Research Scientist - Cryosphere

Arctic Research and Development; Cirencester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive compensation

Private Health Insurance from Day 1

Dental & Vision

Equity for early employee

Field exposure to Arctic sites

Mission-driven culture

Small team, ownership

Job summary

Arctic Research and Development in Cirencester seeks a scientist to lead cryospheric research with a focus on sea ice. You will develop and validate physics-based models, quantify uncertainty, and ensure traceability from data to product.

As an early science hire, you will collaborate with the Science Lead and software team to ship reliable outputs and contribute to open data and field campaigns in Arctic environments.

Qualifications

• PhD (or equivalent) in cryospheric science with a focus on sea ice.
• Track record of publication or equivalent industry experience demonstrating scientific rigour.
• Experience developing and applying physics models.
• Fluency with uncertainty quantification and validating models against real measurements.
• Geospatial data handling.
• Strong scientific software engineering: production‑quality Python, reproducibility, version control, testing.
• Seniority to own a workstream and set direction.
• Recent engagement in sea ice or cryosphere science community.

Responsibilities

• Generate and own science investigations end-to-end for ARD products and the wider Arctic science community.
• Ensure defensibility of science outputs with traceability to data, models and logic.
• Own validation and ground-truth campaigns to measure real-world product performance.
• Develop and/or run physics models (regional climate, ocean or surface‑mass balance).
• Put physical constraints on machine‑learning models and ensure consistency with physics.
• Work with Science Lead and Head of Software to ship results into production.

Skills

Sea ice science

Uncertainty quantification

Physics models

Scientific software engineering

Geospatial data handling

Python

Git version control

Remote sensing (SAR)

Independent leadership

Education

PhD in cryospheric science (sea ice)

Tools

Python

Git

Geospatial tools

Job description

LOCATION: CALMSDEN, CIRENCESTER, UK

FULL-TIME, HYBRID: 2 DAYS (min) ON-SITE, 3 DAYS REMOTE

THE LAST FRONTIER

ARD was founded on a paradox. The Arctic is both the next great economic frontier and one of the most hostile environments on Earth. Rich in resources and strategically vital, yet cold, dark for months, and fundamentally inhospitable to humans. This paradox - an explosion of activity in a place that resists human presence - is why we exist.

Our solution is autonomy.

We build systems that operate reliably and intelligently in the Arctic, so that humans don't always have to.

Founded by record-holding pioneers with decades of polar experience, we take calculated risks on hard problems that matter. If you want to build and deploy ground‑up technology with real‑world impact, at an inflection point in history that won’t reappear, we’d like to talk.

THE ROLE

ARD is building an intelligence layer for the Arctic that turns a flood of observations into understanding, foresight, and action. Our approach is deliberately grounded in modern science. We develop and run physics models, collect empirical data in the field and laboratory and then use that knowledge to extract meaning from our diverse datasets. We avoid black boxes - the products we ship trace back to the physics and data that produced it.

This role will deliver cutting edge cryospheric science, primarily focusing on sea ice. You will be responsible for developing defensible scientific outputs and ensuring that our results trace back to the data, models and pipelines that created it. With science team colleagues, you will generate hypotheses and own them all the way to conclusions and embedding them into products. As an early member, you will be a pivotal part of the ARD science team.

Core Responsibilities

• Generate and own science investigations end-to-end. Some of these will feed the ARD product line and others will be curiosity-driven or aiming to support the wider Arctic science community.
• Become accountable for defensibility of science outputs, ensuring every result maps back to the data, model and logic that produced it, and that error and uncertainty is honestly reported.
• Own validation and ground‑truthing campaigns that measure the real‑world performance of our products.
• Develop and/or run physics models, including large ones, such as regional climate, ocean or surface‑mass balance models, and analyse their outputs.
• Put physical constraints on machine‑learning models and ensure models are consistent with real physics.
• Work with the Science Lead and Head of Software so your work lands in production, not just in papers.

Requirements

We are looking for a scientist motivated by real‑world impact. The right applicant will be rigorous and able to communicate the chain of evidence that led to a claim, and honestly report associated error and uncertainty. We are seeking a scientist with deep knowledge of cryospheric science, especially sea ice, but also value expertise in terrestrial glaciology, oceanography, and atmospheric science. Experience with remote‑sensing image analysis, especially SAR, is desirable.

Essential

• A PhD (or equivalent research track record) in cryospheric science, with a focus on sea ice.
• A track record of publication or equivalent industry experience that demonstrates scientific rigour.
• Experience developing and applying physics models.
• Fluency with uncertainty quantification and with validating models against real measurements.
• Geospatial data handling.
• Strong scientific software engineering: production‑quality Python, reproducibility, version control, testing. Your models are meant to ship.
• Seniority to own a workstream and be delegated to: able to set direction, make sound calls under ambiguity independently, and represent the science externally. Comfortable being the first, and helping build the team.
• Recent engagement in the sea ice or wider cryosphere science community

Desirable

• Experience doing field work to validate scientific model outputs
• Experience working with teams of hardware and/or software engineers to ship products people use
• Experience running and evaluating large climate models or equivalent modelling tasks in other domains, especially forecast models.

What We Value

• You treat provenance and uncertainty as first‑class, not documentation added at the end.
• You've shipped something real that others depend on: an open‑source tool, an operational model, a product.

Why ARD

The mission

The Arctic is the fastest‑changing region on Earth. You'll build the intelligence layer that helps understand and steward it - an early‑warning system for the planet's coldest edge.

Science and product

Our model rewards work that yields both new science and a platform others build on. You won't have to choose between publishing and shipping.

Foundational scope

You're the first science hire, you'll work directly with the Science Lead and Head of Software. You'll be instrumental in shaping the team that follows.

Open by design

A free Arctic data commons alongside paid services - your work reaches the whole field, not a walled garden.

What we offer

• Competitive compensation
• Private Health Insurance from Day 1
• Dental & Vision
• Equity - meaningful options as an early employee at an early‑stage company
• Real field exposure - travel to Arctic sites when needed
• Mission‑driven culture - focus on impact, not hours logged
• Small team, real ownership - what you build matters and ships

ARD is an equal opportunities employer. We hire on merit, based on skills, experience and potential, and welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. We know great candidates sometimes hold back unless they tick every box, so if this role excites you but your experience doesn’t match every point, we’d still love to hear from you, especially if you bring a background or perspective that is under‑represented in science and engineering.

If you need any reasonable adjustments during the application or interview process, please let us know at [e-mail].