Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d): Usable Extreme Weather Projections at Impact-Relevant Scales

Stellenbeschreibung:

Scientist Jena

Developmental and Evolutionary Biology & Genetics Immunobiology and Infection Biology & Medicine Earth Sciences and Climate Research Social Sciences Linguistics

Job Offer from October 23, 2026

The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA) was founded in summer 2022 and is a dynamically growing, highly-interdisciplinary and international research institution. The research focuses on modeling and analyzing the interrelationships between biophysical and human-made systems, looking from the deep past to the future. The institute examines how humanity has driven the emergence of the Anthropocene - the period in which human activities began significantly impacting our planet's climate and ecosystems - and identifying potential intervention points towards a more sustainable future.

The Carl Zeiss Stiftung Independent Research Group on High-End Climate Risks (CZS-HECR) at MPI-GEA works towards an end-to-end understanding of worst-case climate outcomes, from unprecedented and compounding extremes to their societal impacts. The group combines fundamental physical process understanding rooted in climate physics and Earth System analyses, targeted climate model experiments, advanced statistics, including machine-learning- and explainable AI to deliver usable climate risk estimates under current and future climates for core societal sectors such as health, food, energy and finance.

Candidate tasks

Identify, quantify and understand the sources of biases in impact relevant trends in state-of-the-art climate models (e.g. CMIP6/7, large ensembles, km-scale models)
Develop and evaluate AI/ML-driven downscaling approaches for extreme and compound weather events, using model simulations, observational and reanalysis datasets
Design physics informed bias-adjustment methods targeted at the tails of hazard distributions to preserve impact-relevant relationships between variables
Publish in leading international journals, present at conferences, and contribute to the group's workshops and symposia
Co-supervise PhD students and contribute to the group's real-time online tool

Your qualification

Essential

PhD in climate, physics, math, data science, or related fields
Demonstrated experience with climate model output, reanalysis observational climate data and large-gridded datasets
Strong programming skills (e.g. Python)
Experience with Causality tools, AI and/or machine-learning methods
Track record of peer-reviewed publications appropriate to career stage
Excellent communication skills in English, and the ability to work independently and in a team

Advantageous

Experience with deep learning for downscaling or bias adjustment
Knowledge of extreme value statistics and compound event detection methods
Experience with (high-resolution) climate simulations and HPC environments
Familiarity with impact-relevant applications (energy, health, agriculture, economy)
Experience in co-supervising students and academic teaching

Our offer

This full-time or part-time position with at least 34 hours/week will begin on the 1st of January, 2027, though some flexibility in start date is possible. The term is three years, with the option of an extension.

Renumeration will follow the public service pay scale (TVöD Bund ) up to paygroup 13, according to the candidate’s qualifications and experience.

You are entitled to an annual bonus, 31 days' holiday and time off on 24th and 31st December.
We also offer attractive, family-friendly flexi-time and remote-working arrangements.
A company pension scheme (VBL), an employer subsidy for public transport, the opportunity for further training, and language and health courses complete our offer.

The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more individuals with disabilities and especially encourages them to apply. We are also committed to encouraging diversity and actively challenging biases based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and other components of identity. We were honored with the TOTAL E-QUALITY award for the first time in 2023 for our commitment.

The Max Planck Society supports the compatibility of family and career and is certified according to the "berufundfamilie" (“job and family") audit.

Position remains open until filled.