Geospatial Data Scientist Lead

Openkrill; United States; Remote; USD 185,000 - 231,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Base salary with performance bonuses

Health, dental, vision insurance

Paid time off (PTO)

Job summary

Neural Earth is seeking a founding staff-level geospatial data scientist to own and define the geospatial data science function. You will architect data ingestion, structuring, and pipelines to serve ML and AI teams building hazard intelligence products for insurers, government agencies, and infrastructure operators.

You will lead a small team, mentor a direct report, and ensure production-ready, validated models with impact across geographies.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Geospatial Science, Data Science, Atmospheric or Environmental Science or related field
• 5+ years of geospatial data experience in research or applied settings
• Experience in insurance, energy, government, defense, or climate tech
• Proven ability to build and lead a technical capability, including mentoring at least one direct report

Responsibilities

• Design and deploy Python-based geospatial models that quantify hazards for business decisions
• Build geospatial data pipelines to convert raw hazard data into indexed intelligence products
• Translate complex multi-hazard findings into business-ready insights for underwriters and operators
• Lead as internal and external SME on geospatial data science, shaping proposals and strategy
• Establish rigorous validation standards ensuring models are reproducible and defensible

Skills

Geospatial data

Python

Data modeling

Leadership

Mentoring

Education

Master’s or PhD in Geospatial Science / Data Science

Tools

GeoPandas

Rasterio

GDAL

xarray

Shapely

Python

Job description

THE COMPANY

We are NEURAL EARTH. We bring clarity to physical risk, enabling leaders to engage with confidence and enact resilient, business-critical decisions. Today's environmental, economic, and infrastructure challenges are deeply interconnected, yet the data required to understand these relationships is scattered across siloed and aging systems. Neural Earth enables operational execution, delivering a single decision intelligence platform that unifies planetary, governmental, and asset-level data, always on and always learning. This is technical work that requires patience. It requires teams willing to operate at the intersection of AI research, geospatial science, distributed systems, and enterprise deployment. It is also incredibly rewarding. Join us at Neural Earth — the next frontier is here.

THE TEAM

Neural Earth's Science team transforms raw environmental data into intelligence that moves markets and protects lives. You will join a growing group of geospatial data scientists, ML specialists, and researchers led by a strong leader, who sets a high bar: the work must be publishable in quality and deployable in production. You will collaborate closely with Engineering, Product, and Revenue to make sure what we build in science reaches the customers who need it.

THE ROLE

This is a founding, staff-level role with a direct report. You will own Neural Earth's geospatial data science function, define the technical strategy for how we ingest, structure, and pipeline multi-hazard geospatial data, and make that data usable by our ML and AI teams to power quantified intelligence products used by insurers, government agencies, and infrastructure operators. You are comfortable across geospatial data broadly, not specialized in a single sub-discipline like meteorology. You work at the intersection of geospatial engineering, data infrastructure, and applied science. You do not stop at the paper. You build things that ship, scale, and make hazard data understandable to people who are not scientists. This is you!

HOW YOU'LL BE SUCCESSFUL

• - Model: Design and deploy Python-based geospatial models that quantify environmental and physical hazards at a level of precision that drives real business decisions, not just research outputs.
• - Build: Architect Neural Earth's geospatial data pipelines from the ground up, including the systems, infrastructure, and scientific frameworks that turn raw hazard data into indexed intelligence products customers can act on. Structure and prepare that data so it is ready to run through the models our ML and AI teams build, and own the production pipelines that keep it flowing reliably.
• - Translate: Convert complex, multi-hazard scientific findings into business-ready products that are legible and compelling to insurance underwriters, government operators, and enterprise decision-makers.
• - Lead: Serve as Neural Earth's internal and external subject matter expert on geospatial data science, driving customer calls, proposals, and strategy discussions, while managing and developing a direct report.
• - Validate: Establish rigorous validation standards for all geospatial models, ensuring methods are reproducible, cross-validated, and defensible across industries and geographies.

WHY WE VALUE YOU

• - You have 5+ years of experience working with geospatial data broadly, across formats and hazard types, in a research or applied setting, in addition to any graduate degree.
• - You write Python fluently and have built production-grade geospatial models using GeoPandas, Rasterio, GDAL, xarray, and Shapely.
• - You know how to engineer and structure geospatial data so it is ready to feed ML and AI models built by others. You would rather apply and extend someone else's research five different ways than chase original research yourself.
• - You are fluent in geospatial data formats (GeoTIFF, COG, GeoParquet, NetCDF) and have worked with large-scale raster, vector, and time-series datasets in cloud environments.
• - You have shaped a scientific or technical framework, not just executed within someone else's.
• - You think in systems. When you see a wildfire burn scar, your mind goes to downstream snowpack risk.
• - You can walk a customer through a confidence interval in the morning and brief a C-suite on business implications in the afternoon, without ever sounding condescending or over your audience's head.
• - You define your own structure in ambiguous environments and build something real before the roadmap is written.
• - You do not ship unvalidated models. You have the judgment to know when something is ready.
• - You have mentored or managed at least one direct report or informally led technical work, and you know how to grow talent, not just do the work yourself.
• - You care when your hazard model shapes an insurance decision or informs a disaster response. This matters to you.

REQUIREMENTS

• - Master's or PhD in Geospatial Science, Data Science, Atmospheric or Environmental Science, or a related field
• - 5+ years of experience with geospatial data in a research or applied setting, outside of academic training
• - Prior experience in insurance, energy, government, defense, or climate tech
• - Demonstrated ability to build and lead a technical capability, including managing or mentoring at least one direct report

COMPENSATION

The salary range for this position is $185,000 to $231,000 annually, reflecting progression within the role based on demonstrated growth and impact.

At Neural Earth, we believe in pay equity, transparency, and rewarding growth. Our compensation philosophy is built on an equitable model with offers based on role, level, and expertise. This approach ensures that all employees are paid fairly and equitably without the influence of external factors like negotiation skills or previous pay history. This structure provides clarity, consistency, and alignment between pay, performance, and career development.

BENEFITS

At Neural Earth, taking care of our people isn't just something we strive for, it's who we are. Our comprehensive benefits package is designed to support you at every stage, whether you're advancing your career, growing your family, or planning for the future. From day one, you'll have access to:

• - Competitive base compensation regardless of work location
• - Company performance-based cash bonuses
• - Majority employer-paid health, dental, and vision insurance for you and your dependents
• - Flexible Paid Time Off (PTO)
• - Group Life Insurance at 2x your base salary, paid by the company
• - FSA and HSA options to maximize your healthcare dollars

We know that when people feel supported, they can focus on what matters most at Neural Earth which is doing great work, growing in their careers, and making a meaningful impact.