[Hiring] Research Environmental Engineer - Hydrology and Flood Risk @RTI International

Role Description

Are you passionate about water resources and environmental science? RTI’s Water, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Energy Solutions (WARES) Group is seeking a motivated Research Environmental Engineer to join our hydrology and flood risk team. We develop innovative tools and analytical methods that support hydropower owners, dam safety programs, and the broader water resources community.

As part of the team, you will contribute to a broad range of water resources modeling projects. Candidates should be able to demonstrate experience or exposure in several of the areas listed below (not all are required).

What You'll Do

• Support hydrologic, hydraulic, and reservoir modeling projects, including data analysis, model setup, calibration, and interpretation of results.
• Collaborate with the WARES team to implement and enhance RTI’s water resources modeling tools.
• Collect, analyze, and summarize technical and hydrologic data.
• Develop and calibrate hydrologic, hydraulic, and river basin simulation models.
• Design and develop spreadsheets, scripts, and databases to manage data and improve workflow efficiency.
• Develop models to simulate large-scale water system operations and stochastic hydrologic modeling.
• Perform data processing, quality control, and automation using scripts and tools.
• Lead small projects or task orders of moderate complexity.
• Contribute to proposal development and sections of larger proposals.
• Share work internally and externally through presentations and conference papers.
• Make informed decisions based on data, best practices, and team input.
• Support business development by identifying opportunities to expand or enhance existing projects and developing research ideas or white papers.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree with at least 5 years of experience; or
• Master’s degree with at least 3 years of experience; or
• PhD + 0 years of experience; or
• Equivalent combination of education and experience.

Requirements

• Experience in hydrologic watershed modeling (both continuous and event modeling).
• Demonstrated ability to calibrate hydrologic models and evaluate model performance.
• Statistical analysis of hydrometeorological time series.
• Collection, QA/QC, and interpretation of hydrologic data.
• Technical documentation and report writing.
• Experience working with hydrologic and meteorological GIS datasets.
• Proficiency with open-source programming languages (Python, R, C#, VB.NET) for data management, transformation, QC, and statistical analysis.
• Basic geospatial processing and mapping using ArcGIS or QGIS.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Excel and familiarity with relational databases (SQL).
• Legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with hydrologic modeling tools such as HEC-HMS, SAC-SMA, or SEFM.
• Experience with reservoir routing.
• Experience with snowmelt routines such as the UBC model and Snow-17.
• Familiarity with probabilistic or stochastic modeling concepts.

Benefits

• Competitive base salary.
• Generous paid time off policy.
• Merit-based annual increases.
• Bonus opportunities.
• Robust recognition program.
• Competitive range of insurance plans (health, dental, life, short-term and long-term disability).
• Access to a retirement savings program such as a 401(k) plan.
• Paid parental leave for all parents.
• Financial assistance with adoption expenses or infertility treatments.
• Financial reimbursement for education and developmental opportunities.
• Employee assistance program.
• Numerous other offerings to support a healthy work-life balance.

Hiring Salary Range

$89,000 - $109,000