Geohazards Scientist (Contract Position - 9 months)

Title: Geohazards Scientist (Contract position - 9 months)

About the role

We are looking for a skilled scientist with expertise in geophysics or remote sensing hazard modelling to join our team. In this role, you’ll contribute to the development and expansion of our in-house landslide and subsidence risk models, helping to extend their application to new geographic regions. As part of a collaborative, multi-disciplinary Science Team, you’ll work alongside experts in climate science, machine learning, and natural hazard modelling. This position is well-suited to someone experienced in working with large, complex geospatial datasets, with a proven track record of training and validating machine learning models for production use. If you’re excited about applying your skills to advance cutting-edge hazard modelling, we’d love to hear from you.

The impact you’ll own

• Geohazards model development and implementation: You’ll be spearheading the research and implementation of our existing geo hazard machine learning models as we expand into new regions. You’ll be tasked with acquiring training and validation data for these models from diverse open-source data sources.
• Fine-tune and future-proof our models: Take ownership of calibrating and validating models to meet the highest scientific, practical, and regulatory standards. You'll ensure these models perform seamlessly at a continental scale, empowering clients with useful and reliable risk assessments.
• Bring creativity to validation challenges: Use your hazard modelling expertise to tackle qualitative validation in innovative ways, especially when data is scarce. Your insights will help us push boundaries and improve outcomes.
• Lead with vision and expertise: Showcase your technical prowess by documenting and presenting models for scientific peer review. Collaborate with stakeholders to shape the future of our geohazard solutions and drive innovation at every step. A key output of your work will be technical and qualitative validation reports of your model for regulatory purposes.

Essential Skills

• Solid understanding of geophysical processes, especially subsidence and landslides, with the ability to apply this knowledge to model land-based hazards.
• Practical experience with supervised machine learning models; i.e., experience of training, calibrating, and validating models on diverse datasets. Applying these models at large geographic scales.
• Strong programming skills in geospatial computing and machine learning (geopandas, GDAL, xarray, sklearn, scipy, numpy, QGIS). Skilled in using cloud computing services (e.g. AWS) or similar High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments for data-intensive projects.
• Experienced in data sourcing and wrangling of Earth Observation/geospatial data at terabyte scale.
• Strong written communication skills with ability to explain complex concepts to a non-technical audience.

Desirable Skills

Experience in any one of these areas makes you stand out but are not required for the role and if you are passionate and interested in the role we encourage you to apply!

• Experience building, validating and documenting models within a regulated industry (e.g. financial services industries).
• Knowledge of recent literature in geophysical hazard (e.g. volcano, subsidence) monitoring and modelling approaches.
• Experience with radar Earth Observation data for Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (DInSAR) of ground motion for subsidence monitoring.

Qualifications

• PhD or equivalent experience in geophysics, geological, or environmental sciences disciplines.
• Minimum of 3 years of industry experience in (geo)physical hazard modelling or machine learning.

Benefits 

🌍 Contribute to a business making purposeful impact related to climate change 

💡 Monthly training & conference budget to help you upskill and develop your career (£1,000 per year) 

📈 6 monthly appraisals and 12 monthly pay reviews 

💰 Pension contribution scheme 

🏡 Flexible hours and hybrid working (3 days/week in office; core hours 10am-4pm) 

🏥 Mental Health and Wellbeing support via Oliva  

🏖 25 days holiday, plus Bank Holidays, annual 3-day Christmas-closure, and half day on your birthday (36.5 days total!) 

🏏 Optional quarterly socials, dinners, and fun nights out 

🥐 A fully stocked supply of snacks, fruit, and refreshments for the days when you are in the office 

🚴 Cycle to work scheme via gogeta

🍼 Enhanced maternity and paternity

🐶 Pawternity leave

🐕 Dog friendly office (official residence of Alfie, Chief Mischief Officer) 

Equal Opportunities 

Climate X are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees and welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds.