Postdoctoral Fellow

General Notes

The University of Texas, working with the City of Austin, is looking for an enthusiastic Postdoctoral Fellow to create prototypes, improve existing tools and generate effective communication strategies and data visualization. The position includes conducting market research, collaborating with researchers, students, technical specialists, and community groups to help advance product deliverables and provide input to the communications of the UT City+Climate CoLab. The ideal candidate has engineering and design knowledge, solid understanding of the prototype design process, and strong written and verbal communication skills, is highly innovative, possesses the ability to problem-solve, and works well within a team.

In collaboration with City departments, faculty from the Jackson School of Geosciences, LBJ School of Public Affairs, School of Architecture and Cockrell School of Engineering aim to mitigate the source and effects of climate change induced extreme weather including extreme heat waves, wildfires, grass fires, drought, flooding, poor air quality and other health shocks and stressors. This collaboration (CoLab) between the City of Austin and University of Texas, the first of its kind, is looking for a candidate to develop effective climate datasets, visualizations, and products and tools related to downscaled and local data sets. The candidate would also contribute actively to communications (memos, newsletters etc.), scientific reports and data briefs, and draft content (e.g. press releases) for media or website.

The Product Developer position will report to UT faculty in Jackson School and more broadly to the Climate CoLab staff to fulfill product and communication needs for a portfolio of projects, initiatives, and/or policy proposals related to City climate data needs and university faculty capabilities

Purpose

To conduct market research, collaborate with researchers, students, technical specialists, and community groups to help advance product deliverables and provide input to the communications of the UT City+Climate CoLab.

Responsibilities

• Create and enhance products that fulfill city data needs tied to climate mitigation and impact.

• Determine product specifications according to a number of various factors and uses.

• Support design and communicate activities by developing tools and prototypes for products in development.

• Consult climate scientists locally and nationally to ensure products are accurate and replicable

• Develop climate data products and tools to make it accessible and usable.

• Effective communication of data and tools for climate centric decisions and  strategies.

• Manage internal communications (memos, newsletters etc.).

• Draft content (e.g. press releases) for mass media or company website.

• Liaise with the UT information office and handle requests for interviews, statements etc.

• Foster relationships with community advocates and key persons.

• Collaborate with faculty to produce copy for articles.

• Assist in communication of strategies or messages from senior leadership.

Required Qualifications

• PhD must have been earned within the past three years.

• One year of experience in Software development or system administration.

• Production experience with at least two computer programming languages.

• Proven experience as climate and data product.

• Solid understanding of project management principles.

• Experience in visual communication.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD with experience in developing climate data products and tools and helping lead the project activities. In exceptional cases, candidates with Masters or even Bachelor's degree may be considered if they are able to provide convincing evidence of exceptional fit to the position.

• Proven working experience as a product developer or in a related field.

• Work well within a team.

• Problem-solving skills plus creative and innovative thinking skills.

• Solid understanding and working with of computational tools, statistical products, scripting using MS Office; photo and video-editing software is an asset.

• Excellent communication (oral and written) and presentation skills.

• Outstanding organizational and planning abilities.

• Proficient command of English. Fluency in another language a plus.

Salary Range

$65,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• Standard office work conditions

• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation

• Use of manual dexterity

Required Materials

• Resume/CV

• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor

• Letter of interest

Important for applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers: You will be prompted to submit your resume the first time you apply, then you will be provided an option to upload a new Resume for subsequent applications. Any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) will be uploaded in the Application Questions section; you will be able to multi-select additional files. Before submitting your online job application, ensure that ALL Required Materials have been uploaded.  Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers: As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find UT Jobs. If you are a current University employee, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile before you apply. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will be prompted to upload your resume. In addition, you must respond to the application questions presented to upload any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) that were noted above.