Climate Data Scientist, Sustainability at Watershed

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

Final date to receive applications: Not specified

Watershed is an enterprise sustainability platform used by companies including Airbnb, Carlyle Group, Fed Ex, 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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

• 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.

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

• 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.

Water…