Wildland Fire Risk Scientist

KBR, Inc; Sioux Falls (SD); On-site; USD 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401K plan with company match

Medical

Dental

Vision

Life insurance

Flexible spending account

Disability

Paid time off

Flexible work schedule

Job summary

KBR, Inc is seeking a Wildland Fire Risk Scientist to provide research support for the USGS team focused on wildfire risk assessment. This role involves advanced scientific support with expertise in remote sensing, GIS, and statistical analysis.

The candidate will lead research to quantify wildfire impacts on buildings and infrastructure, develop datasets, and contribute to high-impact journal publications.

Qualifications

• Experience with fire ecology and plant community dynamics.
• Strong interpersonal communication and technical writing skills.
• Ability to analyze spatial data and perform validation.

Responsibilities

• Advance methods to predict wildfire exposure and damage.
• Lead development and publication of journal articles.
• Develop, maintain, and expand data sets on building losses.

Skills

Remote sensing

Geographic information systems

Geospatial processing

Statistical analysis

Science communications

Python

R

AI-supported development

Education

PhD in ecology or related field

3-5 years experience in fire ecology

Tools

ERDAS

ArcGIS

ArcPro

QGIS

Microsoft Office

Job description

Wildland Fire Risk Scientist

Position Summary

The primary focus of this position is to provide research support to the USGS team tasked with understanding wildfire risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface, and other valued assets. This will require advanced level science support with experience in remote sensing, geographic information systems, geospatial processing, scripting, statistical analysis, and science communications.

Responsibilities

• Forward research in wildfire exposure and risk to buildings, the wildland-urban interface (WUI), and other valued assets to inform DOI and USWFS wildfire risk assessments and risk mitigation strategies.
• Advance methods to predict wildfire exposure and damage to buildings at national or larger scales using simulation models and deep and machine learning.
• Lead development and publication of journal articles related to this research.
• Develop, maintain, and expand data sets that quantify building losses caused wildfires annually.
• Develop prototypes and identify data sources for non-building valued assets such as communication, energy, hydrological, or transportation infrastructure impacted by wildfires.
• Develop, update, and analyze global- and national-scale datasets mapping Wildland Urban Interface using building footprints, census bureau, land cover, and fire occurrence data.

Required Education and Experience

• Must have a 3-year residency in the United States.
• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain a national agency check and background investigation after hire to obtain credentials for facility access and user accounts.
• Education: PhD or advanced Degree or equivalent experience in ecology, landscape ecology, forestry, fire science, conservation science or another relevant field - especially study in how ecological systems function both naturally and after disturbance.
• Years of Experience: Must have minimum 3-5 years of recent and related work experience in fire ecology and knowledge with plant community dynamics across the landscape.
• Advanced understanding of ground, surface, and canopy fuel types/characteristics and their effects on wildland fire behavior in conjunction with environmental factors.
• Experience with image processing and GIS software (e.g., ERDAS, ArcGIS, ArcPro, QGIS).
• Familiarity with raster and vector data processing and ability to perform spatial analysis and validation.
• Strong interpersonal communication, technical writing, editing and presentation skills and an advanced knowledge of Microsoft office tools for reporting and documentation of processes and procedures.
• Experience with Python and R, and potentially AI-supported development environments (e.g., Kiro) to develop models, data analyses, and visualizations.
• Experience with shared code repositories.
• Ability to serve in both lead author and co-author roles to plan and complete manuscripts targeting high-impact scientific journals.
• Participate in virtual and occasional in-person team meetings as needed.
• Ability to work in a team environment to help shape, manage and execute projects applying geospatial data and systems to solve geospatial problems.

Areas of Desired Experience & Skills

• Ability to contribute to the definition, direction, and implementation of the Wildland Fuels Program at EROS.
• Ability to self-teach in areas of weakness utilizing available on-the-job training resources.

KBR Benefits

• 401K plan with company match
• medical
• dental
• vision
• life insurance
• AD&D
• flexible spending account
• disability
• paid time off
• flexible work schedule

We support career advancement through professional training and development.

KBR Culture & Values

• We Value Our People – We create diverse, inclusive environments in which each person can feel safe, respected and valued, and where everyone has opportunities to grow and reach their full potential.
• We Deliver – We are uncompromising in our commitment to deliver innovative, high-quality, technology-led solutions for our customers and exceptional, sustainable value for all our stakeholders.
• We Are People of Integrity – We value honesty, trust, courage, fairness, prudence and tenacity. We believe doing what’s right for the planet, the communities where we work, and our people is good for business.
• We Empower – We empower our people with a shared purpose, the right tools and the supportive culture they need to be proactive decision-makers, to be adaptive to change, and to succeed.
• We Are a Team of Teams – We have a will to succeed, but we value the achievements of our team of teams over individual accomplishments. Our collective focus makes us a better, stronger, more effective company.

KBR - Delivering Solutions, Changing the World.

KBR partners with several other companies to fulfill its requirements as a government contractor. The selected subcontracting companies align their benefits as closely as possible to those of KBR.

We Deliver - Together.

KBR is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

Fraud Alert Fraud has infiltrated the job placement market via the internet, email and direct phone contact. Attempts have included unauthorized use of KBR’s name and logo to solicit potential job seekers or to extend false job offers. Bad actors may mix in fake job advertisements with legitimate postings. These ads can include contact instructions and require job seekers to send sensitive personal information or money to pay for visa applications, processing fees, etc., in exchange for consideration for a high-paying position. KBR will never ask for any sort of advance payment as part of the recruiting/hiring process. Candidate profiles are carefully managed to protect personal information.