Remote Fire Protection & Spatial Modeling Lead

Dudek; California; Hybrid; USD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Dudek seeks an experienced Fire Protection Planner to lead spatial wildfire analysis and QA/QC within our fire protection planning team. You will guide modeling work, ensure data quality, and support integration of results into community wildfire protection plans and risk assessments.

The role requires strong geospatial and fire-science expertise, excellent communication, mentoring, and the ability to work with clients and agencies.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in fire science or related field; an advanced degree may substitute for a portion of professional experience.
• 5+ years of relevant professional experience in wildfire science, fire behavior analysis, spatial modeling, geospatial analytics, forestry, land management, environmental consulting, or a related discipline.
• Strong understanding of fire behavior and wildfire dynamics, including the interactions among fuels, weather, and topography that influence wildfire ignition, intensity, rate of spread, ember production, and suppression effectiveness.
• Understanding of fire ecology and vegetation dynamics in dry-forest, shrubland, and Mediterranean environments.
• Demonstrated experience designing and performing custom analyses of vector and raster inputs and outputs from wildfire behavior or fire progression modeling systems.
• Demonstrated experience parameterizing, operating, interpreting, and documenting wildfire modeling systems such as FlamMap, FARSITE, FSPro, IFTDSS, or equivalent tools.
• Advanced proficiency with GIS software, such as ArcGIS Pro or QGIS, including spatial analysis, geoprocessing, cartography, and management of large vector and raster datasets.
• Experience developing or applying technical QA/QC procedures, reviewing analytical work performed by others, resolving discrepancies, and documenting review findings.
• Ability to independently plan and execute complex technical assignments, exercise sound judgment, manage priorities, and meet project schedules and budgets.
• Ability to work effectively as part of a multidisciplinary team and provide technical leadership, mentoring and constructive review.
• Excellent attention to detail and strong oral, written, and visual communication skills, including the ability to explain scientific concepts, assumptions, uncertainty, and limitations to technical and nontechnical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead spatial fire behavior modeling efforts and QA/QC for project work.
• Design, parameterize, execute, and interpret landscape-scale wildfire modeling using tools such as FlamMap, FARSITE, FSPro, IFTDSS, or equivalent.
• Perform spatial analyses of vector and raster datasets across project sites and large landscapes, including fire spread, flame length, fireline intensity, rate of spread, arrival time, burn probability, ember exposure, and related outputs.
• Develop customized community wildfire risk assessment model approaches utilizing spatial datasets related to community wildfire risk.
• Develop, evaluate, and document model inputs, including fuels, topography, weather, wind, ignition locations, and project-specific conditions.
• Establish and maintain modeling protocols, data standards, file-management practices, reproducible workflows, and technical guidance for the team.
• Lead quality assurance and quality control reviews of modeling inputs, methods, scripts, maps, calculations, outputs, and technical conclusions; verify that work products are accurate, reproducible, internally consistent, and suitable for client and agency review.
• Prepare clear methodology documentation and translate modeling results, assumptions, uncertainty, and limitations into defensible reports, fire protection plans, environmental technical studies, figures, presentations, and responses to agency or public comments.
• Coordinate with fire protection planners, GIS specialists, environmental planners, engineers, biologists, project managers, clients, and fire agencies to align modeling with project objectives and regulatory needs.
• Mentor and train staff in fire modeling methods, geospatial analysis, documentation, and QA/QC expectations; review technical work and provide actionable guidance.
• Support project scoping, level-of-effort estimates, schedules, proposal development, and client presentations for modeling and wildfire-risk assignments.
• Monitor advances in wildfire science, modeling platforms, fuels and remote-sensing datasets, and decision-support tools, and recommend appropriate improvements to team practices.

Skills

Geospatial analysis

Fire modeling

QA/QC procedures

Technical leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in fire science / related field

Advanced degree may substitute part of experience

Tools

FlamMap

FARSITE

FSPro

IFTDSS

ArcGIS Pro

QGIS

Job description

Dudek seeks an experienced Fire Protection Planner to lead spatial wildfire analysis and QA/QC within our fire protection planning team. You will guide modeling work, ensure data quality, and support integration of results into community wildfire protection plans and risk assessments.

The role requires strong geospatial and fire-science expertise, excellent communication, mentoring, and the ability to work with clients and agencies.