Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), New Delhi

Research Analyst (Geospatial Modelling)

At CEEW, we are deliberate about what we stand for (and what we don’t stand for!) as an employer. So, if the below description strikes a chord, we would love to hear from you!

At CEEW, we build careers in public policy.

• We offer strong visionary leadership – with emphasis on research and impact at scale​
• We actively promote leadership by initiative​
• We celebrate talent and ambition​
• You will be surrounded by smart people who will challenge you and help you grow​
• You will learn faster than your peers in other organisations
• Curiosity and irreverence, as well as responsibility, come together at CEEW​
• You will get above-market remuneration​
• We provide a safe space for all​
• At CEEW, your life is your example for others​

Designation offered
Research Analyst - Geospatial modelling   

Team/ Focus area
Climate Resilience 

Location
New Delhi, India 

Duration
Programme Associate 

Reporting to
6 months probation (extendable based on performance)  

Purpose

CEEW seeks to hire a Research Analyst skilled in geospatial modelling and data science to join the Climate Resilience team. The candidate will be supporting the team on modelling urban heat islands and other remote sensing based indices to inform India’s city heat action plans and the spatial downscaling of climate risk data as part of the Climate Resilience Atlas for India project. The Climate Resilience Atlas (CRA) is a climate risk-informed decision-making tool that will consist of various layers around climate vulnerability and variabilities. The CRA will support decision-makers in quantifying the climate risk landscape at a sub-national level.

The candidate will be required to undertake a rigorous analysis of big geospatial data to develop climate risk indices and support the core research team primarily with data mining, data analysis, and literature review. The ideal candidate must have an educational background in data science, GIS, Climate studies, Atmospheric sciences, Environmental science, and other allied fields and should have working experience with programming languages such as Python, GIS tools such as Google Earth Engine and ArcGIS suite of apps, Microsoft Office and other statistical tools. Knowledge of machine learning and deep learning would be an added advantage.

In addition to the duties and responsibilities below, the individual should be prepared, as and when necessary, to take on additional responsibilities.

Job Duties and Accountabilities

Primary Responsibilities

Research and analysis

• Undertake geospatial modelling to support development of granular indices such as urban heat islands, mapping of green and water cover among others.
• Use programming languages, primarily Python (libraries like Pandas, NumPy, Xarray), tools like ArcGIS, QGIS, Google Earth Engine, and modern systems of scientific repeatability and engineering scalability (e.g. GitHub) to work on big climate and geospatial data to develop granular climate risk indices.
• Work extensively with CMIP5 and CMIP6-based climatological projections to derive climatic outlooks at the sub-national level through statistical methods such as downscaling, bias correction and zonal statistics.
• Contribute to desktop research and mining data from structured, semi-structured, and unstructured sources to develop and improve our climate risk assessments.
• Working on GIS raster and vector datasets (e.g. NDVI, DEM, Elevation, hydrology network) using QGIS, ArcGIS, and Google Earth Engine derived from platforms like USGS, ESRI, et al.
• Creating GIS shapefiles for analysis and preparing GIS-based maps from the extreme event and climate variability database.
• Supporting the team with carrying out a literature review and research writing about climatological and spatial analysis.

Other Responsibilities

• Support the team and build individual capacity in strategic communications through regular blogs and op-eds.
• Respond to research requests from senior researchers, discuss research needs, and prepare responses that synthesize and analyze information.
• Assist with program implementation, including help with preparing presentations.
• Assist with planning and executing events such as report launches, consultation workshops, round table discussions, etc.
• Participate constructively in weekly team meetings.
• Provide inputs on research methodology and data analysis tools.

Selection Criteria

Educational Qualification

• Preferably Master’s/Bachelor’s degree in data science, climate studies, atmospheric science, GIS, environmental science, and other allied fields.

Work experience

• 0-3 years. Candidates in the final semesters of their Bachelor’s/Master’s can apply.

Key skills

• Subject domain knowledge of climate data analytics, atmospheric sciences, meteorology and geospatial technology.
• Proficiency in working with big climate and geospatial data in NetCDF, raster, and vector formats.
• Demonstrated ability to use the Python programming language and proficiency in using Jupyter Notebook and Python libraries like Xarray, Pandas, Geopandas and NumPy.
• Proficiency in climate statistics and understanding of climatic projections derived from Global and regional climate models and their downscaling, bias correction etc.
• Proficiency in ArcGIS/QGIS/Google Earth Engine.
• Good knowledge of statistical tools (Excel, SPSS) and their applications.
• Demonstrated ability to perform a literature review.

“If you are passionate about leveraging data for creating decision-making toolkits that help in effective policy-making, we would like to speak to you. If you can help in turning big climate datasets into insightful analytics, while also upskilling yourself in the public policy space, you are probably the candidate we are looking for.”

CEEW operates in a dynamic environment and the candidate will be required to show flexibility in undertaking a variety of tasks.

Compensation

Competitive compensation – commensurate to the experience and matching the best of standards adopted by the industry or other similar organisations for similar roles.

Application Process

CEEW is an equal-opportunity employer and the selection process does not discriminate on the basis of age, gender, caste, ethnicity, religion, or sexuality. Female candidates are encouraged to apply.

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis. Interested applicants are advised to apply at the earliest possible.

Only shortlisted candidates will be notified by us. We appreciate your interest.