Exploitation Specialist / Data Manager

Position Overview

Riverside Research is seeking an experienced Exploitation Specialist / Data Manager to provide advanced exploitation support, lead data management workflows, and drive mission-critical GEOINT production. This senior role combines deep tradecraft expertise with technical leadership, ensuring analytic teams have fast, reliable access to high-quality datasets and exploitation-ready imagery. The ideal candidate excels at structuring large data ecosystems, enhancing exploitation pipelines, mentoring junior staff, and partnering directly with DoD and Intelligence Community stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead the management, organization, and curation of large, multi-sensor GEOINT datasets, including SAR, EO, IR, multispectral, and specialized collections
• Oversee structured data workflows, enforce metadata standards, and ensure consistent lineage and traceability across analytic products
• Perform advanced exploitation tasks, generating high-quality products such as change detection, feature extraction, environmental assessments, and multi-sensor fusion outputs
• Supervise and optimize mission data workflows, identifying inefficiencies and implementing improved processing, cataloging, and automation techniques
• Conduct data-quality validation, anomaly resolution, and compliance checks against DoD and IC standards
• Guide developers and engineering partners on data requirements, exploitation impacts, and collection strategy optimization
• Lead the development, documentation, and refinement of SOPs for exploitation, cataloging, ingestion, and multi-mission data management
• Mentor junior analysts and data managers, providing technical direction and tradecraft instruction
• Prepare mission briefings, status reports, and technical documentation for senior leadership and external stakeholders
• Ensure timely delivery of high-value datasets and exploitation support to ongoing operations and long-term analytic missions
• Other duties as assigned

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in Data Management, Remote Sensing, Geography, Image Science, a related field or equivalent experience
• 7+ years of GEOINT data management, imagery exploitation, or related analytical experience
• Demonstrated expertise in cataloging, metadata standards, and structured GEOINT data ecosystems
• Hands-on experience with exploitation tools (ENVI/IDL, ArcGIS, QGIS, ERDAS, or similar)
• Proficiency in workflow automation or scripting (Python preferred)
• Proven ability to lead technical tasks, mentor junior personnel, and engage with senior stakeholders
• Strong understanding of IC/DoD production standards, data policies, and mission priorities
• Active TS/SCI clearance

Desired Qualifications

• Experience managing large-scale data environments within DoD or IC operations
• Familiarity with SAR and EO exploitation workflows
• Experience with database systems, cloud-based data environments, or data-governance frameworks
• Knowledge of ML/AI-assisted data categorization or exploitation tools
• Excellent communication skills and ability to lead cross-functional teams