Careers
Full Time
SR. ATMOSPHERIC SCIENTIST | DATA SCIENTIST IN CLIMATE DATA ANALYTICS | [PDF]
position overview
We are hiring an Sr. Atmospheric Scientist / Data Scientist in Climate Data Analytics to develop a historical and near-real time weather data platform. Primary responsibilities will be building a backend structure that finds, QA/QCs and then delivers historical weather data and observations to a related future climate data platform for California’s energy sector. The Sr. Atmospheric Scientist / Data Scientist will also support the development of novel approaches and metrics that help guide users to actionable and appropriate, quality-controlled climate and historical weather data.
The applicant will develop a cloud/web facing platform and toolkits for a technical (but not necessarily scientific) audience. This is a public facing project, advancing advance reliability and safety of California’s electricity and natural gas system -- it will involve frequent stakeholder engagement and collaboration with project partners at the California Energy Commission, University of California and in private industry.
We know that scientists are a varied lot, and will consider full and part-time applicants, applicants seeking to work non-traditional hours and applicants working remotely. If your experiences don’t line up with what is outlined below, but think you’d be a great fit for the project, please still apply so we can learn more about you.
Due to COVID-19 we are working remotely for the foreseeable future. If employees are interested in returning to the office when it’s safe, proof of vaccination will be required.
The applicant will develop a cloud/web facing platform and toolkits for a technical (but not necessarily scientific) audience. This is a public facing project, advancing advance reliability and safety of California’s electricity and natural gas system -- it will involve frequent stakeholder engagement and collaboration with project partners at the California Energy Commission, University of California and in private industry.
We know that scientists are a varied lot, and will consider full and part-time applicants, applicants seeking to work non-traditional hours and applicants working remotely. If your experiences don’t line up with what is outlined below, but think you’d be a great fit for the project, please still apply so we can learn more about you.
Due to COVID-19 we are working remotely for the foreseeable future. If employees are interested in returning to the office when it’s safe, proof of vaccination will be required.
position responsibilities
The Atmospheric / Data Scientist will be expected to lead and contribute to the following tasks:
- develop a cloud-based platform for historical weather data at high resolution that can support and connect climate data with other natural gas sector climate risk research; and
- develop analytics and metrics to create understandable and usable data and toolkits for developing resilience in the energy system (i.e. credibility assessments, quantifying uncertainty, guiding users to customized scenarios, creating stress tests for energy system);
- Communicate directly with and engage project partners and stakeholders. This is an applied research project, you will be responsible for ensuring research benefits partners and stakeholders.
- Contribute to business development by developing professional networks and contacts, identifying funding opportunities and proposal writing.
- Provide mentoring and/or supervision of junior staff.
- This position requires periodic travel (when it is safe to do so) to workshops, seminars, conferences and meetings with our partners.
- This position requires a lot of computer work, applicants will need to be capable of working at a desk or computer for the majority of the workday.
- Rarely you may be asked to work late or on weekends. Even more rarely, if something critical breaks, you may be asked to fix it, even late at night.
- Perform other duties as required. We are a small team, and sometimes you’ll have to do tasks that are outside of position scope.
required qualifications
- Share our values and vision, particularly in creating an inclusive and welcoming workplace.
- Expertise in analyzing and working with very large geospatial datasets (ideally weather observations, GCM output and/or historical weather data products).
- Subject mastery in atmospheric/climate science or similar geophysical, environmental, computational, or adjacent engineering/mathematical fields; likely a M.S. or Ph.D. or equivalence in experience.
Desired Qualifications
We anticipate applicants having some, but not all, of these qualifications.
- Experience performing scientific/computational work in the cloud, or better -- experience developing applications on AWS.
- Expertise with a modern computing language (such as Python, R, or Fortran77) or proprietary/dying computer languages (such as MATLAB or IDL), along with the willingness to learn other languages. Experience working with scientific (geophysical) toolkits (i.e. nco, cdo, ncl), repositories/libraries (i.e. MetPy, numpy, scipy, tidyr), or visualization packages (i.e. ggplot, matplotlib, cartopy) a plus. Basically, we hope to find a candidate who has knowledge any setup for working with big geospatial data, and trust your capacity to learn our particular approach (i.e. python).
- Capacity to make decisions and execute project tasks amidst an incomplete and evolving understanding of partner and stakeholder needs.
- Personal accountability and the capacity to work independently, while managing multiple concurrent projects with overlapping deadlines.
- Familiarity with GCM skill/uncertainty/confidence assessment, downscaling techniques and/or modeling experience.
- Familiarity developing and/or applying automated methods for QA/QC on geospatial data.
- Experience developing, managing, or contributing to open-source repositories.
- Experience, or a willingness to learn, working with large diverse and multidisciplinary teams (leadership or project management a plus).
- Demonstrated interest in stakeholder engagement, public policy and/or doing science that benefits people. The two projects the successful candidate will be working on benefit California’s electric and natural gas ratepayers. We’re looking to hire someone who’s excited to do science that increases reliability, safety and lowers the cost of the energy system. Familiarity with California energy system rules, regulations and legislation a plus.
- Excellent communication (writing and oral) and comfort speaking to technical and non-technical partners, as well as colleagues at state and federal agencies. At a minimum this includes the capacity to write technically (proposals and manuscripts), write directly and simply in executive summaries and informal communication; orally communicate with slide decks at professional meetings, and communicate informally with partners. Communication (to us) includes the capacity to engage partners with empathy, be open to feedback and constructive criticism, capacity to engage partners and colleagues with tact and sensitivity.
- General and broad knowledge of modern software and applications, such as videoconferencing, MS office, collaboration tools (like GitHub) and team communication software (we use Slack). You will be working with colleagues working remotely, partners at other institutions and/or be working remotely yourself – so we expect you to communicate effectively asynchronously and without supervision.
About Eagle Rock Analytics
We are a small climate and environmental consulting firm, who focuses on applied research that transforms large geospatial data into understandable information that answer questions or advances the science. We don’t take profits on most projects, allowing us to prioritize our clients and stakeholders, maintain professionalism and scientific ethics, and do work without ego. We’re hoping to find people to join our team who agree that slow, steady, methodical and empathetic is better than a fast-paced, work-hard-play-hard, everyone is a unicorn/rockstar approach.
Benefits & Compensation
Salary for this position will be a minimum of $8,000 per month or ~$96,000 per year, and higher for experienced candidates. Salary for this project was set by referring to NSF Survey of Doctorate Recipients and the State of California pay-scale for Air Pollution Specialists, and is competitive with jobs in the environmental sector within California. We are advertising this position as a full-time, non-exempt position based in Sacramento, CA but will strongly consider applicants seeking part-time employment and/or working remotely.
Eagle Rock Analytics offers a flexible workplace with a generous benefit package, including at a minimum health & dental insurance, retirement (i.e. 401k) with employer matching, liberal paid time off, and professional development opportunities. As a smaller company we are able to work with employees to meet their needs. We’ll offer some of the following benefits to full time employees, based on stated needs of our staff: life insurance, long-term disability insurance, childcare spending accounts, and other tax advantaged fringe benefits. ERA will take no profit on this work, budget slack will support additional employee perks.
Eagle Rock Analytics offers a flexible workplace with a generous benefit package, including at a minimum health & dental insurance, retirement (i.e. 401k) with employer matching, liberal paid time off, and professional development opportunities. As a smaller company we are able to work with employees to meet their needs. We’ll offer some of the following benefits to full time employees, based on stated needs of our staff: life insurance, long-term disability insurance, childcare spending accounts, and other tax advantaged fringe benefits. ERA will take no profit on this work, budget slack will support additional employee perks.
How to Apply or Learn More
Questions?: Submit your questions about the application process, position, or working at Eagle Rock Analytics to jobs@eaglerockanalytics.com. You can also consult our careers FAQ for additional information.
To Apply: E-mail a cover letter and resume/cv to jobs@eaglerockanalytics.com with the subject line of “Sr. Atmospheric Scientist” or “Data Scientist.” In lieu of a cover letter, we welcome a Statement of Qualification which addresses in your own words why you are qualified for the position. Please limit replies to 2 pages, with 1” margins and size 12 Times New Roman font.
Deadline and Process: We’ll begin reviewing applications on July 26th, and will continue to do so until the listings are removed from our website. We will reach out to successful applicants for references and interviews in July. All applicants will be notified when the position is filled.
To Apply: E-mail a cover letter and resume/cv to jobs@eaglerockanalytics.com with the subject line of “Sr. Atmospheric Scientist” or “Data Scientist.” In lieu of a cover letter, we welcome a Statement of Qualification which addresses in your own words why you are qualified for the position. Please limit replies to 2 pages, with 1” margins and size 12 Times New Roman font.
Deadline and Process: We’ll begin reviewing applications on July 26th, and will continue to do so until the listings are removed from our website. We will reach out to successful applicants for references and interviews in July. All applicants will be notified when the position is filled.
