Nature-based Climate Solutions Data Scientist (Junior Specialist)
Environmental Markets Lab (emLab)
Summary
The Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) is seeking a highly motivated junior specialist to conduct research and analyses to support two projects focused on nature-based climate solutions. The first project focuses on assessing the socio-ecological implications of rangelands management in South Africa, including leading data management and visualization for a collaborative research project, supporting the development of a remote sensing model assessing pasture quality, and contributing to field work in South Africa. The second project focuses on integrating nature into carbon markets, developing a global model to illuminate climate solution potential, market prices, cost savings, and gains from trade, and adapting this model to regional contexts by incorporating local data and elaborating policy scenarios.
Job description
Responsibilities
- Preparing, processing, combining, and visualizing data
- Conducting literature reviews
- Employing theoretical and empirical approaches to model risk, diversification, and portfolios
- Contributing to the drafting of academic manuscripts, reports, and presentations
- Developing efficient and reproducible workflows to implement best practices for data acquisition and analysis
- Supporting data collection in the field
Company overview
The Environmental Markets Lab (emLab) is an interdisciplinary research team of economists and scientists based at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). Founded as the Environmental Market Solutions Lab and renamed in 2021, emLab operates as a "think-and-do tank" that advances economic research to deliver practical, scalable solutions for people and the planet. Its work combines economic principles, ecological insights, big-data analytics, and computational modeling to align environmental objectives with economic incentives, challenging the assumption that conservation must come at the expense of socio-economic progress. emLab organizes its research across four core programs: Climate & Energy, Land & Freshwater, Ocean & Fisheries, and People & Poverty. In collaboration with implementing partners—including governments, NGOs, foundations, and intergovernmental organizations—the lab designs, tests, and implements data-driven policies and market-based approaches. Its research has been published in leading journals such as Science, Nature Communications, and Fish and Fisheries, and it maintains a strong commitment to open, transparent science.