Climate Data Scientist, Sustainability

Watershed; San Francisco (CA); On-site; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Watershed, the enterprise sustainability platform, seeks a senior Methodology Engineer to advance built-in sustainability methodologies and ensure scientific rigor. You will collaborate with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers, translate standards like GHG Protocol into product logic, and help shape our methodology standards.

Candidates have a Master’s or PhD in a quantitative field, 5+ years in corporate sustainability, and the ability to read Python code and communicate

Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology, or related quantitative field.
• 5+ years in corporate sustainability, sustainability consulting, carbon accounting, climate strategy, or related field.
• Systems thinker able to link sustainability and business systems.
• Deep knowledge of GHG Protocol standards and sustainability reporting frameworks.
• Able to read Python code and discuss implementation details.
• Strong communication across scientists, auditors, customers, and engineers.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve Watershed’s sustainability methodologies and translate science into robust product logic.
• Collaborate with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to design rigorous, auditable features.
• Review methodology implementations, write specifications, and contribute testable code or configurations.
• Interpret evolving standards (GHG Protocol, reporting frameworks) for product reflection.
• Tackle complex customer questions at the intersection of science, data, and business context.
• Balance scientific rigor with usability and auditability in real-world data.
• Explain methodology choices to customers, auditors, and stakeholders; help set internal standards.

Skills

Sustainability science literacy

Python (code reading)

Cross-functional collaboration

Technical communication

GHG accounting knowledge

Regulatory standards understanding

Education

Master's or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology

Tools

Python

SQL

Typescript

Git

Job description

About Watershed

Watershed is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting including CSRD, and drive real decarbonization. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team. We have offices in San Francisco, New York, Denver, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City, and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you'll be interested in joining us!

The role

Domain expertise in the science of sustainability is the foundation upon which Watershed is built. On the Methodology team, we work at the nexus of corporate sustainability, sustainability science, data, and software - developing the methods that turn raw business data into auditable sustainability data and actionable sustainability insight.

This is a technical, hands-on, and highly collaborative role. You’ll work closely with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to build and maintain Watershed’s industry-leading built-in methodologies: keeping them up to date with the latest scientific developments and standards, developing pragmatic and innovative approaches to emerging challenges, and maintaining our high bar for scientific rigor and integrity.

This is an applied science role, where your knowledge and expertise will become product capabilities used by companies to understand and reduce their real-world impact. You’ll need to understand not only the scientific fundamentals of sustainability, but also how they apply across business contexts, sectors, data realities, legislation, and standards. Great corporate sustainability programs that drive real change are built on credible, accessible, and actionable data - this is our North Star.

What you will do

• Develop, maintain, and improve Watershed’s built-in sustainability methodologies, translating sustainability science, GHG accounting standards, and emerging regulatory requirements into robust product logic.
• Partner closely with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to design methodology features that are scientifically rigorous, auditable, scalable, and intuitive for customers.
• Work directly in and around the codebase: reviewing methodology implementations, writing clear technical specifications, contributing configuration or logic where appropriate, and helping build tests that give us confidence in scientific correctness.
• Interpret evolving standards and guidance - including the GHG Protocol, sustainability reporting frameworks, and sector-specific methodologies - and determine how they should be reflected in Watershed’s product.
• Investigate complex customer and product questions where sustainability science, data quality, accounting rules, and business context intersect.
• Build pragmatic approaches for messy real-world business data, balancing scientific rigor with usability, auditability, and customer impact.
• Collaborate with our go-to-market and customer-facing teams to explain methodology choices clearly to customers, auditors, and other stakeholders.
• Help set the bar for scientific quality across Watershed by documenting decisions, reviewing methodology changes, and contributing to our internal methodology standards.

You might be a fit if you

• Have a Master's or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology, or another relevant quantitative field.
• Have 5+ years of experience in corporate sustainability, sustainability consulting, carbon accounting, climate strategy, or a related field - ideally working with large, complex organizations.
• Are a systems thinker who can zoom out to understand interconnected sustainability and business systems, then zoom in to identify high-leverage technical solutions and anticipate unintended impacts.
• Have deep knowledge of both the application of, and reasoning behind, prevailing GHG accounting standards and sustainability reporting frameworks - at minimum the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard; familiarity with the GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance and updated ESRS is a plus.
• Able to work in a Python codebase. This is not a software engineering role, but you should be comfortable reading code, reasoning about implementation details, and making contributions to the codebase.
• Can communicate complex ideas clearly to a wide range of audiences, including scientific experts, academics, verifiers, auditors, customers, internal business stakeholders, software engineers, and data scientists.

Bonus points

• Experience building or maintaining carbon accounting methodologies, emissions factor datasets, LCA models, or sustainability software.
• Familiarity with assurance or audit processes for GHG inventories or sustainability disclosures.
• Comfort working with data using Python, SQL, Typescript, or similar tools.
• Experience translating complex standards or scientific methods into operational guidance, technical specifications, or product requirements.
• Experience working with engineers to translate scientific methods into tested, production-grade software.

Location & Working Hours

Must be willing to work from an office 4 days per week (except for remote roles). Watershed has hub offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Mexico City and satellite offices in Denver, Sydney, Paris, and Berlin. Where we have offices, employees are expected to be in office for 4 days per week. Certain jobs are open to being remote and will be specifically noted on the jobs page and in the job description if so.

Interview Process

It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience interview (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a virtual or in person interview panel. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process.

Accommodations

At Watershed, we are dedicated to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. We provide reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health needs, religious observances, neurodivergence, or pregnancy-related support requirements.