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Geospatial Statistician for Extreme Weather and Model Evaluation (Academic Hourly)DPI Applied Rsrch and Dev - UrbanaPosting Category:
The DPI Climate Hub (https://www.climate-dpi.org) is seeking a highly motivated candidate with expertise in statistics, geospatial data analysis, environmental data science, atmospheric sciences, remote sensing, or a related field to support research and development for the AerisIQ weather forecasting system (https://aerisiq.io)The ideal candidate will contribute as an Extreme Weather and Geospatial Statistics Analyst, supporting the analysis of high-impact weather events and the evaluation of model performance against observational datasets. This role will focus on developing statistical and geospatial workflows to compare numerical weather model outputs with in-situ observations, radar, satellite, reanalysis, and other environmental datasets. The candidate will help translate model-observation insights into operational tools, performance metrics, and decision-support products.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES- Conduct retrospective analyses of extreme weather events, including storms, high winds, heatwaves, extreme rainfall, and flooding.
- Perform quantitative comparisons between simulated forecasts and observational datasets across space and time.
- Develop statistical metrics and geospatial methods to evaluate model performance, bias, uncertainty, and event detection skill.
- Process and analyze large-scale gridded and point-based environmental datasets, including NWP outputs, station observations, radar, satellite, and reanalysis products.
- Support spatial matching, interpolation, aggregation, and validation workflows for model-observation comparison.
- Collaborate with software engineers and domain experts to develop automated workflows for data ingestion, preprocessing, post-processing, visualization, and analysis.
- Contribute to the development of operational evaluation tools and decision-support products for extreme weather applications.
QUALIFICATIONS- Background in statistics, geospatial data science, atmospheric sciences, environmental data science, remote sensing, engineering, or a related field.
- Experience working with large-scale environmental, weather, climate, or geospatial datasets.
- Strong programming skills in Python, R, MATLAB, or similar languages.
- Familiarity with statistical modeling, spatial analysis, uncertainty analysis, or model evaluation methods.
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES- Experience working with gridded model outputs and point-based observational datasets.
- Working knowledge of environmental and weather data sources, such as in-situ observations, radar, satellite products, reanalysis datasets, or numerical weather prediction model outputs.
- Familiarity with geospatial data tools, packages, and formats, such as NetCDF, GeoTIFF, shapefiles, GeoJSON, xarray, rasterio, geopandas, ArcGIS, or QGIS.
- Experience with spatial matching, interpolation, aggregation, bias correction, validation, or uncertainty quantification across model and observation datasets.
- Understanding of atmospheric processes, weather systems, or extreme weather events.
- Experience with automated workflows, data visualization, dashboards, or operational forecasting systems.
APPOINTMENT INFORMATIONThis is a part-time Academic Hourly position. The expected start date is as soon as possible after the search posting closes. The hourly range for this position is $20-$25 per hour based on experience.
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Sponsorship for Work Authorization is not available for this position.
APPLICATION PROCEDURE & DEADLINE INFORMATIONFor full consideration, please click the
APPLY NOW link on this page to submit an application on the university portal accepting applications for this system office position by 6 pm on 6/5/2026.
System Human Resource Services
(217) 333-2600
erhr@uillinois.edu
The University of Illinois System is an equal opportunity employer, including but not limited to disability and/or veteran status, and complies with all applicable state and federal employment mandates. Please visit Required Employment Notices and Posters to view our non-discrimination statement and find additional information about required background checks, sexual harassment/misconduct disclosures, and employment eligibility review through E-Verify.
Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to apply and may request a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (2008) to complete the application and/or interview process. Requests may be submitted by contacting the System Human Resource Services at 217-333-2600, or by emailing ADAaccessibility@uillinois.edu.
Requisition ID: req3006
Job Category: Extra Help
Campus Location: Chicago
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