Are You a Spy Tech Nerd Who Can 'Climb Poles'? The US Embassy in Thailand Has a Job for You

Have you ever dreamed of fighting in the war on drugs? Are you both a geek and a good climber? Are you OK with high humidity, hot weather, and insane traffic jams? Well, the US Embassy in Thailand has a job for you.

The American outpost in Bangkok is looking for a "narcotics investigator" to help the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) with very specialized skills, including a degree in electrical or electronics engineering, and at least five years' of designing, installing, and using "vehicle surveillance, disabling devices with internet or cellular monitoring, internet based surveillance camera concealments, and technical investigative equipment," according to a job listing posted recently.

Oh, and you "must be able to climb poles or radio tower."

Read more: This Is the DEA's Internal Dictionary of Drug Slang

It's unclear exactly why a narcotics agent who—according to the job description—might need to carry a gun would also need to climb poles or radio towers, nor why the embassy felt confident this wasn't giving away too much information to local authorities, who might not be too happy with American agents climbing around.

When asked about the job, the US embassy said in an email that it "has to deal with technical operation involving mechanical, electronic and Internet/Cellular systems which sometimes [requires] candidates to climb poles or radio towers."

The job description says that the agent's responsibilities will be "developing, maintaining, and managing state of the art technical surveillance equipment and tracking devices," and he or she will need to prove "up to date knowledge of modern electronics theory and state of the art investigative technology."

Given that, it's likely the embassy wants the agent to climb up poles and towers to install surveillance gear. As the Thai blog for expats Stickboy Bangkok put it, this is "basically bugging and spy shit."

If you're wondering how common it is for an arm of the US government to be openly looking for spy-like skills in the open, Googling "must be able to climb poles or radio tower" only returns this job opening, which has been posted a few times in the last month. Sounds like a unique opportunity!

This story has been updated to include the US embassy's comment.

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