Director of Climate Sciences

MSCI Inc. • New York, NY

4d • $173,000 - $225,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

MSCI is seeking a Director of Climate Sciences to lead a team in architecting and implementing models for climate risk assessment. This role involves building physical climate risk models using advanced methodologies, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and fostering a culture of scientific rigor. The Director will be responsible for creating robust, reproducible physical models, establishing standards for modeling physical risk, and coordinating team activities and stakeholder communication. MSCI is a global provider of research-based data, analytics, and indexes that help clients make better decisions and unlock innovation in the financial ecosystem.

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 GeoTIFF (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 our 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.
• We actively nurture an environment that builds a sense of inclusion belonging and connection, including eight Employee Resource Groups. All Abilities, Asian Support Network, Black Leadership Network, Climate Action Network, Hola! MSCI, Pride & Allies, Women in Tech, and Women’s Leadership Forum.

What This Job Offers

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