Forest Carbon Geospatial Scientist

Overview 

To inform our technical strategy and provide cutting-edge scientific insight, Carbon Direct is seeking a dynamic, entrepreneurial, team-focused mid-career forest scientist dedicated to end-to-end carbon management. The Forest Carbon Geospatial Scientist will apply a strong vision of how forest and forestry systems can best contribute to mitigating climate change while also being a doer who implements solutions and delivers positive outcomes.

Responsibilities 

• Advise clients on carbon removal by helping them understand the opportunities and risks associated with different methods of carbon removal across forestry systems, develop carbon removal strategies, construct carbon removal portfolios, integrate carbon management into their business, and communicate efforts to clients and the public.
• Conduct technical due diligence of forest carbon projects, including leading due diligence teams to ensure forest carbon projects adhere to Carbon Direct’s criteria for high-quality carbon dioxide removal.
• Lead internal data & analysis pipeline development (e.g., geospatial tooling). 
• Contribute to efforts to develop data-driven tools to identify high-quality forest carbon projects.
• Lead remote sensing work (e.g., deep dive additionality, baseline, leakage assessments, rigorous assessments of methodologies).
• Perform quantitative and qualitative assessments of economic, social, and environmental co-benefits of forestry-related climate action which may include social and environmental justice, biodiversity preservation and promotion, and the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Conduct on-going monitoring, reporting, and verification for long-term forest projects and conduct site visits and stakeholder consultations as needed.
• Partner with our Software team to build and scale solutions, ensuring integration of the latest science into our platform & services.
• Write reports, policy briefs, and peer-reviewed publications and actively communicate the findings to the public, policymakers, and the media. 
• Mentor and train junior colleagues.

Qualifications 

• A PhD or M.S. and multiple years of experience in forestry, applied forest ecology, or a forestry-related discipline
• Experience conducting field work in forestry, forestry research, or forest ecology
• Strong analytical experience including at least three of the following:
  • Remote sensing, and/or GIS skills
  • Spatial statistics and sampling/survey design experience
  • Growth and yield modeling experience
  • Data analysis and process modeling experience 
  • Econometrics
• Demonstrated ability to produce high-quality research and analytical results with limited direct guidance. This analytical experience should include at least two of the following:
  • Evaluating key quality criteria (e.g., additionality, baseline, and leakage) for nature-based project types
  • Assessing the economic and ecological viability of natural systems for proposed management plans/forest stand management plans
  • Original research in forestry or forest ecology
  • Analysis of carbon markets or carbon protocols
• Forest carbon accounting and/or forest carbon protocol experience 
• Reforestation experience 
• Tropical and/or North American forestry or forest ecology experience 
• Experience working with landowners
• Excellent communication and cross-functional team building skills, with the ability to create strong relationships with a global distributed team 
• Demonstrated excellence in a fast-paced, outcome-oriented professional environment (e.g., consulting, startup, not-for-profit)
• Passion for addressing climate change

Salary Range

$130,000 - $159,000 a year