Climate ML Scientist
Impact: Climate understanding and resilience through expert climate ML research
Apply machine learning and AI techniques to climate science problems including climate modelling, extreme weather prediction, emissions monitoring, and climate impact assessment. Build ML models for climate data analysis, develop climate AI applications, and contribute to the scientific understanding of climate change.
What the day looks like
- People interaction
- Moderate
- Team vs solo
- 60% Team / 40% Solo
- Client facing
- Sometimes
- Impact visibility
- Moderate
- Travel
- 5 to 10% for field work and conferences
- Schedule flexibility
- Flexible
- Remote work
- Hybrid
- Typical work hours
- 45 to 60 hours/week
- Stress level
- Low
At a glance
- Median salary
- $190,000
- Entry-level
- $100,000 - $140,000
- Senior
- $320,000+
- Growth by 2033
- 25% (faster than average)
- Demand
- Growing Fast
- Freelance potential
- Low
- Salary growth potential
- High - 65 to 80% growth from entry to senior
- Typical student debt
- Low
Skills you'll use
Hard skills
- 55
Soft skills
- 45
Technical complexity: Moderate
How to get there
- Minimum education
- PhD
- Licensing
- No
- Years to mid-career
- 3 to 5 years
- Years to senior
- 7 to 10 years
- Career switching
- Hard
Where this career leads
How people arrive here
Where you can go from here
Typical progression
- Climate Scientist > ML Scientist > Climate ML Scientist > Senior Climate ML Scientist > Head of Climate AI
Future outlook
- Automation probability
- 10% very low risk as climate ML requires deep scientific expertise
- AI disruption risk
- Very Low
- Demand trend
- Growing Fast
How people feel about it
- Overall satisfaction
- 7/10
- Meaning
- 7/10
- Work-life balance
- 6.5/10
- Prestige
- 7/10
- Social perception
- High