About

I'm Duncan, a 26-year-old geospatial professional with expert knowledge in the domain through the completion of a combined eight years in industry and university. As a determined, meticulous, and diligent individual, I thrive under pressure, enjoy the challenge of problem-solving, and persistently seek opportunities to push the boundaries of my knowledge.

Skills

Work

Director | Geospatial Technology and Research | 2024-Present

This role comprises contracting and consulting on primarily geospatial (GIS and remote sensing) data and software engineering, predominantly in Python and SQL, to aid in the adoption and accessibility of geospatial data and technology for businesses.

Geospatial Lead | McKenzie Intelligence Services | 2020-2023

In this role, within which I constituted the company’s sole geospatial specialist for my tenure, I lead much of the advance in the company’s geospatial offering. Straddling the Intelligence, Data, and Engineering teams, the latter two of which were subsets of the Technology team, this role has provided unique insight into the lifecycle of geospatial software and data and applications thereof.

Responsibilities:

• Manage, research, develop, and automate new and existing processes and products.
• Lead development of geospatial data pipelines.
• Source, evaluate, process, and analyse geospatial data for use in client-facing products including, but not limited to, multispectral; thermal; hyperspectral; SAR and InSAR; LiDAR; human mobility, settlement, and infrastructure; and climatological, atmospheric, and environmental data.
• Manage and mentor junior geospatial analysts and developers.
• Ensure company-wide adherence to best practice geospatial data management and analysis.
• Produce high-quality analysis, reports, and visualisations across a range of domains for internal and external (consultancy) use.
• Deliver advanced geospatial training to colleagues and clients.
• Concurrently scope, manage, and execute time-constrained projects with multiple stakeholders and deliverables.
• Interaction with clients, communicating technical matter to typically non-technical stakeholders.

Achievements:

• Development of ETL and ELT pipelines for a wide range of data types and sources pertinent to and employed in the company’s disaster reporting platform, the Global Events Observer, including ground-based doppler weather radar and climate reanalysis data. Pipelines were deployed in and orchestrated by Airflow and Azure Functions and Virtual Machines.
• Development of solutions for interacting with third-party mapping service provider Mapbox.
• R&D of disaster exposure and claims products including hail (market-first), flood extent and depth, tornado tracks, wind speed and direction, fire perimeters, and a big data pipeline for assessing post-catastrophe population activity from human mobility data.
• R&D of a method for open satellite imagery-based detection of illicit crops for a FTSE 100 agriculture company resulting in seizure of over £75 million worth of crops.
• Other major consultancy projects including a deforestation and carbon biomass loss study for international media and environmental groups, post-pollution vegetation health analysis for a renowned London law firm, and security analysis for a FTSE 100 mining company, among others.
• Five-day GIS and remote sensing fundamentals course delivered to four officers of a Middle Eastern air force.
• Promotions: Geospatial Analyst -> Geospatial Developer -> Geospatial Lead

Research Assistant | GeoData | 2019-2020

At GeoData, a University of Southampton-based research institute, my open-ended contract-based work comprised: • Continued assistance on the UN FAO “Strengthening Afghanistan Institutions’ capacity for the Assessment of Agriculture Production and Scenario Development” project.

Responsibilities:

• Policy analysis
• Climatological and agro-ecological data processing, analysis, and reporting
• Design of a national crop bulletin and e-Learning course to develop the GIS-based data processing and policy brief writing skills of Afghan students

Education

MSc Applied GIS and Remote Sensing | University of Southampton | 2018-2019 | Distinction

Dissertation:
Evaluating scenarios and capacity for agricultural land use change in response to climate change in Afghanistan.

Associated with a UN FAO developed, EU funded project, I evaluated the capacity of Afghan institutions to enhance agricultural land use and meet policy production targets in the context of projected future climate change.

BSc (Hons) Geography | Swansea University | 2015-2018 | First

Dissertation:
The relationship between temperature and vegetation: a case study from central Scotland.

Awarded for Outstanding Performance in Year 3.

Professional Development

• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900)
• Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals (DP-900)
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals (AI-900)
• Esri, ARSET, RUS Copernicus, and EO College courses
• Conference attendance including those of Esri, CARTO, and Maxar
• Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (FRGS), eligible for Chartered Geographer status within two years

Download CV