Research engineer in sedimentary hydroacoustics

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INRAE presentation

The French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE) is a major player in research and innovation. It is a community of 12,000 people with 272 research, experimental research, and support units located in 18 regional centres throughout France. Internationally, INRAE is among the top research organisations in the agricultural and food sciences, plant and animal sciences, as well as in ecology and environmental science. It is the world’s leading research organisation specialising in agriculture, food and the environment. INRAE’s goal is to be a key player in the transitions necessary to address major global challenges. Faced with a growing world population, climate change, resource scarcity, and declining biodiversity, the Institute has a major role to play in building solutions and supporting the necessary acceleration of agricultural, food and environmental transitions.

Work environment, missions and activities

-  You will be working in the River Hydraulics team of the RiverLy Research Unit, AQUA Department, INRAE Lyon-Villeurbanne site, France. The project is part of the Rhône Sediment Observatory's three-year OSR7 programme (2024-2027), Action A.1 - Quantify sand stocks and fluxes in the Lyon area (in situ measurements, sediment budget and modelling). The project also relates to the collaboration between INRAE and CNR for the development of the free software AcouSed (Moudjed et al., 2024), which calculates the concentrations of fine and sand sediments in suspension in rivers, based on multi-frequency hydro-acoustic profiler recordings.

- You will be in charge of the following tasks:

• Tests and applications of the free AcouSed software (in conjunction with an external service provider in charge of software development) on OSR7 data sets (samples, concentration and grain size, acoustic records with Aquascat profiler from Aquatec and UBSediFlow profiler from Ubertone), in particular:
  • Exploitation of data acquired on the Rhône at the Pyrimont bridge during the APAVER dam flushing operation (May 2025)
  • Exploitation of data acquired on the Rhône at Perrache (hydro-acoustic station installed in 2025 by INRAE as part of OSR7)
  • Exploitation of data acquired during one-off campaigns on the Rhône.
• Evaluation of the hydro-acoustic inversion method (Vergne et al., 2020) implemented in AcouSed and proposal of methodological improvements and alternative modelling options
• Contribution to the operation of the Perrache station, one-off campaigns and the acquisition of associated hydro-sedimentary data
• Scientific exploitation of methodological results and knowledge of sand fluxes in the Rhône: conference papers, scientific publications, technical reports and OSR7 deliverables. 

Training and skills

- Recommended training: Master 2 Research, engineer or PhD in hydraulics, fluvial geomorphology, sedimentology or hydro-acoustics

- Wanted knowledge: Programming languages (Python, advanced level), hydro-acoustic measurements

- Wanted experience: river measurements, sediment analysis

- Wanted skills: rigour, autonomy, oral/written communication, fluency in scientific English

INRAE's life quality

By joining our teams, you benefit from (depending on the type of contract and its duration):

- up to 30 days of annual leave + 15 days "Reduction of Working Time" (for a full time);
- parenting support: CESU childcare, leisure services;
- skills development systems: training, career advise;
- social support: advice and listening, social assistance and loans;
- holiday and leisure services: holiday vouchers, accommodation at preferential rates;
- sports and cultural activities;
- collective catering.

How to apply

I send my CV and my motivation letter