Data Scientist & Science Communicator
almost 3 years ago
Full time role
United States · California, US · Mountain View, CA, US
United States · California, US · Mountain View, CA, US
Job Description
About Kairos Aerospace
At Kairos Aerospace, we combine innovative aerospace systems with advanced data science. Unlike traditional aerospace companies, we sell information, not hardware - we operate our sensors cost-effectively at continental scale to produce novel data streams about pressing global problems. First on our list: spotting hard-to-monitor emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates climate change. Since starting continuous survey operations in 2018, Kairos has removed methane emissions equal to over 9.2 million tonnes of CO2e through our work. To put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to over 2 million cars being removed from the roads for a year or shutting down about seventeen 350 MW coal-fired power plants. We call that a good start. As a team, we love science and engineering, we love getting our hands dirty with hardware and software, and we love seeing our work make a difference in the real world. We’ve created a diverse, collaborative, supportive, and fun environment based on integrity and treating people right. So no matter your gender, gender identity, race, age, beliefs, sexual orientation, or disabilities, we welcome you and would like to work with you. :-) It’s never boring, it’s always challenging, and we’re usually laughing.
Data Scientist & Science Communicator
The Data Scientist & Science Communicator position will provide a critical connection between cutting edge science, analysis, and science communication. You will be responsible for providing data analysis and visualization for a range of audiences, including internal Kairos teams, customers, regulators, and other interested stakeholders, while also generating novel statistical analyses to help answer fundamental questions about methane emissions in the real world.
You will work closely with R&D to evaluate large and rich datasets generated by our operations, and suggest and implement improvements to our data analytics. You will use data from multiple streams, including GIS (vector and raster), tabular data, published datasets, and modeling outputs, to generate unique insights that lie at their intersection. Of critical importance will be investigating underlying drivers of variability in methane emissions.
Finally, you will be a key communicator of unique data insights made possible by Kairos data. You will present results to stakeholders and at conferences, and increase your own expertise in the field to become an expert in methane and methane intensity.
(And, of course, Kairos is a startup and you’ll get to contribute to a lot of other interesting projects as well!)
A few important facts about working at Kairos Aerospace: - We provide health, dental, and vision insurance, including subsidized coverage for dependents. Our 401K plan does matching based on the amount of methane we removed from the atmosphere in a given year. - We think death-march hours are a bad way to run a company. We expect something approximating a 40-hour workweek, but mostly we just care that your work gets done. No, really. (Full disclosure: we occasionally put in some extra hours during crunch periods, but that is the exception, not the norm). - We do not track vacation time, nor do we have set hours to be in the office. Instead, we encourage taking real vacations, mental health days, leaving early to pick up the kids, working from home, time-shifting commutes, staying home when you're sick, ducking out to the gym - we believe work time should be flexible. In this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have transitioned to 100% remote work aside from hardware and flight operations and plan to continue having remote positions in perpetuity. (We love it when kids make a cameo in a video call.)
At Kairos Aerospace, we combine innovative aerospace systems with advanced data science. Unlike traditional aerospace companies, we sell information, not hardware - we operate our sensors cost-effectively at continental scale to produce novel data streams about pressing global problems. First on our list: spotting hard-to-monitor emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that accelerates climate change. Since starting continuous survey operations in 2018, Kairos has removed methane emissions equal to over 9.2 million tonnes of CO2e through our work. To put that in perspective, that’s equivalent to over 2 million cars being removed from the roads for a year or shutting down about seventeen 350 MW coal-fired power plants. We call that a good start. As a team, we love science and engineering, we love getting our hands dirty with hardware and software, and we love seeing our work make a difference in the real world. We’ve created a diverse, collaborative, supportive, and fun environment based on integrity and treating people right. So no matter your gender, gender identity, race, age, beliefs, sexual orientation, or disabilities, we welcome you and would like to work with you. :-) It’s never boring, it’s always challenging, and we’re usually laughing.
Data Scientist & Science Communicator
The Data Scientist & Science Communicator position will provide a critical connection between cutting edge science, analysis, and science communication. You will be responsible for providing data analysis and visualization for a range of audiences, including internal Kairos teams, customers, regulators, and other interested stakeholders, while also generating novel statistical analyses to help answer fundamental questions about methane emissions in the real world.
You will work closely with R&D to evaluate large and rich datasets generated by our operations, and suggest and implement improvements to our data analytics. You will use data from multiple streams, including GIS (vector and raster), tabular data, published datasets, and modeling outputs, to generate unique insights that lie at their intersection. Of critical importance will be investigating underlying drivers of variability in methane emissions.
Finally, you will be a key communicator of unique data insights made possible by Kairos data. You will present results to stakeholders and at conferences, and increase your own expertise in the field to become an expert in methane and methane intensity.
(And, of course, Kairos is a startup and you’ll get to contribute to a lot of other interesting projects as well!)
Required
- A well-qualified candidate will have most (but not necessarily all) of the following:
- MA or Ph.D., or equivalent experience in a data or statistics-heavy field
- Be comfortable and experienced in all parts of science communication: clear public speaking, clean science writing, and a solid slide deck game
- Strong statistical chops, with experience generating statistical models or other data interpolation based on challenging datasets (e.g., sparse data, uneven sampling, merging data across scales, etc.)
- Experience with wrangling large, unique, or noisy datasets, potentially including analysis of time series or spatial data
- Programming background (Python, R, etc.), applied to data analysis
- Strong data visualization skills, able to clearly and cleanly communicate data-driven results to experts and non-experts alike
- Be a well-rounded researcher: strong critical thinker, well-organized, equally comfortable with collaborative and independent research, and willing to try new things
Desired
- Familiarity with the oil & natural gas industry, environmental regulations, and/or ESG
- GIS and/or remote sensing experience
- Familiarity with SQL
- Able to travel for up to one week at a time
A few important facts about working at Kairos Aerospace: - We provide health, dental, and vision insurance, including subsidized coverage for dependents. Our 401K plan does matching based on the amount of methane we removed from the atmosphere in a given year. - We think death-march hours are a bad way to run a company. We expect something approximating a 40-hour workweek, but mostly we just care that your work gets done. No, really. (Full disclosure: we occasionally put in some extra hours during crunch periods, but that is the exception, not the norm). - We do not track vacation time, nor do we have set hours to be in the office. Instead, we encourage taking real vacations, mental health days, leaving early to pick up the kids, working from home, time-shifting commutes, staying home when you're sick, ducking out to the gym - we believe work time should be flexible. In this time of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have transitioned to 100% remote work aside from hardware and flight operations and plan to continue having remote positions in perpetuity. (We love it when kids make a cameo in a video call.)
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