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Scientist, Agricultural Risk Modeling

Employer
AIR
Location
Boston, Massachusetts, US
Salary
Competitive
Closing date
Dec 10, 2021

View more

Sector
Academic / Research
Field
Informatics / GIS
Discipline
Modeling
Salary Type
Salary
Employment Type
Full time
Job Description

ABOUT THE ROLE

SCIENTIST - AGRICULTURAL RISK MODELING

Join our growing Research department as a member of our dynamic AGRICULTURAL RISK MODELING team.

You will work with the team to develop, test, improve, and deploy models across spatial scales from individual fields/farms to whole countries, and over temporal scales from a day through to thousands of years as represented in probabilistic models of agroecosystems and the meteorological factors that can damage those systems.

As a member of this collegial team, you will work closely with clients in order to (a) incorporate up-to-date scientific knowledge, data, and modeling approaches into our existing agricultural risk models; (b) develop and test new crop and livestock models; and (c) deploy models into new regions.

MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES, BUT NOT LIMITED TO:

* Understand client needs and address those needs with our model products.

* Understand the principles of AIRs agricultural risk models and how components work together in order to assess model stability, sensitivity to key drivers, and convergence of output.

* Critically analyze the suitability of historic and stochastic weather datasets used as input to AIRs agricultural risk models. Improve temporal and spatial characteristics of the magnitude and variability of key meteorological variables affecting agricultural systems, such as air temperature, precipitation, and wind speed.

* Build and evaluate datasets that describe cropping systems in multiple regions of the world, including China.

* Develop and test damage functions relating crop and/or livestock losses (e.g., crop yield reduction or livestock mortality) to meteorological factors in China and other countries.

* Understand and assess the financial impacts of crop and livestock modeled outcomes and their wider impacts on global markets.

* Navigate and manage multiple code repositories, data sets, and data archives to maintain and update our models with appropriate approaches to archiving and version control.

* Prepare accurate and effective technical and non-technical documents describing modeling processes and results, both for client use and internal model improvement.

* Create and deliver presentations to coworkers, company management, and clients.

* Deliver results on time to meet project objectives.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES:

* Solid programming skills gained through practical experience using interpreted and/or compiled programming languages. Experience with the interpreted language R a plus.

* Strong mathematical or statistical experience with applications to agricultural and/or environmental sciences.

* Experience using and managing large datasets. SQL and/or ArcGIS experience a plus.

* Demonstrated ability to learn new concepts and skills and to meet project objectives and deadlines.

* Excellent written and oral communication skills.

* Experience with climate change and/or weather forecasting models in an environmental or agricultural context is a plus.

* Applications of remotely sensed (satellite) data and/or machine learning approaches to agriculture a plus.

* Fluency in Mandarin and reading Simplified Chinese a plus.

* Domain knowledge of livestock and animal husbandry a plus.

* Knowledge of the application of probabilistic modeling to (re)insurance applications and/or climate change science a plus.

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