Senior Data Scientist, Human-Centered Weather Forecasts

About the Trust

The University of Chicago Trust (the Trust) is a charitable trust in India, established in 2008 by an alumnus of The University of Chicago. The Trust’s objectives are to provide opportunities for grants to support educational programs, research programs, and activities for the betterment of India.

The Development Innovation Lab – India (DIL-India)

DIL-India, based at the Trust in India, is dedicated to using the tools of economics to develop innovations with the potential to benefit millions of people. We have work in health, education, agriculture, climate change, road safety, and others. We do so by collaborating with government agencies, firms, and non-profits in India to identify, test, and scale evidence-based solutions. 

DIL-India has a fast-growing portfolio of policy relevant research. DIL is partnering with the Jal Jeevan Mission, the Government of Odisha, and Evidence Action to develop and test scalable systems to integrate drinking water treatment into rural drinking water systems in India. We estimate that universal delivery of treated water in rural India would avert more than 1 lakh child deaths per year. DIL conducted pilots of in-line chlorination with the government of Odisha. We are now focused on contracting, management, and monitoring systems to allow delivery at scale

Human-Centered Weather Forecast Initiative 

Collaborating with HCWF, DIL-India brings together climate scientists, artificial intelligence (AI) experts and economists to build and evaluate weather forecasts that can target what citizens need to know, leveraging novel technologies, including AI, and scientific understanding. This interdisciplinary team then works to test forecast dissemination strategies, refine those strategies based on user response, and scale forecast dissemination to inform data-driven decision-making. 
For example: The Indian Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare distributed AI forecasts to 38 million farmers accurately predicting the start of the monsoon in 2025, becoming a model for using advanced in AI and atmospheric science to help vulnerable populations adapt to climate change. Hundreds of millions of smallholder farmers across the tropics depend on information about when the rainy season, known as the monsoon, will come each year. This advanced knowledge allows farmers to make more informed decisions about when to plant seeds, irrigate, and hire labor. However, accurate forecasting of when the monsoon will begin, especially at long lead teams and local scales, has remained a century-old challenge. AI has revolutionized global weather forecasting, promising new tools for predicting phenomena as complex as the monsoon. DIL-India researchers lead local HCWF research that supports an international, multidisciplinary collaboration to harness advances in AI to better predict the beginning of the monsoon in India.
This job opening is part of the launch of a new DIL-India initiative.

Position Description

The Senior Data Scientist will develop data infrastructure, analytical pipelines, and model support systems for the Human-Centered Weather Forecasts initiative at DIL-India. As part of a multidisciplinary collaboration between universities, development agencies, and governmental ministries, the role focuses on processing large-scale observational and forecast datasets, translating weather concepts into robust and reproducible analytical workflows, and supporting the development of publicly available benchmarking and validation systems for forecast products.

Responsibilities

  • Lead or support data science activities including data collection, pipeline establishment, and all analytical needs of research projects.
  • Act as a primary point of contact for the establishment and management of project-related data pipelines.
  • Support the development of models for forecasting different weather phenomena, working closely with atmospheric scientists to translate weather concepts into robust, reproducible analytical workflows.
  • Define technical strategies, architect model validation protocols, and mentor other team members on best coding and testing practices.
  • Support the development of a publicly available benchmarking and validation system for forecasts.
  • Contribute to the design and implementation of A/B testing and field experiment frameworks for forecast dissemination programs.
  • Collaborate with researchers for new analyses with large datasets and support data sharing with meteorological agencies and implementing organizations.
  • Conduct literature reviews and help write reports and manuscripts.
  • Performs other related work as assigned.

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

  • Master's in data science, climate science, atmospheric science, computer science, statistics, or a related field for the Data Scientist role. PhD degree preferred

Experience:

  • Minimum of  5 or more years of work experience in a related job discipline. 
  • Experience managing complex data science projects with multiple stakeholders. 
  • Experience with large-scale geospatial or climate datasets. 
  • Experience with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure) and high-performance computing environments.

Competencies

  • Strong programming and numerical skills; proficiency in Python and SQL.
  • Experience with high-performance computing and analysis of large datasets; familiarity with distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Dask, Spark).
  • Experience with geospatial analysis libraries (e.g., xarray, rasterio, GDAL) and meteorological data formats (NetCDF, GRIB).
  • Expertise in weather forecasting, climate modeling/dynamics, or related geospatial applications (preferred).
  • Familiarity with theoretical and practical aspects of scientific deep learning and AI weather models (preferred).
  • Experience working with government agencies (preferred).
  • Excellent communication skills and ability to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team.

Working Conditions

  • Based in Delhi with regular travel throughout India to project locations
  • Applicant must be legally authorized to work in India.
  • This is a one-year position subject to renewal.

Application Documents

  • Resume/CV (required)
  • Cover Letter (required)
  • References’ Contact Information (3 required)

Apply Online