Director of Climate Sciences

MSCI • New York, NY

3d • Hybrid

About The Position

This role involves leading a team of scientists to architect and implement models for climate risk assessment. The focus is on creating robust, reproducible physical models that can withstand peer review and validate globally in a changing climate. The position also entails establishing standards, methodologies, and techniques for modeling physical risk and its changes due to climate change. Key responsibilities include organizing team activities, tracking progress, communicating with internal stakeholders (product and sales teams), and aligning timelines with project managers. Coordination with other internal stakeholders for product requirements, deadlines, and compute resources is also essential.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Meteorology, Atmospheric Sciences, Oceanography, Hydrology, Physics, Engineering, Mathematics, or similar subjects.
• 5+ years of experience in roles developing environmental products to meet client requirements, with a preference for probabilistic risk products including, but not limited to, catastrophe model outputs.
• Programming experience in Python, R, C/C++, and/or Fortran.
• Experience with cloud optimized geospatial formats such as Cloud Optimized Geo TIFF (COG), GeoParquet, and related standards.
• Knowledge of the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) outputs and its shared socioeconomic pathways.
• Practical experience using AI tools (i.e. Claude Code, Codex) for writing production scientific code and pipelines.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with financial services and index space would be a plus.

Responsibilities

• Build physical climate risk models using state-of-the-art methodologies including AI numerical weather prediction applied to climate applications, stochastic ensembles, earth observing foundation models, as well as traditional physics-based models.
• Collaborate with climate scientists, hydrologists, fire scientists, data scientists, and data engineers to translate business requirements into scientific solutions.
• Partner with data, cloud, and security teams to design scalable and maintainable scientific modeling pipelines.
• Foster a culture of scientific rigor and excellence in model design, including conducting validation studies to guide continuous improvement of those models.
• Lead a team of scientists to architect and implement models for climate risk assessment.
• Create robust, reproducible physical models which will stand up to peer review and validate well globally in a changing climate.
• Lead the establishment of standards, methodologies, and techniques for modeling physical risk, including how it is changing due to climate change.
• Organize and facilitate team activities for tracking work progress, communicate with internal stakeholders in product and sales teams, and align timelines and deliveries with project managers.
• Coordinate with other internal stakeholders as necessary to facilitate product requirements, deadlines, compute resources, etc.

Benefits

• Salary range: $173,000 - $225,000 / year.
• Eligible for annual bonus.
• Transparent compensation schemes and comprehensive employee benefits, tailored to your location, ensuring your financial security, health, and overall wellbeing.
• Flexible working arrangements, advanced technology, and collaborative workspaces.
• A culture of high performance and innovation where we experiment with new ideas and take responsibility for achieving results.
• A global network of talented colleagues, who inspire, support, and share their expertise to innovate and deliver for our clients.
• Global Orientation program to kickstart your journey, followed by access to our Learning@MSCI platform, AI Learning Center, LinkedIn Learning Pro and tailored learning opportunities for ongoing skills development.
• Multi-directional career paths that offer professional growth and development through new challenges, internal mobility and expanded roles.
• An environment that builds a sense of inclusion belonging and connection, including eight Employee Resource Groups.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Director
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree