Job Type: Full time, remote
Location: Remote - Innovate!, Inc
Pay: $90,000-$97,000/year
Description:
Innovate is looking for a Wildland Fire Risk Scientist to provide advanced scientific and geospatial research support focused on understanding wildfire exposure and risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and other valued assets. The role will apply remote sensing, GIS, geospatial processing, scripting, statistical analysis, simulation modeling, machine learning, and science communication to support national-scale wildfire risk assessment and mitigation research.
Applicants must have maintained residency in the United States for at least three years and must be able to successfully complete and maintain a National Agency Check and background investigation after hire to obtain required facility access credentials and user accounts.
Key Responsibilities:
Advance research in wildfire exposure and risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and other valued assets to inform wildfire risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies.
Advance methods to predict wildfire exposure and damage to buildings at national or larger scales using simulation models, deep learning, and machine learning.
Lead the development and publication of journal articles related to wildfire risk research.
Develop, maintain, and expand datasets that quantify annual building losses caused by wildfires.
Develop prototypes and identify data sources for non-building valued assets, including communications, energy, hydrological, and transportation infrastructure impacted by wildfires.
Develop, update, and analyze global- and national-scale Wildland Urban Interface datasets using building footprints, Census Bureau data, land cover, and fire occurrence data.
Required Skills and Experience:
PhD, advanced degree, or equivalent experience in ecology, landscape ecology, forestry, fire science, conservation science, or another relevant field, especially with study of how ecological systems function naturally and after disturbance.
Minimum 3-5 years of recent and related work experience in fire ecology, including knowledge of plant community dynamics across the landscape.
Advanced understanding of ground, surface, and canopy fuel types and characteristics and their effects on wildland fire behavior in conjunction with environmental factors.
Experience with image processing and GIS software such as ERDAS, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Pro, or QGIS.
Familiarity with raster and vector data processing, spatial analysis, and validation.
Experience using Python and R, and potentially AI-supported development environments, to develop models, data analyses, and visualizations.
Experience working with shared code repositories.
Ability to serve as both lead author and co-author in planning and completing manuscripts for high-impact scientific journals.
Strong interpersonal communication, technical writing, editing, and presentation skills, with advanced knowledge of Microsoft Office tools for reporting and process documentation.
Ability to work collaboratively to shape, manage, and execute projects that apply geospatial data and systems to solve complex geospatial problems.
Additional Preferred Skills and Experience:
Ability to contribute to the definition, direction, and implementation of the Wildland Fuels Program at EROS.
Ability to self-teach in areas of weakness using available on-the-job training resources.
