Job Description

Vectech is hiring an in-person Pollinator Surveillance Research Intern for Mid Spring through the Summer of 2025, with flexible start and end dates. 

Schedule: Monday through Friday. This is a seasonal position roughly from June through September based on employee availability. 10-20 hours a week until the end of the Spring Semester, 40 hrs a week through the Summer. Exact work hours are flexible, coordinating with other members of the technical team. 

Location: In-Person Greater Baltimore area. Office in Baltimore, MD. Candidates must have transportation to drive to nearby field sites for fieldwork. Mileage will be reimbursed based on IRS 2025 standard mileage rates. 

Compensation: This is a paid internship at a rate of $20 per hour.

What will you do?

Candidates for the Pollinator Surveillance Research Intern position should have an interest in insect ecology/biodiversity, pollinator research, and taxonomy. You will set up experimental wild bee camera traps at local field sites, observe pollinator visitation, and take images and identify insect species with a focus on wild bee species. You will support Vectech engineers to test new technologies for pollinator surveillance and data gathering in the field and in the lab. You may also be expected to help out in support of other on-going projects in the office.

Candidates should be comfortable working with basic computers and software, and will gain exposure to working with a multidisciplinary technical team developing cutting edge technologies to improve the state of pollinator surveillance. Candidates with a broad range of practical experiences will be considered including amateur naturalists, environmental science or survey experience, technology related experience, wildlife photographers, and pollinator research roles. Candidates must hold a Drivers License valid in the United States. If you have a passion for working outdoors and have an interest in pollinators, mosquitoes, and ticks, we encourage you to apply.

Candidate Internship Eligibility - Interns must meet one of the four descriptions below:

1. Current college student, with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or above, who is attending a Maryland higher education institution.
2. Current college student, with a cumulative GPA of 2.5 or above, who is Maryland high school graduate attending a higher education institution outside of Maryland.
3. Graduate (within 12 months) of a Maryland higher education institution.
4. Maryland resident, with a 2 or 4-year degree, who has been honorably discharged from the U.S. Armed Forces, The National Guard or a Reserve component of the Armed Forces within the last 18 months.

Responsibilities include:

• Driving to field sites to set and retrieve experimental camera traps
• Observing experimental camera traps in the field to assess pollinator interactions
• Video and image data review, annotation, and preliminary analysis for pollinator visitation, support database development, camera trap iteration, and attractant iteration.
• Data entry and compilation for reports
• Supporting quality assurance of Vectech’s image database

• Maintain equipment and supplies in good working order.
• Adhere to all safety and environmental regulations while carrying out duties.

• Other duties as assigned

Required experience/skills:

• Ability to drive to field sites (own car)
• Comfort working in outdoor environments
• Ability to follow guidelines and protocols for data collection and experimentation
• Comfort working closely with wild bees, mosquitoes, ticks and other bugs
• Basic proficiency in Excel or Google Sheets

Nice to have experience:

• Experience identifying insects, arachnids, or other “bugs”
• Experience working outdoors 
• Projects/ internships/ degrees/ certifications in Environmental Science/ Biology or equivalent
• Experience working in collaborative teams with pest management organizations, mosquito control organizations or academic institutions
• Experience with GIS, tableau, and other information systems
• Experience or interest in startups or working with innovative technology
• Experience with pollinators
• Technology savvy

What’s it like working with Vectech?

As a social enterprise, Vectech cares deeply about people. We try to create an open and inclusive workplace, which operates on trust, care, and passion for what we do. Work life balance is highly valued at Vectech, and we make space for that in our policies. 

Who is Vectech?

Vectech equips professionals with the capabilities of a medical entomologist using AI. Mosquitoes are the deadliest animals in the world, killing over half-a-million people each year. Ticks transmit deadly and debilitating diseases. There are thousands of different species of mosquitoes and ticks, which carry different diseases and have different behaviors that call for different control measures. With Vectech's products, pest control organizations in public health can quickly generate the information they need to make public health decisions. Among many other projects, Vectech is also exploring work with pollinators for environmental health monitoring, the focus of this internship. 

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