Climate Hazard Center - Assistant Project Scientist Geography Department

Position overview

Position title: CHC Assistant - Project Scientist

Salary range: $78,500-$83,000 (at 100% time)

Percent time: 100%

Anticipated start: Spring 2026 or later

Position duration: Initial appointment will be for one (1) year

Open date: February 27, 2026

Next review date: Friday, Mar 13, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Wednesday, Jul 1, 2026 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

The Climate Hazards Center (CHC) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, seeks a highly motivated assistant project scientist.

The Assistant Project Scientist will work with CHC data developers to build extensive and rapidly-updated archives of key weather observations; develop procedures for quality controlling these data archives; develop procedures for blending and interpolating in situ observations with remotely sensed estimates; collaborate with the team to develop improved and expanded gridded temperature, humidity, humid heat, and precipitation archives, along with interoperable weather and climate forecasts;

conduct additional modeling, which could include impact models focused on crop water requirements and vegetative health; assist in the development and maintenance of UNIX-based systems for automatic data ingest, processing, modeling, data output, and mapping; and make substantial scientific and scholarly contributions to the CHC's research efforts, especially in regards to accuracy and skill of dataset estimates.

Key responsibilities include:

• Develop and maintain extensive, rapidly updated archives of weather observations and forecasts.
• Design and implement procedures for quality control, validation, blending, and interpolation of in situ weather observations.
• Collaborate with the CHC team to develop improved and expanded gridded archives of temperature, humidity, humid heat, and precipitation, as well as interoperable weather and climate forecast products.
• Support the ingest, validation, interpolation, and analysis of weather data obtained from automated 3D Printed Automatic Weather Stations (3D-PAWS).
• Conduct additional modeling and analysis, including impact models focused on crop water requirements and vegetative health.
• Provide figures, analysis, and written reporting of climate indicators during cropping seasons in food-insecure regions to support early identification of weather- and climate-related risks to crop production and food security.
• Assist in the development and maintenance of UNIX-based systems for automated data ingest, processing, modeling, data output, and mapping.
• Serve as a liaison between the CHC and the campus/department IT group (GRIT) to identify, communicate, and facilitate solutions to issues with the group's compute environment.
• Contribute substantially to CHC's scientific mission through scholarly research, publications, and operational products.

Basic qualifications

Applicants must have completed (at least) all requirements for a PhD (or international equivalent) in Atmospheric Sciences, Climate Science, Geography/Remote Sensing, Hydrology, Environmental Science, Earth Science, or a related discipline, except the dissertation, at the time of application.

Additional qualifications

• PhD in climate science, atmospheric science, hydrology, geography, environmental science, or a closely related field awarded by the time of appointment.
• 4-5 years of experience working with precipitation datasets, seasonal forecast data, water balance models, vegetation/greenness datasets, and other large-scale climate or environmental data products.
• Record of peer-reviewed publications, including leading or significantly contributing to scientific manuscripts.
• Minimum 2 years experience harmonizing multi-platform satellite datasets to create consistent, long-term time series products.
• 2-4 years experience developing, maintaining, and operating automated data processing systems in UNIX-based research computing environments,…