maintaining clear documentation and knowledge products (e.g., user guides, runbooks, presentations, publications) for SPC teams and member country users.
- Stay current with cloud technologies and translate relevant developments into practical guidance for technical and non-technical audiences.
- Support strategic planning for long-term cloud infrastructure scalability, resilience and sustainability.
- Contribute to relevant cloud and geospatial communities of practice to share lessons learned and adopt emerging good practice.
- Contribute to cloud governance by developing or improving policies, reference architectures, standards and migration playbooks for organisational reuse and consistent support to member countries.
- Work with SPC IT and developer teams to identify and implement opportunities to modernise applications and enable innovation.
- Build and maintain long-term relationships and collaboration with internal teams and regional/international stakeholders to support the delivery of DE Pacific operations and services.
- Represent the organisation at relevant events and conferences to share results, build partnerships and bring back insights.
People Management
- Provide day-to-day management of the direct report.
- Lead the performance appraisal and process for the junior engineer.
- Ensure that staff receive appropriate training and career development opportunities.
- Foster an environment that promotes high performance, collaboration and shared purpose in line with SPC’s values.
For a more detailed account of the key responsibilities, please refer to the online job description.
Key selection criteria
Qualifications
- Post graduate qualification in computer Science, IT or related field, or equivalent body of knowledge and experience
Technical expertise
- 7 years of experience working in a similar role
- At least 2 years’ experience managing people including mentoring, developing training, and performance management
- Linux system administration experience
- Strong Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm and Flux Experience
- Containerisation and Orchestration Experience (e.g. Docker, Argo Workflows etc)
- Track record in Continuous Integrations and Continuous Delivery (CD/CI) workflows
- Experience with one or more scripting languages, such as Python or Bash
- Experience working in an international, multicultural organization
- Experience working in the Pacific
Language skills
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
- Fluent in English
Interpersonal skills and cultural awareness
- Knowledge of Pacific Island countries and territories is an advantage.
Salary, terms and conditions
Contract Duration – This contract is budgeted for 3 years and is subject to renewal depending on funding and performance.
Remuneration – the Digital Earth Pacific Platform Engineer is a band 11 position in SPC’s 2026 salary scale, with a starting salary range of SDR (special drawing rights) 4,397-5,400 per month, which converts to approximately XPF 634,433-779,190 (USD 5,892-7,236; EUR 5,317-6,530). SPC salaries are not presently subject to income tax in New Caledonia. An offer of appointment for an initial contract will normally be made in the lower half of this range, with due consideration given to experience and qualifications. Progression within the salary scale will be based on annual performance reviews.
Benefits for Staff in a position advertised internationally (EPAI) whose duty station is Noumea – SPC provides housing support in Noumea. Establishment and repatriation grant, removal expenses, airfares, home leave travel, health and life and disability insurances and education allowances are available for eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Employees are entitled to 25 working days of annual leave per annum and other types of leave, and access to SPC’s Provident Fund (contributing 8% of salary, to which SPC adds a 10% contribution).
Languages – SPC’s working languages are English and French.
Recruitment principles – SPC’s recruitment is based on merit and fairness, and candidates are competing in a selection process that is fair, transparent and non-discriminatory. SPC is an equal-opportunity employer, and is committed to cultural and gender diversity, including bilinguism, and will seek to attract and appoint candidates who respect these values. Due attention is given to gender equity and the maintenance of strong representation from Pacific Island professionals. If two interviewed candidates are ranked equal by the selection panel, preference will begiven to the Pacific Islander. Applicants will be assured of complete confidentiality in line with SPC’s private policy.
How to apply
Application procedure
Closing date: 26 July 2026 – 11:00 pm (Noumea time)
Job Reference: CR000603
Applicants must apply online at http://careers.spc.int/
Hard copies of applications will not be accepted.
For your application to be considered, you must provide us with:
- an updated resume with contact details for three professional referees
- a cover letter detailing your skills, experience and interest in this position
- responses to all screening questions
Your application will be considered incomplete and will not be reviewed at shortlisting stage if all the above documents are not provided. Applicants should not attach copies of qualifications or letters of reference.
Please ensure your documents are in Microsoft Word or Adobe PDF format.
SPC does not charge a fee to consider your application and will never ask for your banking or financial information during the recruitment process.
Screening questions (maximum of 2.000 characters per question):
- Digital Earth Pacific seeks to provide routine, reliable and operational Earth observation services to support decision-making across the Pacific Island countries and territories. Please describe your understanding of the strategic value of Earth observation infrastructure in this context and outline the key factors that should be considered to ensure such services can be scaled in a sustainable, interoperable and member-focused manner.
- This position requires the provision of both hands-on platform engineering and technical direction to support the operation, maintenance and continuous improvement of cloud-native Earth observation infrastructure and services. Please describe how you would approach the design, management and evolution of such a platform to ensure it is robust, secure, scalable and able to deliver practical value to users and partners.
- A key responsibility of this role is to support SPC teams, member countries and partners to make effective use of Digital Earth Pacific capabilities. Please describe your approach to stakeholder engagement, documentation, training and technical guidance when supporting the uptake of complex digital infrastructure and Earth observation services in diverse organisational and regional contexts.