Early Career Water Resource Engineer

RTI International’s Center for Water Resources (CWR) has an opening for an entry-level or early career water resources engineer or scientist to support a variety of modeling efforts, watershed-based assessments, and research. CWR’s projects involve river and reservoir operations forecasting, water supply modeling, and hydrologic risk evaluation.  As part of our team, your contributions will cover all aspects of water resources systems including collecting and analyzing hydrologic data, performing spatial analysis, and mapping of hydrometeorological data, calibrating, executing, and interpreting results from hydrologic and hydraulic models.

Our team includes a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and capabilities, but a common thread is our interest to continue learning and push the boundaries of what can be done to support our field. As a non-profit research institute, RTI also offers opportunities for internally funded research and development to help bring great ideas together for on-the-ground applications to help make a difference in the world. As part of the CWR team, the successful candidate will be exposed to and will contribute to a wide variety of water resources modeling projects. Therefore, the successful candidate should be able to demonstrate and explain skills or exposures through classwork/work experience across a wide range of skills.

This position will be based in RTP, North Carolina or Fort Collins, CO but telework is an option.

Please apply if you have expertise related to these requirements (experience related to all is not necessary).  If you are adept at manipulating data and can demonstrate an aptitude for hydrologic modeling – inputs, model states, calibration, analysis of results – then you can be a valuable contributor to CWR’s mission of improving the human condition by protecting water resources around the world. At CWR, we pride ourselves on implementing the best and most appropriate solutions for our clients. Our staff members are well-versed in multiple models and modeling systems. The culmination of many of our projects is a water resources modeling system that our clients rely on to make informed water management decisions.

CWR will provide training on the specific models and technology we use to motivated colleagues with the appropriate background, education, and aptitude.  Our team includes a wide range of backgrounds, interests, and capabilities, but a common thread is our interest to continue learning and push the boundaries of what can be done to support our field. As a non-profit research institute, RTI also offers opportunities for internally funded research and development to help bring great ideas together for on-the-ground applications to help make a difference in the world. 

Qualifications 

Educational Qualifications

Master’s degree or a bachelor’s degree and 1 year of experience in Civil Engineering, Water Resources Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Environmental Science, or related field with emphasis in Water Resources

Technical Qualifications

The successful candidate should be able to demonstrate experience in a variety of technical areas including:

·       Hydrologic models such as HEC-HMS, SAC-SMA, or VIC

·       Hydraulic models such as HEC-RAS, SWMM, or MIKE 11

·       Coursework in statistics and/or environmental modeling

·       Familiarity with open-source programming languages (i.e., Python, R) to perform data analysis, management, transformation, quality control, and/or statistical analyses

·       GIS tools to perform basic geospatial processing, analysis, and map preparation

·       Familiarity with relational databases (e.g., SQLite, SQL Server)

General qualifications

·       A positive and collaborative mindset while working independently on multiple projects in a team environment with diverse staff of project managers, hydrologists, engineers, scientists, economists, and IT developers

·       Attention to detail as the candidate will be responsible for preparing, using, and conducting quality control on large and diverse datasets

·       Excellent verbal and written technical skills

·       The ability to listen and communicate well both verbally and in writing and the ability to understand and follow written guidelines, policies, and procedures as provided by project managers.

·       A willingness to learn and apply new software as a project requires, including self-led tutorials and exploration.

·       The ability and desire to adapt applicable methods and principles from past experiences to current RTI project needs.

·       Flexibility for domestic and international travel

·       Spanish language fluency is a plus

Desired general experiences or exposures through completed classwork include hydrologic, hydraulic, watershed and/or water quality model set up, calibration, and assessment/interpretation; spatial, time series, and generalized data collection, organization, quality assurance, and interpretation; and project documentation and report writing.

To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require now, or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status.