Wildfire Scientist - Wildfire Spread Modeler

Aon
Boston
Workplace: HybridFull timeFunction: Research & Scientific (R&D)Education: mastersSkills: ["Technical writing","Presentation skills","Analytical thinking","Statistical analysis"]

Operate and improve Aon’s wildfire spread modeling workflows by running and calibrating large catalogs of simulated events and diagnosing simulation bottlenecks. Enhance WUI (wildland–urban interface) spread representation, including ember generation and structure-to-structure fire spread behaviors. Build and maintain R/Python modeling and data-processing pipelines for large geospatial datasets on HPC/cloud, validate against historical perimeters, and document findings for technical and client-facing audiences with an interdisciplinary team.

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FursaFursa
Aon
Aon
3 days ago

Wildfire Scientist - Wildfire Spread Modeler

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Last checked: 11 hours agoStatus: Live

Job Summary

Operate and improve Aon’s wildfire spread modeling workflows by running and calibrating large catalogs of simulated events and diagnosing simulation bottlenecks. Enhance WUI (wildland–urban interface) spread representation, including ember generation and structure-to-structure fire spread behaviors. Build and maintain R/Python modeling and data-processing pipelines for large geospatial datasets on HPC/cloud, validate against historical perimeters, and document findings for technical and client-facing audiences with an interdisciplinary team.
Location: Boston
Workplace: Hybrid
Employment Type: Full time
Job Function: Research & Scientific (R&D)

Key Responsibilities

  • •Operate, maintain, and enhance Aon wildfire spread modeling workflows, including running large catalogs of simulated events for model development, testing, and calibration.
  • •Work with the wildfire spread engine and tooling to ensure reliable, repeatable simulation runs.
  • •Improve model performance and throughput by diagnosing bottlenecks and enhancing stability.
  • •Develop, test, and maintain modeling and data-processing pipelines in R and/or Python, including automating simulation batches on HPC/cloud and handling large geospatial datasets.
  • •Validate and verify model behavior by comparing modeled spread and burned area to observed historical events, and document findings for the modeling workflow and audiences.

Pay and Benefits

Perks:401kHealth InsuranceDentalVisionTuition AssistanceEmployee Assistance

Key Requirements

  • •M.S. or Ph.D. in wildfire science, fire behavior, environmental science, applied geoscience, atmospheric science, or a closely related field (required) or equivalent industry experience.
  • •Direct experience with wildfire spread modeling (required).
  • •Experience with tools such as FARSITE, FlamMap, BehavePlus, or similar fire behavior models and/or custom spread models (e.g., cellular automata, level-set methods).
  • •Strong programming/scripting skills, preferably in R and/or Python (required).
  • •Experience with geospatial data and tools such as raster/vector data, GDAL, ArcGIS, QGIS, or sf/terra in R (required).
Education:Master's in Wildfire science, fire behavior, environmental science, applied geoscience, atmospheric science (or closely related field)
Skills:Technical writingPresentation skillsAnalytical thinkingStatistical analysis
Tech Stack:RPythonHPCCloudGDALArcGISQGISSf/terraSQLFARSITEFlamMapBehavePlusRothermel

Company Brief

Aon
Global professional services firm providing risk, retirement, human resources, and insurance brokerage solutions to clients worldwide, including consulting, reinsurance, and data-driven risk management services.
Industry: Insurance
Company Size: Enterprise (1,001+ employees)
Revenue: USD 1B+
Growth: Public Company
Valuation: Public Company (Market Cap in USD)
Funding: IPO / Publicly Listed
Headquarters: London, United Kingdom
Founded: 1982
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