Research Software Developer – Climate Impacts Projects Team (Hybrid)

Research Software Developer – Climate Impacts Projects Team

The position is based in one of five staff hubs: Seattle, WA (preferred), New York, NY; the San Francisco Bay area, CA; Washington, DC; or Denver, CO.
Location: Seattle, WA (preferred) | Apply by: March 21, 2025

Position Description
Rhodium Group is looking for an entrepreneurial and talented Research Software Developer to join our world-class team of economists, policy analysts, researchers, and data engineers. As a Research Software Developer on Rhodium’s Climate Impacts Projects team, you will support the team’s research on understanding the impacts, risks, and costs of climate change. You will also be joining our collaboration with the Climate Impact Lab, a partnership led out of the University of Chicago with a mission to measure and communicate the impacts of climate change on people to empower effective decision-making on adaptation and resilience. You will primarily work on developing, maintaining, and engaging with users of key software libraries for climate science and impact assessment and conduct data analyses for research projects.

Position Responsibilities

• Work with science teams to be the primary developer of the Framework for Assessment of Changes To Sea-level (FACTS), an open-source sea-level projection framework that was used to support the development of projections for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Sixth Assessment Report and the US Interagency Sea Level Rise Scenarios Task Force. Science and software collaborators will reside at Rutgers University and other academic institutions across the globe.
• Work with science teams and users to develop new modules and capabilities for FACTS, modernize the framework and its functionality, expand its user base, and prepare for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Seventh Assessment Report.
• Engage with the scientists and practitioners using FACTS, including those within the NASA Sea Level Change Team, as well as the growing set of scientist-developer contributors to the code base, to ensure their needs are met.
• Learn, use, and extend Rhodium’s Climate Impacts Projects team tools for climate data processing and impacts research.
• Support researchers using our tools, develop new features, and improve usability.
• Work with research and communications teams to conduct statistical analyses, analyze data, and make visualizations for internal, Climate Impact Lab, and/or client projects.

Qualifications

• A Master’s degree with 1-2 years research-oriented work in climate science, data or computational science, or a related quantitative field
• Strong Python background, data science tools (pandas, xarray), version control (Git), Linux command line experience required; experience with shell/bash scripting, climate data storage formats (e.g. netCDF, Zarr), distributed computing tools (dask) a plus
• Experience with software development required; open-source contributions, maintenance, packaging, documentation, testing, and community engagement a plus
• Familiarity with high-performance computing (HPC), HPC job management systems (e.g. slurm, PBS), and distributed cloud computing a plus
• Strong communication and multi-disciplinary collaboration skills required; experience with cross academic-private sector collaboration a plus
• Interest in climate and sea level change is essential, though experience in these areas not required

Location and Travel Requirements

• Rhodium Group’s energy and climate practice has staff hubs in five cities: Seattle, WA; New York, NY; the San Francisco Bay Area, CA; Washington, DC; and Denver, CO—the candidate must be based in one of these locations, with preference given to applicants planning to work from Seattle, WA.
• Occasional domestic travel (<10%)

Compensation, Benefits, and Recruiting Process

Rhodium Group is an Equal Opportunity Employer with a strong commitment to fostering an environment that promotes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

Rhodium Group offers competitive compensation, a progressive benefits package, and opportunities for intellectual and professional advancement while working with a talented and entrepreneurial group of colleagues. 

Rhodium Group compensates based on the level and requirements of the role. Salary within our range may also be determined by factors including, but not limited to, your education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as required by the role, as well as geographic location, performance, travel requirements, sales or revenue-based metrics, internal equity, alignment with market data, and business or organizational needs. Typically, a Research Software Developer joins at $112,759. You will also have an additional 15% bonus target based on a combination of company and individual performance.

About Rhodium Group

Rhodium Group is an independent research provider with deep expertise in policy and economic analysis. We help decision-makers in both the public and private sectors navigate global challenges through objective, original, and data-driven research and insights. Our key areas of expertise are China’s economy and policy dynamics, and global climate change and energy systems. More information is available at www.rhg.com.