Scientist I

Company Description

AIR Worldwide (AIR), a Verisk business, provides risk modeling solutions that make individuals, businesses, and society more resilient to extreme events. In 1987, AIR Worldwide founded the catastrophe modeling industry and today models the risk from natural catastrophes, terrorism, pandemics, casualty catastrophes, and cyber attacks, globally. Insurance, reinsurance, financial, corporate, and government clients rely on AIR's advanced science, software, and consulting services for catastrophe risk management, insurance-linked securities, site-specific engineering analyses, and agricultural risk management. AIR Worldwide, is headquartered in Boston with additional offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. To learn more about AIR, please visit us at:?www.air-worldwide.com. We are proud to be a part of the Verisk family of companies!

At the heart of what we do is help clients manage risk. Verisk (Nasdaq: VRSK) provides data and insights to our customers in insurance, energy and the financial services markets so they can make faster and more informed decisions.

Our global team uses AI, machine learning, automation, and other emerging technologies to collect and analyze billions of records. We provide advanced decision-support to prevent credit, lending, and cyber risks. In addition, we monitor and advise companies on complex global matters such as climate change, catastrophes, and geopolitical issues.

But why we do our work is what sets us apart. It stems from a commitment to making the world better, safer and stronger.

It's the reason Verisk is part of the UN Global Compact sustainability initiative. It's why we made a commitment to balancing 100 percent of our carbon emissions. It's the aim of our "returnship" program for experienced professionals rejoining the workforce after time away. And, it's what drives our annual Innovation Day, where we identify our next first-to-market innovations to solve our customers' problems.

At its core, Verisk uses data to minimize risk and maximize value. But far bigger, is why we do what we do.

At Verisk you can build an exciting career with meaningful work; create positive and lasting impact on business; and find the support, coaching, and training you need to advance your career. We have received the Great Place to Work® Certification for the fifth consecutive year. We've been recognized by Forbes as a World's Best Employer and a Best Employer for Women, testaments to our culture of engagement and the value we place on an inclusive and diverse workforce. Verisk's Statement on Racial Equity and Diversity supports our commitment to these values and affecting positive and lasting change in the communities where we live and work.

Job Description

Scientist - Crop 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 crop risk models; (b) develop and test new crop models; and (c) deploy existing and new mode into new regions and/or for new applications.

Main Responsibilities, But Not Limited To

• Understand client needs and address those needs with our model products.
• Understand the principles of AIR's crop risk models and how their components work together in order to assess model stability, sensitivity to key drivers (e.g., weather), and convergence of output.
• Critically analyze decadal-scale trends and causes of interannual variation in yield of major crops grown in the United States and elsewhere, including geographic constraints on, or modifiers of, those trends and their variation.
• Build and evaluate datasets that describe cropping systems (time series of crop area and production) in multiple regions of the world.
• Develop and test damage functions relating crop yield reduction to meteorological factors in the United States and other countries.
• Understand and assess the financial impacts of crop model outcomes.
• 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.
  

Qualifications

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 and/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.
• Experience with process-modeling of yields of crops important in the United States a plus.
• Knowledge of the application of probabilistic modeling to (re)insurance applications and/or climate change science a plus
  

Requirements

Additional Information

• Ph.D. in (agricultural) meteorology, crop modeling, agronomy, soil science, natural resources, geography, environmental sciences, environmental engineering, computational biology, agricultural economics, or a related discipline, with 2+ years professional experience in a research/technical environment or M.S. in the same disciplines, with 4+ years of professional experience in a research/technical environment.
  

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.