The Organization

Kettle's mission is to balance risk in a changing climate. Kettle uses deep learning and proprietary algorithms to reshape the reinsurance industry and better protect people from the growing risks associated with climate change. Kettle’s first product protects Californians’ businesses, homes, and livelihoods with wildfire reinsurance. To learn more, visit ourkettle.com

You probably have never heard of the $300bn reinsurance industry, but it is the single most important industry in the world to protect ourselves and help society recover from the effects of climate change disasters. This industry is failing due to a 3x increase in $1B+ crises caused by climate change. Kettle’s aim is to use deep learning to ensure that people’s lives are not destroyed when these events happen. By building the most sophisticated machine learning models to predict when and where wildfires happen, Kettle accurately prices the cost of covering wildfire prone areas in California. We are a machine-learning-powered reinsurer, in that we sell reinsurance to insurers, we don't sell software to reinsurers.

Who we are/what we value:

• Obsessive Fanatics - We obsess over big problems. We are fanatical about our business/mission. We drive the company towards the areas people describe as ‘impossible to understand or stop’
• Initiative - Obsessive people don’t need micromanagement.
• Data Focused - With the world burning worse every year, we can’t afford opinions and bias to derail data driven decisions.
• Questioning Renegades - We work in a 600 year old industry. If everyone is running one direction, we generally sprint in the other.
• Impact Driven - We are a mission driven business

The Role

We are looking for a passionate Data Scientist to join our team and work with a growing team of engineers, deep learning experts, and other data scientists to model risk using the most advanced tools available,

We strongly encourage people from traditionally underrepresented populations in tech - such as women, People of Color, People with Disabilities, and LGBTQ+ people, etc - to apply!

Role Primary Responsibilities

• Develop new climate risk estimation methods at the forefront of science and technology
• Improve Kettle’s existing algorithms to extract data from satellites, sensors, and other data sources
• Explore and validate new data sources that improves the performance of Kettle’s current system
• Test and improve components of Kettle’s machine learning wildfire models
• Expand and scale Kettle’s system to other perils such as wind and flood
• Help build out advanced financial and quantitative models of balancing risk portfolios and understanding volatility/return profiles of our risk

As a member of Kettle, you:

• Contribute to the development of the state-of-the-art climate change risk estimation platform that protects people against increasing frequency and severity of catastrophic events,
• Are involved with in-depth climate research using machine learning,
• Represent our organization at scientific and development meetings

At a high level, we are looking for a highly motivated, successful data scientist who is a demonstrated self-starter with at least five years experience in some sort of data analysis or engineering profession. This person needs to have the drive to make sure our technology and models are the most accurate predictors of risk in the world. Below we have listed out some things we are looking for; you do not necessarily need to check all these boxes to be eligible for this position.

Essential Experience of a Successful Candidate

• Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD in geography, earth science, atmospheric science, engineering, computer science, mathematics, quantitative theory, or a related field with potential experience on remote sensing and/or geospatial analysis
• Scientifically sound approach to machine learning, especially with computer vision techniques
• In-depth experience analyzing satellite images and climate data
• In-depth experience analyzing large data sources to find signal and predictions
• In-depth experience building deep learning or other machine learning models
• Excellent Python code proficiency
• Self-starter with ability to work within a fast-paced and rapid-evolving startup
• Eagerness to learn new skills and help with the task at hand

Useful Experience

• Coding proficiency using Google Earth Engine JavaScript and/or Python APIs, and/or open source geospatial Python packages
• Experience using SageMaker, TensorFlow, and other machine learning tools
• Experience with downscaling coarse resolution satellite imagery
• Experience with data fusion or data assimilation
• Integrating machine learning models to a system
• Experience with simulation-based scheme
• Using AWS and Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with property damage estimation and loss distribution

We offer a competitive package that is based on location and experience. We also offer the following benefits:

• Stock: Ownership in a fast-growing venture-backed company.
• 401k matching: We care about your ability to save for your future.
• Family Focus: Parental leave and flexibility for families.
• Time Off: Flexible vacation policy to encourage people to get out and see the world.
• Healthcare: Platinum level Medical, dental, and vision policies.
• Goodies: Whatever hardware and software you need to get the job done.
• Team Fun: Regularly scheduled events, annual retreat, and celebrations.
• Learning: Learning & Development Opportunities to grow your skills and career.
• Great team: Working with fun, hard-working, kind people committed to making a difference!
• Flexible culture: We are results-focused. We don’t work at the office every day.
• ...And much more! Lost of other perks make this company an incredible place to work.