Wildland Fire Risk Scientist
Core
Provide research support to the USGS team to understand wildfire risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface, and other valued assets using advanced science, remote sensing, and geospatial processing.
Role type
Senior research scientist (wildfire risk & geospatial analysis)
Builds
Research outputs, simulation models, and datasets for wildfire risk assessments and mitigation strategies.
Domain
Environmental science, fire ecology, geospatial analysis, and public safety.
Deliverable
production ML models | research | dashboards & analysis
Required skills
Remote sensing, GIS (ArcGIS, QGIS), geospatial processing, scripting (Python, R), statistical analysis, simulation modeling, deep learning, machine learning, ecological systems knowledge, plant community dynamics, fuel type analysis, technical writing, data visualization
Preferred skills
AI-supported development environments, shared code repositories, high-impact journal publication experience, Wildland Fuels Program implementation
Technologies
Python, R, ERDAS, ArcGIS, ArcPro, QGIS, Kiro
Responsibilities
Forward research on wildfire exposure and risk to buildings and infrastructure; Advance methods to predict wildfire damage using simulation models and ML; Lead development and publication of journal articles; Develop and maintain datasets quantifying building losses; Develop prototypes for non-building valued assets; Update and analyze global/national-scale WUI datasets
Seniority
Senior, hands-on IC with lead author capabilities