Data Scientist*in (m/f/d) Evidence for Climate Solutions

Data Scientist (Postdoc) (m/f/d) Evidence for Climate Solutions

Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)

The climate needs bright minds. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) addresses crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It is one of the world's leading research institutions in its field and offers natural and social scientists from around the world an inspiring environment for excellent interdisciplinary research.

For the research group „Evidence for Climate Solutions“ (RD5 – Climate Economics and Policy), we are offering an exciting opportunity to be part of a boundary-shifting projects on developing AI-powered Digital Evidence Synthesis Tools (DESTs) for Climate and Health that aims to make rigorous evidence-based policy advice faster, cheaper, more useful and living. We are offering a:

Data Scientist (Postdoc) (m/f/d)

(Position number: 81-2024 Data Scientist)

The position is funded for two years (24 months) with a potential further extension. Remuneration is in accordance with the German public tariff scheme (TV-L Brandenburg), salary group E 13. This is a full-time position with a weekly working time of 40 hours per week. The position can be filled on a part-time basis.

Background:

The position contributes to two projects: The DESTINY project will provide a step-change in the efficiency of evidence synthesis in climate change and health by developing responsible applications of AI and other digital tools. The Pathfinder project aims to create a global community that delivers transformative solutions for a healthier, fairer and more prosperous future. At the bottom, is an evidence bank that is powered by AI and provides rigorous, actionable knowledge to decision-makers across scales.

We are excited to build new tools in these projects that leverage the latest development in AI to advance evidence synthesis practices in climate and health and beyond. We are particularly interested in carrying out robust evaluations and developing methods that allow safe and responsible use of these tools. The successful candidate will contribute to this agenda, carrying out research that makes fundamental contributions on how we can use AI to automate processes safely. The candidate will join the Evidence for Climate Solutions group, which offers a unique environment of subject experts, evidence synthesis methodology experts, data scientists, and computer scientists, all working to advance climate solutions by providing robust synthetic evidence on what works in climate policy, for whom, and why. Within these projects, there is a real opportunity to shape your own research agenda according to your interests. We believe there’s no perfect candidate and understand that no one will meet every requirement. If you meet some but not all of them, or find some responsibilities more exciting than others, we encourage you to reach out and discuss how your expertise aligns with our project goals.

Key responsibilities:

• Developing AI-driven tools to make evidence synthesis projects in climate and health faster, cheaper, more useful and living;
• Researching the performance of AI and other digital tools for evidence synthesis by conducting simulation studies;
• Developing processes and procedures to enable the responsible use of AI in future projects where evaluation datasets are not available;
• Contributing to the development of methodological guidance and training materials from evidence synthesis collaborations to mainstream the responsible use of tools;
• Leading, writing, and publishing articles in esteemed peer-reviewed journals that highlight DESTINY and PATHFINDER findings and presenting them at international conferences;
• Mentoring graduate students and junior researchers in the development, use and evaluation of AI tools for evidence synthesis, providing guidance and support for their research activities.

Requirements:

• Ph.D. (preferred) in a relevant field, e.g. Data Science, Computer Science, Machine Learning, Computational Neuroscience, Business Informatics or similar;
• Proven experience in working with machine learning (particularly with NLP methods) – experience in the field of climate and health and/or evidence synthesis methods is an asset;
• Experience in developing and maintaining software tools;
• Experience or knowledge of how to use statistics to quantify uncertainty, or the willingness to develop these skills;
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, or R;
• Excellent communication, presentation and writing skills in English are required. Proficiency in other languages is an asset. Strong scientific writing skills with good track record according to scientific age of articles in peer-reviewed journals are required;
• Experience with interdisciplinary and multicultural teams is valuable;
• Experience in stakeholder engagement at the climate/health nexus is desirable.

We expect:

• Ability and enthusiasm to work efficiently in an interdisciplinary team, collaborating with content and methods experts as well as data scientists, but also independently driving your own research agenda;
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex data and research findings clearly and effectively;
• Reliability, engagement, and a high level of motivation;
• Willingness to travel for work (project meetings, workshops etc.) and take part in further training.

We offer:

• the opportunity to be part of a creative, interdisciplinary team that aims to achieve real impacts in how AI is used in evidence synthesis;
• the opportunity to establish and learn from an international network of renowned scientists and partners;
• the opportunity to conduct ground-breaking research with state-of-the-art methods in computer science, evidence synthesis as well as climate and health;
• the opportunity to work on humanity’s most pressing problems - a meaningful job with real-world impact;
• a stimulating working environment in an internationally recognised research institute at the modern EUREF sustainability campus in Berlin Schöneberg;
• flexi-time and mobile working (up to 50% of your hours);
• a collective pay scheme and associated benefits (including enrolment in the public sector pension scheme) as well as a subsidized travel card or Deutschland-Ticket Job;
• guidance and supervision in career development.

PIK values equality and diversity. We encourage applications without photo. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of ethnic and social origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, care responsibilities, or age. PIK seeks to increase the share of women in scientific positions and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. In cases of equal qualification and within the given legal scope, women will be given preference. PIK also encourages applications by parents returning from parental leave.

If you hold an international higher education qualification, please also submit a certificate evaluation from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) with your application. If you do not yet have a transcript evaluation, please note that you may have to request one if your application is successful. For further information, please visit the website: https://www.kmk.org/zab/central-office-for-foreign-education.html

For further information or to discuss the position please contact Jan Minx, Diana Danilenko or Tim Repke.