Accepting applications on a rolling basis March-April 2024

Summary

WattTime is seeking to hire a Data Scientist or Senior Data Scientist to help lead data fusion, and potentially scientific outreach, efforts for the Climate TRACE coalition.

About WattTime and Climate TRACE

WattTime is a non-profit tech startup. We conduct and coordinate original research into emissions datasets with unusual potential to rapidly drive emissions reductions at scale, then help implement those reductions. Our best known innovation is Automated Emissions Reduction (AER), the technique currently used by over 600 million devices daily (e.g. all Nest thermostats, U.S. iPhones, Toyota EVs, etc.) to slash their carbon footprints.

WattTime is also the secretariat of Climate TRACE, a joint initiative of over 100 nonprofits, tech companies, universities, and individual researchers pooling their expertise in AI, remote sensing, and emissions data to collectively build a highly advanced comprehensive open global greenhouse gas measurement system.

About the Role

Today, the base layer of Climate TRACE is dozens of individual global sector-specific emissions inventories, each developed separately by a collaborating organization. The new data fusion team will focus on optimally integrating these models with each other, along with many external datasets and estimates extrapolated from first principles, to develop the best possible consensus global emissions estimates. The work will be highly iterative, applying a Bayesian updating framework to integrate a rapidly growing list of constituent datasets.

The role of the Data Scientist will include assembling and integrating these datasets; applying scaling factors and extrapolations to reason about missing data; developing and automating processes to identify and resolve contradictions in the data to produce the best consensus estimates; and potentially some outreach to the broader scientific community. Particularly senior candidates for this role will be considered for Senior Data Scientist, which would include managing this new team.

Key Responsibilities

• Data assimilation

• Integration of numerous similarly formatted input datasets on emissions and predictors of emissions, to produce a synthesis view of what we currently know

• Quality assurance

• Help develop, and lead automation of, rigorous validation and quality control processes flagging logical inconsistencies in these input datasets

• Work with contributing teams to resolve any such inconsistencies

• Data extrapolation and data fusion

• Help develop, and lead implementation and automation of, strategies for extrapolating from the existing partially complete Climate TRACE inventory to fill gaps and create a comprehensive estimated emissions dataset

• Using Bayesian updating or similar techniques, iteratively improve these estimates by continuously integrating additional data to produce a successively more and more accurate view

• Scientific outreach

• Help ensure data documentation accurately but concisely summarizes the key relevant information on the API, methodologies, and results

• Potentially represent Climate TRACE to collaborating senior scientists at the highest levels of groups like NASA, the World Meteorological Organization, etc.

• (If hired as a Senior Data Scientist)

• Lead a small team of WattTime scientists and coordinate a number of other Climate TRACE contributors in achieving the above

Qualifications

Required technical skills

• Advanced degree (Ph.D. or Master's) in physics, quantitative finance, or other field with significant emphasis on splitting problems into many modular components, starting with first-order approximations of each component, and iterating as data become available

• Minimum 3 years work experience in applied physics, data science, finance, consulting, or other highly quantitative field  

• Expertise in Bayesian or similar iterative statistical methods

• Excellent programming skills in Python, including experience with large databases

• Experience or interest in working within a tech start-up, evolving as the organization grows

• Ability to work effectively from a remote environment across regular U.S. work hours through tools like Slack, Zoom, GSuite, and others 

Required soft skills

• Precise, clear communicator who can accurately articulate what they do vs. don’t know 

• Iterative thinker who thrives while moving fast despite imperfect data. Perfectionists, this role is not the one for you!

• Excellent problem-solving skills, particularly in breaking problems into component parts

• Ability to take initiative and collaborate in a low-hierarchy, fast-moving environment 

• Collaborative, respectful, and kind 

• Willingness to travel to team collaborative sessions a few times a year

• Above all, a deep seated-commitment to stopping climate change and a willingness to place that above all other goals, even when that’s messy and hard.

Nice-to-have, particularly for Senior Data Scientist

• Deeper experience in any of the above

• Management/leadership experience and skills

• Experience working with very large databases and/or geospatial data

• Experience with one or more relevant subject matter areas (greenhouse gas emissions inventories, remote sensing, or climate science)
  
  

How We Measure Success at WattTime

• Doing the work: you stay on-task and prioritize whatever climate impact requires

• Productivity: hard work, grit, and completing ambitious deadlines on time

• Quality: subject matter knowledge

• Judgment: you always work backwards from making impact-focused decisions

• Helping others: you cultivate trust, lead with respect, and practice self awareness
  
  

Logistics

• This is a full time, remote position - work from anywhere in the U.S. 

• Must be authorized to work in the U.S. 

• For those authorized and located in the U.S., WattTime is open to U.S. visa sponsorship. As an H-1B cap-exempt, non-profit research organization, WattTime can sponsor employees for H-1B status throughout the year.

• Salary: 

• Data Scientist: $175,000-$195,000

• Senior Data Scientist $195,000-$215,000

Hiring Process

• Resume screening 

• Initial phone screening

• Technical interview #1

• Skills assessment to see your work in action - you will most likely do well if you have:

• Ability to extrapolate reasonable first-order estimates of unknown quantities from data you do have, plus testable assumptions

• Experience thinking in matrices and n-dimensional space, and breaking down complex problems into different forcings/drivers

• Ability to resist perfectionism and not get bogged down in the details

• Solid python skills

• Technical interview #2

• Half-day of interviews with the team at large

• Reference checks and offer

Read more about what this process is like on this LinkedIn post from one of our software engineers.

Why Work with WattTime

• World-class opportunity to save lives at scale, fast

• Competitive salary

• Full medical, dental, vision, life insurance packages for employees and 80% coverage for dependents

• Paid parental leave 

• Flexible time off

• Professional development support 

• Home office support and employee choice technology 

• 403b with up to 5% matching contribution

What we’re like: We’re obsessed with driving practical, results-driven change. We’ve seen that nothing has more potential for fast, world-changing impact than the right software. We embrace change. We are lean and rapid prototypers. We never confuse organizational growth with impact. We are all personally, fiercely committed to our mission. We are quietly radical in unexpected ways. We don’t believe in competition; anyone else doing what we do is our ally. Our deep bench of expert volunteers helps us routinely punch above our weight class. We trust in data and everyone’s voice being heard. We know diversity is central to success. We consider respect non-negotiable; there are no jerks here.

How to Apply

You can apply for this position on our website at www.WattTime.org. From the “About” tab, select the “Careers” page, then select the job for which you want to apply.

Please attach your resume and a cover letter. We will prioritize applicants whose cover letters include exactly one separate paragraph, of any length, discussing your experience in data fusion and/or extrapolating data.

Equal Opportunity Policy 

WattTime is an Equal Opportunity Employer (EOE) and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, sex, sexual orientation, religion, creed, pregnancy, marital status, family care status, age, appearance, national origin or ancestry, physical or mental ability, medical condition, military or veteran status, political affiliation, genetic information or characteristics or any other consideration protected by federal, state, or local laws. We encourage all individuals to apply and are committed to a diverse workplace where every person is treated with respect and dignity.