Drone Survey & Geospatial Data Specialist

Perth, WA · Field + Office · Occasional interstate/remote deployment

Drone Forge is a Western Australian RPAS/drone capability integrator operating across defence, government, and commercial sectors, delivering platforms, payloads, and operational services through its CASA-certified operations. We're not a hardware reseller and we're not a single-platform shop — we select the right sensor and airframe for the mission and stand behind the data. This role sits in our spatial team and owns the pipeline from flight plan to validated deliverable.

Key Responsibilities

- Plan and fly UAV survey missions across multirotor, VTOL and fixed-wing platforms to project spec, under our ReOC.
- Capture LiDAR, photogrammetry and RTK/PPK GNSS with appropriate ground control and check points.
- Run the full processing pipeline: dense matching, point cloud classification, strip/boresight adjustment, DTM/DSM generation, breakline editing, orthomosaic production and volumetrics.
- Own deliverable accuracy — design and validate control, run check-point analysis, and produce accuracy statements and conformance reporting against project tolerances.
- Manage flight logs, GNSS base records, processing reports and safety documentation to audit standard.
- Work directly with project managers and clients to scope outputs and explain results in plain language.

Selection Criteria

Required

- 5+ years in drone-based survey,



with the majority of your time on UAV acquisition and processing.
- RePL (25 kg) with demonstrated experience operating under a ReOC.
- Solid photogrammetry and LiDAR processing capability — you can take a raw dataset to a validated, classified, client-ready deliverable without supervision.
- GNSS network corrections in practice: RTK and PPK, base/rover setup, and post-processing (e.g., AUSPOS).
- Working command of GDA2020/MGA, AHD, WGS84 and the transformations between them — and you can spot a datum error before it ships.
- Manual driver's licence.
- Australian citizenship (required for our defence-related work).
- Tertiary qualification in surveying, spatial science, geomatics or equivalent demonstrated experience.

Desirable

- Processing depth in any of: Pix4D, DJI Terra, Agisoft Metashape, Trimble Business Center, LiDAR360, TerraSolid, CloudCompare, Global Mapper.
- Magnetometer experience
- CAD/GIS output in Civil 3D, 12D, QGIS or BricsCAD.
- Mining/engineering tolerance, conformance and reporting experience.
- JSA, risk assessment and safety-management literacy for remote field work.

Why Drone Forge

- A real sensor stack, not one airframe — multirotor, fixed-wing, LiDAR, photogrammetry, GNSS — chosen per mission.
- Cross-sector work: mining, civil, environmental, defence. The dataset changes; the standard doesn't.
- Upskilling into thermal, bathymetric and AI-assisted processing as the team grows.

📌 Drone Survey & Geospatial Data Specialist (Perth)
🏢 Drone Forge
📍 Perth