Internship – Imagery Science and Analytics

Duration

12 months

Internships

The IAEA accepts a limited number of interns each year. The internships are awarded to persons studying towards a university degree or who have recently received a degree (see Internship web pages for further details).

The Purpose Of The Programme Is

• To provide interns with the opportunity to gain practical work experience in line with their studies or interests, and expose them to the work of the IAEA and the United Nations as a whole;
• To benefit the IAEA's programmes through the assistance of qualified students specialized in various professional fields.
  
  

The duration of an internship is normally not less than three months and not more than one year.

Organizational Setting

The Department of Safeguards carries out the IAEA's duties and responsibilities as the world's nuclear inspectorate, supporting global efforts to stop the spread of nuclear weapons. The primary role of the Department is to develop and implement IAEA safeguards to ensure that there is no diversion of declared nuclear material from peaceful activities and no indications of undeclared nuclear material or activities in a State as a whole.

The Department comprises nuclear safeguards inspectors, responsible for carrying out inspections and verifications of all-safeguards relevant information for nuclear facilities in over 180 States; and technical staff responsible for a wide range of activities including: developing concepts and approaches for implementing safeguards; developing and maintaining safeguards equipment; providing analytical and laboratory services for sample analysis;collecting, evaluating and analysing safeguards-relevant information; providing information and communication technology infrastructure and services; and providing programme coordination support.

The Division of Information Management (SGIM) implements state of the art methodologies and techniques for the collection, processing and analysis of a range of safeguards-relevant information, including declarations submitted by States, evaluations resulting from the analysis of samples or measurements collected during infield activities, and information from open sources, including nuclear trade-related data and satellite imagery. Staff perform data validation and complex information analysis and evaluation to support infield activities and provide key input to the State evaluation process.

Main Purpose

The Safeguards Division of Information Management is seeking an intern with a strong interest in applying modern remote sensing and imagery science techniques to satellite imagery and geospatial information to join the team and contribute to the development of value-added tools for imagery analysts.

As an imagery science and analytics intern, you will have the opportunity to work alongside experienced imagery analysts and investigate applications of open source imagery, such as Sentinel, and open-source geospatial information, such as OpenStreetMap, for the creation of analytical tools, including for landcover classification, building and road detection or segmentation, multispectral information extraction, visualization, and change detection.

Functions / Key Results Expected

• As an intern within the State Infrastructure Analysis Section, you will support the enhancement of analytical capabilities for satellite imagery and geospatial data and be provided with a high level of professional development. Your tasks will include the following:
• Building rapid prototypes and Proof of Concepts (PoC) to determine fit and usability;
• Interacting with business users to define the scope and analytics business case;
• Supporting in the development and application technologies such as machine-learning and deep-learning algorithms to enable imagery and geospatial analytics product functionality;
• Identifying suitable open-source imagery and geospatial data sources and implementing related data collection, cleaning, pre-processing, and labelling processes.
  
  

Qualifications And Experience

• University degree in mathematics, statistics, remote sensing, or a data science related field.
• Basic familiarity with computer programming and satellite imagery analysis is an asset.
• Foundational proficiency in Python programming for data analysis, image processing, or geospatial applications with the ability to write clear, well-structures scripts or notebooks.
• Exposure to machine learning concepts and libraries commonly used for image and geospatial data (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn) including coursework, projects or research experience.
• Basic knowledge of remote sensing and satellite image processing, including familiarity with common data formats (e.g., GeoTIFF) and Python-based geospatial or image processing libraries (e.g., GDAL, rasterio, NumPy) gained through academic or project work.
• Understanding of machine learning methodologies applied to imagery such as supervised and unsupervised learning and introductory deep learning concepts (e.g., convolutional neural networks) demonstrated through coursework or practical projects.
• Awareness of multi-resolution and multi-sensor data challenges, including spatial resolution differences, co-registration, and resampling, particularly in the context of combining high-resolution imagery with lower-resolution multispectral data is an asset.
  
  

Applicant Eligibility

• Candidates must be a minimum of 20 years of age and have completed at least three years of full-time studies at a university or equivalent institution towards the completion of a first degree.
• Candidates may apply up to one year after the completion of a bachelor's, master's or doctorate degree.
• Candidates must not have previously participated in the IAEA's internship programme.
• Good written and spoken English essential; fluency in any other IAEA official language (Arabic, Chinese, French, Spanish or Russian) an asset.
• Candidates must attach two signed letters of recommendation to their application.
  
  

Organization

SGIM-State Infrastructure Analysis Section

Primary Location

Austria-Vienna-Vienna-IAEA Headquarters

Job Posting

2026-02-10, 5:49:01 PM

Closing Date

2026-03-03, 11:59:00 PM

Duration in Months

12

Contract Type

Interns

Full Competitive Recruitment

No