Climate data scientist, sustainability

Rozgoo; United States; Remote; USD 140,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Watershed, a leader in enterprise sustainability, seeks a methodological expert to advance built‑in sustainability methodologies used by major firms worldwide.

You will translate sustainability science and GHG standards into robust product logic, collaborating with engineers, data scientists, and product managers to keep methodologies rigorous, auditable, and scalable. This applied science role requires strong communication to diverse audiences and a commitment to scientific integrity.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology, or related field.
• 5+ years in corporate sustainability, sustainability consulting, carbon accounting or related field.
• Systems thinker able to see interconnections across sustainability and business systems.
• Deep knowledge of GHG accounting standards and reporting frameworks (GHG Protocol).
• Able to read and understand Python code and contribute to the codebase.
• Excellent ability to communicate complex ideas to diverse audiences.

Responsibilities

• Develop, maintain, and improve built-in sustainability methodologies translating science and standards.
• Collaborate with engineers, data scientists, and product managers to design rigorous, auditable, scalable features.
• Review methodology implementations, write specs, contribute configuration or logic, and help build tests.
• Interpret evolving standards (GHG Protocol, frameworks) for Watershed’s product.
• Investigate complex questions where science, data quality, accounting rules, and business context intersect.
• Balance scientific rigor with usability for real-world data.
• Explain methodology choices to customers, auditors, and internal stakeholders.
• Document decisions and contribute to internal methodology standards.

Skills

Sustainability science

GHG accounting

Python

Regulatory standards

Systems thinking

Stakeholder communication

Education

Master's or PhD in climate science / related field

Tools

Python

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!

Role Overview

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.

Responsibilities

• 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.

Requirements

• 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.
• Bonus points: Familiarity with assurance or audit processes for GHG inventories or sustainability disclosures.
• Bonus points: Comfort working with data using