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Climate Data Scientist, Sustainability at Watershed

By The Sustainability Grid Desk

Location San Francisco, California, USA; Remote, United States

Type Full-time

Work Arrangement: Hybrid

Department: Tech Data and Climate Science

Salary: $193,500 to $202,100 USD

Experience Level: Mid to Senior Level, 5+ years preferred

Application Deadline: Not specified

About Watershed

Watershed is an enterprise sustainability platform used by companies including Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready sustainability metrics, support voluntary and regulatory reporting such as CSRD, and drive real decarbonization.

The company operates offices across San Francisco, New York, Denver, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, and Mexico City, with additional remote team members across the US and Europe.

The Opportunity

Watershed is hiring a Climate Data Scientist, Sustainability to join its Methodology team, working at the intersection of sustainability science, corporate climate strategy, data, and software.

The role focuses on turning complex sustainability science, GHG accounting standards, regulatory requirements, and real-world business data into robust product methodologies that companies can use to measure and reduce their environmental impact.

This is an applied science position rather than a conventional academic research role. Your scientific expertise will directly influence product capabilities used by organizations to generate credible, auditable, and actionable sustainability data.

What You’ll Do Sustainability Methodology

Develop, maintain, and improve Watershed's built-in sustainability methodologies, translating climate science, GHG accounting standards, and emerging regulatory requirements into product logic.

Cross-Functional Product Development

Work closely with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to develop methodology features that are scientifically rigorous, auditable, scalable, and practical for customers.

Technical Implementation

Work directly in and around the codebase by reviewing methodology implementations, developing technical specifications, contributing configuration or logic, and helping create tests that validate scientific correctness.

Standards & Regulatory Interpretation

Interpret evolving frameworks and guidance, including the GHG Protocol, sustainability reporting frameworks, and sector-specific methodologies, and determine how these requirements should be incorporated into Watershed's platform.

Data & Problem Solving

Investigate complex customer and product questions where sustainability science, data quality, accounting rules, and business realities intersect.

Scientific Quality

Help establish and maintain high standards for scientific quality by documenting methodology decisions, reviewing changes, and contributing to internal methodology standards.

Requirements Core Qualifications

• Master's or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology, or another relevant quantitative discipline.
• 5+ years of experience in corporate sustainability, sustainability consulting, carbon accounting, climate strategy, or a related field.
• Experience working with large and complex organizations.
• Strong understanding of GHG accounting and sustainability reporting.
• Deep knowledge of the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard.
• Ability to work comfortably within a Python codebase.
• Ability to communicate complex scientific and technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences.

Technical Expertise

Experience with or knowledge of:

• GHG accounting
• Sustainability reporting
• Carbon accounting methodologies
• Emissions factor datasets
• Life-cycle assessment
• Python
• SQL
• Typescript or similar tools
• Sustainability data platforms
• Data quality and auditability

Professional Strengths

• Strong systems-thinking capability.
• Ability to balance scientific rigor with usability and scalability.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent technical writing and documentation abilities.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with engineers, data scientists, product managers, auditors, customers, and scientific experts.

Mindset Fit

Watershed is looking for someone who can move between scientific theory and practical implementation. You should be comfortable examining a complex sustainability problem at the systems level, then working through the technical details needed to turn the solution into a reliable product capability.

Bonus Points

Additional experience with any of the following is valuable:

• Carbon accounting methodologies.
• Emissions factor datasets.
• Sustainability software.
• GHG inventory assurance or sustainability disclosure audits.
• The GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance.
• Updated ESRS requirements.
• Translating scientific methodologies into technical specifications or product requirements.
• Working with engineers to turn scientific methods into tested, production-grade software.

Watershed's compensation package includes:

• $193,500 to $202,100 USD compensation range.
• Equity.
• Health, dental, and vision insurance.
• 401(k).
• Unlimited paid time off.
• Paid parental leave.Fertility support.
• Mental health programs.
• Additional total rewards benefits.

Working Arrangement

The role is listed as San Francisco or Remote, US, with a hybrid designation. Watershed generally expects employees working from its offices to be in the office four days per week, while roles specifically designated as remote may be worked remotely.

Important for international applicants: the remote option is specifically listed as Remote, US, so applicants outside the United States should confirm geographic eligibility before applying.

Why This Role Matters

Corporate sustainability is increasingly moving from broad commitments toward measurable, auditable data.

That creates a major technical challenge: companies need sustainability methodologies that are scientifically credible, compatible with evolving standards, practical enough to work with imperfect business data, and robust enough to withstand scrutiny from auditors and regulators.

This role sits directly in that gap.

It combines environmental science with data, software, corporate sustainability, GHG accounting, and product development. For someone interested in building the technical infrastructure behind the next generation of corporate climate action, it is a particularly strong opportunity.