Schmidt Sciences is a nonprofit organization founded in 2024 by Eric and Wendy Schmidt that works to accelerate scientific knowledge and breakthroughs with the most promising, advanced tools to support a thriving planet. The organization prioritizes research in areas poised for impact including AI and advanced computing, astrophysics, biosciences, climate, and space—as well as supporting researchers in a variety of disciplines through its science systems program.
The Schmidt Sciences Climate Institute seeks to understand how our planet works and the ways it's changing, connect climate research to action by developing science-driven tools, and empower interdisciplinary networks needed to drive climate solutions. Reporting to the Climate Director, the Program Scientist will execute on all aspects of strategic grantmaking for the Earth system modeling portfolio, including leading the Virtual Earth System Research Institute (VESRI) program and advancing our new cross-cutting AI for Climate, Energy, and the Environment (AI4ECE) initiative.
We seek a mid-career scientist with deep subject matter expertise ranging from climate model development to AI/ML-enabled emulators to calibration frameworks. The Program Scientist sets the scientific direction for the portfolio and leads the review and diligence of research proposals, tracking gifts and grants throughout their lifecycle, as well as supporting the awardee community. As part of their responsibilities, the Program Scientist, working with the Institute Lead, Director, and Advisory Board, will lead an integrated and interdisciplinary team to develop new areas and approaches for Earth system modeling research. They will manage existing and new programs, including a proposed multi‑phase Climate Modeling Challenge to shorten model development cycles by enabling rapid integration of model improvements (e.g., novel parameterizations, emulators, ML components).
Virtual Institute: Schmidt Sciences has developed a model called the Virtual Institute which we define as a network of multiple high-risk, high-impact research projects typically composed of multiple international teams taking complementary approaches to a common problem. The Program Scientist will ensure the success of current VESRI projects and create a roadmap for future funding, including the launch of the Climate Modeling Challenge. Currently in its 5th year, VESRI aims to improve the realism and credibility of Earth system models and create a new generation of models more responsive to data and more adaptable to planning needs. To date, VESRI has convened hundreds of climate and data scientists across 11 countries, and ~50 institutions to advance methods and algorithms that improve representation of essential processes in Earth system models and promote team science, sustainable software, and open data. As VESRI evolves and expands, we seek an expert who can lead the strategic application of recent advances in AI/ML methods to address a range of limitations in current Earth and energy systems models to achieve orders-of-magnitude faster development cycles.
AI for Climate, Energy, and the Environment (AI4ECE): The Climate Institute seeks to advance a new cross-cutting initiative focused on applying AI/ML to better couple Earth and energy system models to deliver accurate, reliable, decision‑relevant insights on climate impacts, decarbonization pathways, and resource needs. While there are significant dedicated efforts, particularly in the private sector, in using AI/ML for shorter-term weather forecasting, the AI4ECE initiative will focus on improving medium-to-long term climate projections which we believe remain under-resourced and under-funded. Purely data-driven models, while skilled at short to medium term forecasting, fail to represent the internal variability of Earth systems and do not extrapolate well to different forcings (e.g. unseen emission scenarios) because they are missing the representation of processes that evolve slowly (e.g. carbon cycle, ocean carbon/heat uptake) and any associated feedbacks. The Program Scientist will work collaboratively across the Climate Institute to drive the success of this initiative.
Key Responsibilities for this role include the following: