Wildfire and Fuels Expert

Wildfire and Fuels Expert – CenterPoint Energy

CenterPoint Energy’s vision is to become the most admired utility in the United States, ensuring safe and reliable delivery of electricity and natural gas to millions of people. The Wildfire and Fuels Expert plays a critical role in our wildfire mitigation strategy, providing expert analysis and operational support related to wildfire risk, fuel conditions and modeling.

Summary
The Wildfire and Fuels Expert at CenterPoint Energy provides expert analysis and operational support related to wildfire risk, fuel conditions and modeling. This role plays a critical part in CenterPoint’s wildfire mitigation strategy by delivering timely and accurate wildfire science insights that inform risk modeling, Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) decisions, operational readiness, and field response activities. The Wildfire and Fuels Expert reports directly to the Director of Situational Awareness Technology & Wildfire and works in close coordination with Electric Operations, Emergency Preparedness & Response, and Enterprise Risk teams.

Essential Duties/Responsibilities

• Monitor and interpret fire weather models, forecast data, and satellite imagery to identify emerging wildfire risks across CNP’s service territory.
• Refine predictive models through cross‑functional collaboration with data science teams, leveraging ensemble forecasting data.
• Contribute to seasonal wildfire outlooks and long‑term planning by aligning weather forecasts with wildfire potential in partnership with risk modelers and GIS teams.
• Coordinate with federal and state agencies (e.g., NWS, NOAA, USFS) to ensure consistency and accuracy in fire weather messaging.
• Provide subject matter expertise for wildfire mitigation plans, operational procedures, and enterprise resilience strategies.
• Develop and refine fire weather decision support tools and visualization platforms to enhance situational awareness.
• Educate internal teams on fire weather dynamics, including training sessions and guidance documents.
• Advance CNP’s Situational Awareness capabilities through the development of complementary environmental predictive models.

Education

Master’s degree in Meteorology, Fire Science, or Data Science.

Experience

• Minimum 4 years of professional meteorological experience with a focus on fire weather, or a bachelor’s degree in Meteorology, Atmospheric Sciences, Data Science, or a related field with 6 years of experience.
• Strong knowledge of fire weather indices (e.g., Haines Index, ERC, Fosberg Index, FPI, FBI, Keetch‑Byram Drought Index), fuels, and topographic influences on fire behavior.
• Experience with fire and weather modeling platforms such as NFDRS, WIMS, Climavision and Technosylva.
• Proficiency in interpreting numerical weather prediction models, including very high resolution weather models (