Company & Mission Overview:

Our mission: We exist to connect climate and financial risk.

Who we are: First Street is the standard for Climate Risk Financial Modeling. For over a decade, we’ve been translating climate risk into decision-useful financial outcomes for investors, businesses, communities, and property owners worldwide. With backing from world-class firms, including Innovation Endeavors, Galvanize, General Catalyst, and others, our team has raised millions to change how the global economy thinks about climate change.

Read more about our culture here and see what Climate Risk Financial Modeling is all about here.

Our data: We’ve assembled leading climate scientists and economists to develop transparent, peer-reviewed methodologies to calculate the past, present, and future climate risk for properties and asset classes spanning real estate, infrastructure, and companies. Using physics-based deterministic models, we predict the likelihood of floods, wildfires, hurricanes, and other hazards at any location on Earth, along with associated damage and downtime.

Our customers: We aim to incorporate climate risk data into every financial decision made today. We are relied on every day by:

Institutional investors like Norges Bank Investment Management and Blackstone.
Banking enterprises, including Bank of America and Fifth Third.
Government bodies ranging from Fannie Mae to the US State of Connecticut.
Millions of everyday users on Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, Homes.com, and more.

Come join us and use your talents to change the world.

Team & Role Overview:

We are looking for an expert in risk and resilience of the built environment. Our Science teams build world class hazard models across several perils, and this person will work with them to build world class loss models of the risk for a variety of asset types. The loss models will represent structure damages and associated downtime from exposure to natural hazards like flood, wildfire, and wind, enabling our customers to connect physical risk to financial risk. The Risk & Resilience Modeler will have a background in a combination of engineering, materials science, resilience, cost estimation, and data science. A successful candidate will demonstrate the capability to solve technical challenges in data poor areas.

What you’ll do:

Connect climate and financial risk by developing custom loss models representing impacts to structures and infrastructure assets globally to pair with First Street’s hazard models
Create models of structure damage, repair time, and indirect impacts using a combination of approaches including first principles of engineering, cost estimation, statistics, and machine learning.
Analyze historical loss observational data to improve model accuracy, identify quality control issues, and develop suggested remedies for identified issues.
Perform statistical analysis to validate loss model predictions and assess model uncertainties.
Conduct background research and using insights from the current state of academic literature to inform approaches in quantitative modeling.
Analyze building codes and exposure datasets to identify common construction practices globally to inform loss model section
Create property level adaptation scenarios that enable customers to understand the return on investment of personal property protections

What you’ll need:

Ph.D. (preferred) or Master’s degree with 3 years experience in structural engineering, civil engineering, operation research, or a related field.
Strong background in vulnerability developments, statistics, and/or quantitative analytics
Hands-on experience in developing risk models for buildings or infrastructure systems using machine-learning models or statistical methods
Experience working with multi-hazard data, catastrophe models, building level damage data, and construction cost estimation data
Expertise using scripted languages like Python
Expertise in a science-based approach with a high degree of concern for reliability, accuracy and reproducibility

What will make you stand out:

Experience in developing scalable and generalized catastrophe risk models
Strong publication record
Proficiency with source control platforms such as Git
Research experience in the latest resilience modeling, technical guidelines, etc.
ML/AI experience
Expertise with big data analysis in high performance compute environments, either on premises or on cloud platforms including AWS, GCP, and/or Azure
Hands on experience in building loss models from scratch

Our anticipated US base salary compensation range for this role is $90,000-$125,000 plus competitive benefits package, which includes bonus, 401(k) with company match, paid time off, paid parental leave, and comprehensive health benefits. Actual compensation will vary depending on factors such as work location as well as additional factors such as a candidate’s qualifications, skills, experience, competencies, and relevant education. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for your location during the hiring process.

How we work:

Impact: We only focus on things that move the needle
Drive: We are driven by the role we play in connecting climate change to financial risk
Ownership: This is our company and we act accordingly
Urgency: We move quickly because the world depends on it
Resilience: We have a growth mindset in all that we do

What we offer:

Competitive salary commensurate with experience
Ownership interest in the company via Employee Stock Option Plan
Hybrid Schedule with in-office work days on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday
15 vacation days along with 8 statutory company holidays, 5 days for winter break office closure, and 10 sick days
Healthcare monthly premium covered at 100% for employee or a significant contribution for family plans
Vision and dental benefits with partial employee contribution
12 weeks of paid parental leave
Access to One Medical, Teledoc, HealthAdvocate, Kindbody, and Talkspace
Company 401k program
Commuter benefits
Life Insurance
Tech startup environment
Weekly team meals and an office stocked with coffee and snacks
Working on the world’s biggest issue with other passionate professionals

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

Once you've applied, please be sure to check your spam folder, as emails from our recruiting team are sometimes rerouted.

About the company

First Street Foundation builds climate-risk models for properties across the United States and provides public and licensed data to help homeowners, insurers, lenders, and governments understand potential hazards. It uses peer‑reviewed methods and climate projections to estimate risks from floods, wildfires, extreme heat, wind, and other perils at the property level, producing scores and maps that explain thirty-year exposure. Its main public product, Risk Factor, gives a 1–10 risk score for individual properties and visualizes area-wide hazards; its data can be accessed for free in summary form and via paid APIs for detailed, property-level data. The foundation differentiates itself by sharing aggregated data publicly (e.g., through AWS Registry of Open Data) while selling detailed data to for-profit clients, aiming to help decision makers in resilience, real estate, insurance, and infrastructure.

Company Size

11-50

Company Stage

Acquired

Total Funding

$46M

Headquarters

New York City, New York

Founded

2017

Get referred to First Street

See people who can refer or advise you

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

MSCI's August 3, 2026 acquisition expands distribution to global investors and lenders.
Zillow still uses First Street's climate scores on listings, sustaining consumer visibility.
First Street's June 2026 ACA deal opens new public-sector and nonprofit channels.

What critics are saying

August 27, 2026: Nebraska sued First Street for deceptive, inaccurate Nebraska property scores.
The complaint attacks proprietary data and dispute refusal, threatening model credibility and sales.
Zillow, state attorneys general, or buyers could trigger broader litigation after Nebraska's case.

What makes First Street unique

June 24, 2026: MSCI bought First Street, embedding models into institutional workflows.
First Street maps property-level physical risk across 2.4 billion structures worldwide.
June 2, 2026: ACA partnership gave camps free access to its risk tools.

Help us improve and share your feedback! Did you find this helpful?

Benefits

Health Insurance
Dental Insurance
Vision Insurance
Life Insurance
401(k) Retirement Plan
401(k) Company Match
Paid Vacation
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Parental Leave
Hybrid Work Options
Equity
Commuter Benefits

Growth & Insights and Company News

6 month growth

1 year growth

2 year growth

MSCI

Sep 20th, 2026

MSCI completes acquisition of First Street | MSCI

MSCI acquires First Street to expand property-level physical climate risk analytics, helping investors assess climate-related financial exposure worldwide.

Y102 - Nebraska's Hot Country

Aug 27th, 2026

Attorney General files lawsuit against First Street for harming Nebraska homeowners.

Attorney General files lawsuit against First Street for harming Nebraska homeowners. Brian Neben Aug 27, 2026 | 11:26 AM LINCOLN - Attorney General Mike Hilgers filed a lawsuit against climate risk company First Street for inaccurate and misleading property-specific loss predictions that have depressed Nebraska's real estate market and made it difficult for Nebraskan homeowners to sell their homes. First Street claims to offer "accurate and reliable" risk scores for loss events like flood and fire for every parcel of property in Nebraska. For many properties, however, First Street's scores are neither accurate nor reliable, with serious consequences for Nebraskans. Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that: Many of First Street's scores are based on inaccurate or incomplete information about the property being scored, including failing to account for certain flooding protection measures homeowners have invested in. First Street also fails to disclose that its predictions, which it misleadingly presents as hard facts, may be very different from the federal government's data or the predictions of other climate risk models. First Street insulates its uncertain and flawed predictions by withholding its underlying data as proprietary and through an express policy of refusing to consider consumer disputes. This includes failing to provide homeowners with meaningful dispute resolution when the prediction is based on error. Despite these problems, major real estate companies like Zillow direct consumers to First Street's flawed predictions by linking them to real estate listings. As a result, many homeowners have had to accept reduced prices from buyers that have been spooked by First Street's scores. Others have watched their homes sit on the market for longer than expected, and, in some cases, have been unable to sell their homes at all. "First Street is making a profit at the expense of the value of Nebraskans' homes," said Attorney General Hilgers. "First Street passes off misleading and often inaccurate climate speculation in a way that drives down home values and increases costs and frustrations for Nebraskans. The deceptive behavior has to stop." Attorney General Hilgers is taking legal action to address these concerns. He wants the court to stop First Street's unfair and dishonest business practices, make them pay fines, and return unlawfully earned profits. The lawsuit was filed in Dakota County District Court where many homeowners were negatively affected by First Street's inaccurate climate scores. The Nebraska Attorney General's Office enforces consumer protection laws and advocates for Nebraska consumers. Kearney Catholic High School work to ensure a fair, honest, and safe marketplace for residents of the State.

MSCI

Jun 24th, 2026

MSCI acquires First Street to enhance physical climate risk capabilities for financial decision making | MSCI

MSCI acquires First Street to expand property-level physical climate risk analytics, helping investors assess climate-related financial exposure worldwide.

Business Wire

Jun 24th, 2026

MSCI acquires First Street for $120M to boost climate risk analytics across 2B+ properties

MSCI has agreed to acquire First Street, a provider of physics-based climate risk data and analytics, for $120 million in cash with potential additional payments based on revenue targets over two years. The deal, expected to close in the third quarter of 2026, values the combined entity's capabilities at assessing physical climate risk across more than 2 billion structures worldwide. First Street's multi-hazard models translate physical climate hazards into financial impact estimates for individual properties, companies and portfolios. The acquisition will integrate these capabilities into MSCI's climate and geospatial solutions, enabling investors and financial institutions to better assess location-based risks. First Street research shows companies have become 6.5 times more likely to issue profit warnings following extreme weather events over the past two decades.

PR Newswire

Jun 2nd, 2026

Camp Safety, Preparedness, and Protecting America's Youth.

Camp Safety, Preparedness, and Protecting America's Youth. Jun 02, 2026, 11:24 ET MARTINSVILLE, Ind., June 2, 2026 /PRNewswire/ - In conjunction with the bipartisan Congressional Camp Caucus, the American Camp Association (ACA) will convene congressional leaders, camp professionals, and national preparedness experts on June 2 for a Capitol Hill briefing focused on strengthening safety, emergency preparedness, and child protection efforts across America's camps and youth-serving organizations. As camps nationwide prepare to welcome millions of children this summer, the bipartisan discussion, Camp Safety, Preparedness, and Protecting America's Youth, hosted in partnership with the Senate Camp Caucus chaired by Senators Jeanne Shaheen and James Lankford, will examine how camps, policymakers, and community partners can respond to evolving risks and strengthen preparedness efforts nationwide. The briefing will explore the challenges facing camps and youth-serving organizations while highlighting collaborative strategies to improve emergency planning, operational resilience, and child safety practices. Discussion topics will include lessons learned following the 2025 Texas flooding tragedy, advancements in forecasting and preparedness technology, ACA's ongoing accreditation and safety initiatives, and implementation of the bipartisan Child Protection Improvements Act (CPIA). Featured speakers include: * Scott Brody, American Camp Association Government Affairs Committee Cochair and Camp Sewataro and Everwood Day Camp Owner, Massachusetts (Moderator) * Henry DeHart, President and CEO, American Camp Association * Sterling Nell Leija, American Camp Association Interim Chief of Staff and Innovative Camp Company Cofounder * Ed Kearns, PhD, Chief Science Officer, First Street * Steve Baskin, American Camp Association Board Chair and Camp Champions, Texas At this event, the American Camp Association (ACA) is pleased to announce a new collaboration with First Street, the leading provider of physics-based climate models trusted by the world's largest financial institutions, real estate firms, and government agencies. Through this collaboration, camps will gain free access to property-level risk assessments and forward-looking climate data designed to support emergency preparedness, operational resilience, and long-term planning. Summer camps operate in a wide range of geographic environments where understanding risk is essential not only for emergency response planning, but also for proactive site planning, infrastructure investments, and day-to-day operational decision-making. Using science-based information can support informed decision-making across a variety of hazards and changing environmental conditions. "Camps are responsible for making thoughtful decisions every day to protect campers and staff," DeHart said. "By collaborating with First Street, we are helping camps access powerful tools and data that support informed decision-making and stronger preparedness strategies." Founded in 2016, First Street is a public benefit company that makes the physics of climate risk usable for real-world decisions. Its models quantify property-level exposure to flood, wildfire, extreme wind, heat, drought, and other climate hazards, both today and under future climate scenarios. First Street's data informs decisions across real estate, finance, infrastructure, and government, and is integrated into platforms used by millions of Americans to understand the risks facing their homes and communities. "Camps operate in some of the environments where climate risk is changing fastest, from flooding to wildfire to extreme heat, and the decisions leaders make today will shape camper safety for decades to come," said Matthew Eby, founder and CEO of First Street. "We're proud to partner with ACA to give camp leaders the same rigorous, science-based view of risk that informs decisions at the highest levels, so they can protect what matters most today and plan for what's ahead." First Street's models are built on peer-reviewed, physics-based science and validated against observed events. Through this collaboration, ACA and First Street aim to increase access to actionable information to help camps strengthen emergency preparedness strategies, support safer operations, and make informed decisions for today and the future. About the American Camp Association The American Camp Association(R)(ACA) is a national organization serving the more than 20,000 year-round and summer camps in the US that annually serve more than 26 million campers. ACA is committed to collaborating with those who believe in quality camp and outdoor experiences for children, youth, and adults. ACA provides evidence-based education, professional development, and advocacy for the camp industry. ACA is the only independent national accrediting body for the organized camp experience. ACA accreditation signifies a camp's voluntary commitment to the health, safety, risk management, and overall wellbeing of campers and staff. For more information, visit ACAcamps.org. About First Street At First Street, we are on a mission to connect climate and financial risk. For a decade, our scientists have created transparent, peer-reviewed physical climate risk models that quantify the financial impacts of perils such as flood, wildfire, heat, cold, extreme wind, and drought for every property in the world. The First Street Enterprise Suite, our global software platform, transforms these models into actionable financial signals for decision-makers worldwide. First Street is the standard for Climate Risk Financial Modeling, empowering asset owners, asset managers, governments, real estate investors, corporations, and millions of homebuyers every day to make climate-informed decisions. The congressional briefing will take place Tuesday, June 2, 2026, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. in SVC 209-08. SOURCE American Camp Association

First Street

Risk & Resilience Engineer

About the job