OSINT Analyst - Vessel Identification

Automated detection can find vessels, but cannot always tell you which vessel it is. When a contact appears in a satellite image with no matching AIS, when an identity has been spoofed or duplicated, when a name and IMO do not agree, or when the models simply return low confidence, a human analyst has to resolve it. 

As an OSINT Analyst on Kpler's Maritime Domain Awareness team, you are the adjudication layer behind the machine. You take the detections that automated identification cannot confidently resolve and attach an identity to them: name, IMO, owner, operator, and flag, with the evidence and the confidence to stand behind it. You investigate dark vessels, AIS gaps, GNSS spoofing, and identity manipulation, and you reconstruct the ownership and behaviour that explains what a vessel is really doing.

Your work does two things at once. It makes Kpler's unified vessel record more complete and more trusted for the analysts, compliance desks, and government users who depend on it. And it creates the labelled ground truth that makes the detection models better, so the routine cases keep shrinking and human attention stays on the genuinely hard ones.

Mission

• Adjudicate the identifications that automated detection cannot resolve: attach a verified identity to dark, spoofed, or low-confidence contacts, with sourced evidence and an explicit confidence level.
• Investigate identity manipulation and evasion: AIS gaps and dark periods, GNSS and position spoofing, duplicated or borrowed MMSI, name and flag changes, and vessel substitution.
• Apply open-source intelligence tradecraft: interpret satellite and optical imagery, work ship-photo databases and vessel registries, corporate and beneficial-ownership records, port-state and terminal records, classification and insurance sources, and open reporting.
• Reconstruct pattern-of-life and ownership-over-time, building the history that turns a single detection into an explained vessel.
• Produce structured identification records with clear provenance: every conclusion traceable to its sources, confidence stated plainly, and reporting language disciplined and defensible.
• Feed the model-improvement loop: return ground truth and edge cases to the data science team, and help define where automation should focus next.
• Uphold sourcing and data-integrity standards across the team, keeping the record accurate, current, and trusted.

Experience & Background

Essential:

• 3+ years in intelligence, investigations, maritime analysis, or a related open-source (OSINT) research discipline, with a track record of turning fragmentary evidence into defensible conclusions.
• Working knowledge of the maritime domain: vessel types and particulars, AIS, registries, flag and ownership structures, and shipping operations.
• Genuine OSINT tradecraft: source discovery and evaluation, cross-referencing across independent sources, and disciplined handling of uncertainty and provenance.
• Confidence interpreting imagery (satellite, optical, and ideally SAR) well enough to reason about what a detection is showing.
• Meticulous, evidence-led documentation and clear written assessments, with careful use of confidence and caveat language.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with sanctions, trade compliance, and evasion typologies (shadow-fleet behaviour, ship-to-ship transfers, chokepoint activity).
• Experience contributing labelled data or ground truth to machine-learning workflows, or working alongside a data science team.
• GIS and geospatial tooling, and comfort with large datasets.
• Additional languages relevant to major shipping and registry jurisdictions.

Behavioural Competencies

• Rigorous and evidence-led, with an instinct for corroboration and a low tolerance for unsupported claims.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, and able to reach and defend a judgement when the picture is incomplete.
• Structured, methodical, and able to prioritise a queue of investigations under time pressure.
• Strong communicator, able to write for analysts, compliance teams, and senior stakeholders alike.
• Curious and collaborative, with a continuous-improvement mindset and a willingness to strengthen the tools around you.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in international relations, security or intelligence studies, maritime studies, geography, data or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.