Wildfire Scientist - Wildfire Spread Modeler

Wildfire Scientist – Wildfire Spread Modeler

This is a hybrid role with the opportunity to work virtually and from our Boston office

At Aon, we shape decisions for the better to protect and enrich the lives of people around the world.

As an organization, we are united through trust as one inclusive team and we are passionate about helping our colleagues and clients succeed.

• Operate, maintain, and enhance Aon’s current wildfire spread modeling workflows, including:
  • Running large catalogs of simulated events for model development, testing, and calibration.
  • Working directly with our current wildfire spread engine and associated tooling to ensure reliable, repeatable runs
  • Diagnosing performance bottlenecks and improving stability and throughput of spread simulations.
• Work on improving how our models represent spread in and through the WUI, including:
  • Representing transitions from wildland fuels to urban and suburban areas.
  • Incorporating ember generation, spotting, and structure‑to‑structure fire spread behaviors.
  • Evaluating how different fuels, topography, and exposures influence spread into built environments.
  • Helping to shape new modeling approaches that better capture fire behavior in the WUI.
• Develop, test, and maintain modeling and data‑processing pipelines in R and/or Python, including:
  • Automation and orchestration of large batches of spread simulations on HPC / cloud resources.
  • Efficient handling of large geospatial datasets (fuels, topography, exposure grids, fire perimeters).
• Evaluate and integrate traditional wildfire spread science into our modeling framework:
  • Work with established fire behavior models (e.g., Rothermel‑based approaches and related methods).
  • Assess model behavior against historical wildfire perimeters, growth patterns, and impact footprints.
• Perform model validation and verification:
  • Compare modeled spread and burned area to observed historical events across different fuel types and regions.
  • Document and communicate findings and recommended improvements back into the modeling workflow.
• Collaborate closely with an international, interdisciplinary team of:
  • Catastrophe model developers, wildfire scientists, meteorologists, engineers, and exposure/vulnerability specialists.
  • Software developers and client‑facing colleagues who bring the models to market.
• Prepare technical documentation, presentations, and summaries of modeling work for both internal and external audiences.

• M.S. or Ph.D. in wildfire science, fire behavior, environmental science, applied geoscience, atmospheric science, a closely related field (required) or equivalent years of industry experience
• Direct experience with wildfire spread modeling(required), which may include:
  • Operational or research use of tools such as FARSITE, Flam Map, Behave Plus, or similar fire behavior models,and/or
  • Experience developing or working with custom spread models (cellular automata, level‑set methods, or other numerical approaches).
• Demonstrated understanding ofwildland–urban interface (WUI) fire behavior, including:
  • How fires transition from wildland fuels into communities.
  • The role of embers/spotting and structure‑to‑structure spread (preferred).
• Strong programming / scripting skills, preferably in R and/or Python (required).
• Experience working withgeospatial data and tools(e.g., raster/vector data, GDAL, ArcGIS, QGIS, sf/terra in R, or equivalent) (required).
• Experience with numerical or environmental models in an HPC or cloud environment (preferred).
• Solid analytical and statistical skills, including working with large datasets and time series (required).
• Experience with SQL or other database tools (preferred).
• Excellent technical writing and presentation skills (required).
• Experience with catastrophe modeling or risk modeling (preferred).

This is a hands‑on modeling role in a small, focused team, with a clear mandate to both operate our current spread modeling capabilities at scale and to help shape the next generation of wildfire spread modeling within Aon.

Aon offers a comprehensive package of benefits for full-time and regular part-time…