Scientist, Wildfire Modeling

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!

With a history of impressive growth, an innovative culture, and offering industry-leading solutions, Verisk Analytics is an amazing place to work and make a difference. In 2018, Forbes magazine named Verisk to its World’s Best Employers list and, in 2017, to its World’s Most Innovative Companies list for the third consecutive year. We also earned the Great Place to Work® Certification for the third consecutive year in recognition of our outstanding workplace culture.

Verisk is a leading data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, Verisk draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations integrated into customer workflows. We’ve been delivering predictive analytics and decision support solutions to our customers for nearly 50 years, helping them protect people, property, and financial assets. At Verisk, you’ll be part of an organization that’s committed to serving the long-term interests of our stakeholders, including the communities where we operate.

At Verisk, you can build an exciting career with meaningful work; create a positive and lasting impact on the business; and find the support, coaching, and training you need to advance your career. Our culture of innovation means your ideas on how to improve our business will be heard. As key contributors to our success, our team members enjoy working in a business-casual, collaborative environment that offers state-of-the-art resources, advanced technologies, and an excellent benefits package.

Job Description

Join our growing Research and Modeling department as a member of our wildland fire hazard modeling team. Use your knowledge of wildland fire and data science to develop stochastic models of wildland fire ignition probability, fire behavior / spread, and penetration into the wildland-urban interface.  As a member of this team, you will incorporate the most recent data and scientific research into our existing models as well as expand our wildfire modeling domain into new regions. 

About the Day to Day Responsibilities of the Role

·        Perform validation analyses of implemented wildfire model solutions with observed data.

·        Analyze wildfire model results and perform sensitivity analysis to answer client questions regarding their wildfire risk

·        Integrate new climatological, wildfire activity, and wildfire behavior data into existing models and explain changes seen in modeled results. 

·        Keep abreast of current wildland fire research and look for ways to integrate this research into existing and new wildfire models

·        Present AIR wildfire models to clients and at meetings. Prepare technical and nontechnical documents on models.

QUALIFICATIONS

About You and How You Can Excel in This Role

•Ability to gather, understand, and critically analyze information from all relevant sources, such as historical fire/weather/climate data, scientific papers, government reports, insurance data, etc.
• Strong statistical background, including familiarity with statistical packages such as R.
• Solid technical programming skills gained through practical experience using a high level language (e.g., C++, C#, Python).
• Familiarity and comfort with manipulating large data sets. SQL experience a plus.
• Experience with GIS software (ArcGIS) a plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• 2+ years professional experience in a technical environment.
• M.S. or Ph.D. degree in fire science, environmental science, engineering, mathematics, or statistics.