Rainmaker Fellow, Radar Science

Lever, Inc.; Norman (OK); On-site; USD 81,000 - 97,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Full health coverage

Lunch provided in-office

EV charging at HQ

Fully stocked kitchenette

Job summary

Rainmaker seeks candidates for a Radar Science Fellowship in the United States. This paid, full-time on-site appointment supports a scoped project defined with a mentor and aligns with Rainmaker's priorities.

You will build radar datasets, validate processing methods, and deliver a final artifact such as a dataset, tracking system, or analysis protocol, with strong mentorship and future opportunities.

Qualifications

• Current undergraduate, master's, or PhD students are eligible.
• Strong quantitative and programming ability, preferably in Python.
• Experience with radar meteorology or remote sensing.
• Ability to formulate a scientific question and validate results carefully.
• Comfort working with large, imperfect observational datasets.
• Availability for full-time, on-site work in El Segundo, CA or Norman, OK.

Responsibilities

• Build quality-controlled radar datasets aligned with aircraft, UAS, satellite, model, surface, or operational observations.
• Implement and validate radar-processing, feature-extraction, retrieval, storm-tracking, or statistical-analysis methods.
• Investigate how results vary with storm type, range, terrain, temperature regime, observing geometry, and data quality.
• Develop baselines and quantify uncertainty, false detections, and selection effects.
• Create case visualizations and scientific analyses for domain experts.
• Produce reusable code and documentation.
• Present findings to radar scientists, meteorologists, operators, and leadership.
• Deliver a final artifact such as a validated dataset, case atlas, or research paper.

Skills

Python

Strong quantitative skills

Communication skills

Data analysis

Education

Current undergraduate/graduate student or recent graduate

Tools

Python

Geospatial analysis

Remote sensing

Job description

About Rainmaker

Rainmaker is pioneering a modern cloud-seeding system to increase precipitation, improve water availability, and address severe-weather challenges. We combine atmospheric science, weather-resistant UAS, radar and satellite observations, numerical weather prediction, novel sensing systems, and sustainable seeding technologies to design, operate, and evaluate precipitation-enhancement programs.

Radar is central to how Rainmaker observes storms, targets operations, evaluates atmospheric evolution, and learns from field programs. Fellows work with scientists and operators who use the resulting analysis in real decisions.

About the Fellowship

The Rainmaker Radar Science Fellowship is a paid, full-time research appointment for exceptional undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, recent graduates, and other early-career researchers.

You will join Rainmaker's radar-science group and work alongside our researchers on a scoped project drawn from the team's current research priorities and defined in close collaboration with your research lead or mentor. Project matching will consider available data, mentor capacity, team needs, and your background. You will take responsibility for a concrete workstream while contributing to ongoing analysis, scientific review, and operational support across the radar team.

Examples of the Work

Fellowship projects change with Rainmaker's research and operational priorities. Examples of the work our radar team may pursue include:

• Creating a radar-aircraft collocation atlas to investigate which radar structures and dual-polarization features contain useful information about measured supercooled liquid water.
• Extending and validating an MRMS/MESH hail-event catalog and storm-object tracker.
• Building a carefully controlled radar evaluation framework for cloud-seeding operations
• Automating an existing radar-analysis workflow used by Rainmaker scientists and operators.

What You'll Do

• Build quality-controlled radar datasets aligned with aircraft, UAS, satellite, model, surface, or operational observations.
• Implement and validate radar-processing, feature-extraction, retrieval, storm-tracking, or statistical-analysis methods.
• Investigate how results vary with storm type, range, terrain, temperature regime, observing geometry, and data quality.
• Develop honest baselines and quantify uncertainty, false detections, selection effects, and failure modes.
• Create case visualizations and scientific analyses that domain experts can inspect.
• Produce clear, reusable code and documentation.
• Present findings to Rainmaker's radar scientists, meteorologists, operators, and technical leadership.
• Deliver a final artifact such as a validated dataset, case atlas, tracking system, retrieval candidate, operational product, analysis protocol, or research paper.

What We're Looking For

• Current undergraduate, master's, or PhD students; postdoctoral researchers; recent graduates; and other early-career researchers are all eligible.
• Strong quantitative and programming ability, preferably in Python.
• Experience with radar meteorology, atmospheric science, signal processing, remote sensing, image analysis, geospatial data, or a closely related field.
• Ability to formulate a scientific question, implement an analysis, and validate the result carefully.
• Comfort working with large, imperfect observational datasets.
• High agency and the ability to take responsibility for a bounded workstream while collaborating with experienced researchers.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Availability for full-time, on-site work in El Segundo for the agreed appointment.

What Success Looks Like

By the end of the fellowship, you will have answered a clearly defined scientific or operational question and delivered a result the radar team can continue using. Depending on the project, that might be a validated dataset, novel retrieval, tracking system, analysis framework, or automated operational workflow.

Fellowship Details

• Paid, full-time, and on-site in El Segundo, CA or Norman, OK.
• Three month appointment
• Rolling applications and project-specific start dates.
• Attached directly to Rainmaker's radar-science group with a named mentor.
• Possible consideration for future full-time roles, without any promise or expectation of conversion.
• Publication may be supported when it does not compromise Rainmaker intellectual property or operational know-how.

Compensation and Benefits

$8,000 per month

Benefits:

• Full health coverage (medical, dental, and vision insurance)
• Lunch provided when working in-office and a fully stocked kitchenette
• Free EV charging at the HQ

$8,000 - $8,000 a month