Wildland Fire Risk Scientist (AI)

Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota, United States. The role requires three years of residency in the United States and participation in virtual and occasional in-person team meetings.

Company

hirify.global is a government contractor providing research and technical support to USGS and other government programs.

What you will do

• Advance research on wildfire exposure and risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface, and other valued assets.
• Develop simulation, deep learning, and machine learning methods to predict wildfire exposure and building damage at national or larger scales.
• Lead and co-author manuscripts for high-impact scientific journals.
• Develop, maintain, and expand annual datasets quantifying building losses caused by wildfires.
• Prototype datasets for infrastructure assets affected by wildfires, including communications, energy, hydrological, and transportation infrastructure.
• Develop and analyze global- and national-scale wildland-urban interface datasets using building footprints, census, land cover, and fire occurrence data.

Requirements

• Three-year residency in the United States required.
• PhD, advanced degree, or equivalent experience in ecology, landscape ecology, forestry, fire science, conservation science, or a related field.
• Three to five years of recent related experience in fire ecology and plant community dynamics across landscapes.
• Advanced knowledge of ground, surface, and canopy fuel characteristics and their effects on wildland fire behavior.
• Experience with image processing, GIS software, raster and vector data, spatial analysis, Python, R, shared code repositories, and data visualization.
• Strong technical writing, editing, presentation, interpersonal communication, and Microsoft Office skills; ability to obtain and maintain a national agency check and background investigation.

Nice to have

• Experience with AI-supported development environments such as Kiro.
• Ability to contribute to the direction and implementation of the Wildland Fuels Program at EROS.
• Ability to self-teach using available on-the-job training resources.

Culture & Benefits

• Full-time employment with a people-focused and Zero Harm culture.
• Potential benefits include a 401(k) plan with company match, medical, dental, vision, life insurance, AD&D, flexible spending account, disability coverage, and paid time off.
• Flexible work schedule options may be available.
• Professional training and development opportunities support career advancement.