Senior Ecosystem Modeller (gn)

The Landbanking Group (TLG) was founded to turn landowners and land stewards across the globe into producers and sellers of ecosystem services and nature uplift, completely transforming the way we use land in these unprecedented times of accelerating climate change, mass extinction and social divide.

TLG is building a scalable methodology to assess the natural capital value of any plot of land on the globe. We use the latest machine learning and biophysical process models, combined with scalable ground-based assessments such as metagenomics and bioacoustics, to develop digital twins of land plots. In this way ecosystem uplift can be assessed, verified, and tokenized so that the uplift can be traded as an auditable asset.

TLG is looking for a Senior Ecosystem Modeller with a background in process-based modelling of biogeochemical cycles, in particular carbon and nutrient cycles, to join our ambitious team. The Senior Ecosystem Modeller will help develop a growing number of ecosystem monitoring models (MRV) that quantify ecosystem health and ecosystem services for customer sites worldwide.

Your tasks

The Senior Ecosystem Modeller is responsible for researching, developing, parametrizing, and implementing biophysical process models for simulating biochemical cycles in natural and managed ecosystems. 

There will be a particular focus on turnover of above- and below-ground carbon, nutrient and water in globally distributed forests, peatlands and wetlands. 

The individual will work closely with a team of scientists and stakeholders to develop process models that accurately reflect the complex interactions between biotic and abiotic factors in ecosystems, allowing monitoring of site-specific changes over time.

Key Responsibilities:

• Research suitable existing process models for adoption in to our purposes, e.g. CTSM
  
• Develop and implement process models for estimating biophysical state indicators, e.g. peatland soil carbon stocks
• Develop site-specific model parametrization approaches (with support by our earth observation experts for site-specific variable retrieval)
• Wrap models in automatable, containerized modules which can run operationally in production (with assistance of our software engineers)
  
• Run forward projections under different future scenarios, e.g. management alternatives or climate change
  
• Conduct sensitivity analyses and model validation exercises to ensure that models are robust and accurate
• Communicate methods and results to stakeholders both inside and outside of our company
  
• Keep abreast of the latest developments in the academic domain and incorporate new methods and techniques into process models
  
• Coach and mentor junior staff and working students

• PhD in ecology, environmental science, or a related field
• At least five years of experience in ecosystem modelling, with a proven track record of developing and implementing complex models
• Ideally some experience working with remote sensing derived input parametrization
  
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to convey complex scientific concepts to non-experts
• Strong programming skills in languages such as R or Python
• Ability to rapidly prototype baseline models
  
• Familiarity with Linux environments, version control and cloud deployment, i.e. bash, git, docker, AWS
• Ideally experience of Agile working

What's in it for you?

• Impact
• A working environment based on trust, encouragement and feedback
• A positive, inspiring and truly interdisciplinary work atmosphere
• High degree of autonomy
• Competitive salary
• Challenging and novel problems to solve
• Work remotely (timezone should be close to Germany)
• Learning and development opportunities within and outside our organization
• Various employee perks including personal development budget

We are looking forward to receiving your application. Please include a cover letter, a CV and, if available, a link to public reference code (e.g. via a github repository) or publication list.

TLG welcomes people from all backgrounds and walks of life. We are committed to providing equal opportunities for all employees and applicants without regards to race, color, religion, sex, sex stereotyping, pregnancy, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, age, mental or physical disability, ancestry, medical condition, marital status, citizenship status, sexual orientation, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable law.

If you feel this does perfectly describe you or at least to some relevant extent, we would be delighted to receive your application along with a cover letter.