Assistant Engineer, Data Operations and Annotation

Role Overview

The Data Operations and Annotation Engineer supports the preparation and management of data used in analytics and artificial intelligence projects. The role collects, organizes, labels and quality-checks image, video, telemetry and sensor data, ensuring that datasets are accurate, traceable and ready for use by engineering teams.

This is an operational data role. Prior engineering experience is not required. Candidates should be comfortable working with digital data, following structured procedures, maintaining accurate records and learning project-specific annotation tools and technical terminology. The role includes outdoor data collection at test sites during flight tests, field trials and demonstrations.

Key Responsibilities

• Support the collection and transfer of image, video, telemetry, sensor, mission and test data from unmanned air systems, ground control systems and related equipment into approved storage locations.
• Record and maintain essential information about each dataset, including its source, collection date and time, platform, equipment settings, test or mission reference and current status.
• Organize raw, processed, labelled, training, validation and test data using approved folder structures, file-naming rules and version-control procedures.
• Perform or coordinate data labelling using established categories and instructions, including bounding boxes, polygons, masks, key points, class or event labels and timestamps.
• Conduct initial quality checks for missing or corrupted files, incomplete records, duplicate data, naming inconsistencies and incorrect or missing labels.
• Maintain dataset registers, annotation status, version and release records, handover notes and known-issue logs.
• Prepare controlled dataset packages for model development, evaluation, system testing, validation, demonstrations and engineering review.
• Support laboratory and outdoor data-collection activities during flight tests, field trials and demonstrations, including work at test sites in varying weather conditions; escalate unclear or technical issues to the appropriate engineer.

Essential Requirements

• Diploma, Higher Nitec, degree or equivalent qualification in Information Technology, Data Analytics, Digital Media, Multimedia, Communications, Information Management, Engineering, Business Operations or a related discipline.
• Candidates with other qualifications may be considered if they have relevant experience in data annotation, content review or moderation, quality assurance, records management, logistics operations, digital operations or structured data handling.
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to perform repetitive, accuracy-critical tasks consistently.
• Ability to organize digital files, maintain accurate records and follow naming, versioning and data-handling procedures.
• Comfort working with large volumes of image, video or other digital data.
• Ability to follow labelling guidelines, identify inconsistencies and escalate unclear cases rather than make unsupported assumptions.
• Basic proficiency with spreadsheets and office productivity tools.
• Clear written and verbal communication and responsible handling of confidential or project-sensitive information.
• Willingness to learn project-specific annotation tools, UAS and sensor terminology, and dataset control procedures.
• Willingness and ability to perform outdoor work at test sites in varying weather conditions when supporting flight tests, field trials and demonstrations.

Preferred Experience

• Experience in data annotation, content moderation, image or video review, quality assurance, records management, document control, inventory control or data administration.
• Experience using annotation platforms such as CVAT, Label Studio, Roboflow, Supervisely, VGG Image Annotator or equivalent tools.
• Experience maintaining metadata, trackers, version histories, release records or controlled handover documentation.
• Exposure to AI, machine learning, computer vision, video analytics, robotics, unmanned air systems or other sensor-based projects.
• Experience handling data from laboratory tests, field trials, flight tests or demonstrations.
• Experience with geospatial, telemetry, image, video or multi-sensor datasets.

Skills That Can Be Developed on the Job

• Use of computer-vision annotation tools and project-specific labelling workflows.
• UAS, telemetry, sensor and flight-test terminology.
• Project-specific metadata fields, dataset structures and release procedures.
• Distinction between training, validation and test datasets.
• Project-specific labelling categories, quality checks and escalation routes.

Key Competencies

• Accuracy and attention to detail
• Organization and record discipline
• Process compliance and quality awareness
• Sound escalation judgement
• Teamwork and communication
• Learning agility and comfort with digital tools

Working Relationships and Role Boundary

The role works closely with AI/CV/DA engineers, DA/CV systems engineers, UAS and flight-test teams, software engineers, project teams and external annotation providers. The specialist follows approved data and labelling instructions and escalates technical ambiguity. Sensor selection, system requirements, annotation taxonomy approval, model development, UX/UI design and system-level validation remain with the relevant engineering roles.

Main Deliverables

• Complete and traceable data records with the required metadata.
• Consistently labelled and first-level quality-checked datasets.
• Up-to-date dataset, version, annotation and release records.
• Controlled dataset packages and handover information for engineering use.