Wildland Fire Risk Scientist

About the role

The primary focus of this position is to provide research support to the USGS team tasked with understanding wildfire risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface, and other valued assets. This will require advanced level science support with experience in remote sensing, geographic information systems, geospatial processing, scripting, statistical analysis, and science communications.

Responsibilities

• Forward research in wildfire exposure and risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and other valued assets to inform DOI and USWFS wildfire risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies.
• Advance methods to predict wildfire exposure and damage to buildings at national or larger scales using simulation models and deep and machine learning
• Lead development and publication of journal articles related to this research
• Develop, maintain, and expand data sets that quantify building losses caused wildfires annually
• Develop prototypes and identify data sources for non-building valued assets such as communication, energy, hydrological, or transportation infrastructure impacted by wildfires
• Develop, update, and analyze global- and national-scale datasets mapping Wildland Urban Interface using building footprints, census bureau, land cover, and fire occurrence data

Required Education And Experience

• Must have a 3-year residency in the United States
• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a national agency check and background investigation after hire to obtain credentials for facility access and user accounts.
• Education: PhD or advanced Degree or equivalent experience in ecology, landscape ecology, forestry, fire science, conservation science or another relevant field - especially study in how ecological systems function both naturally and after disturbance
• Years of Experience: Must have minimum 3-5 years of recent and related work experience in fire ecology and knowledge with plant community dynamics across the landscape
• Advanced understanding of ground, surface, and canopy fuel types