--- title: 'Climate data scientist, sustainability at Watershed' canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/climate-data-scientist-sustainability-watershed-san-francisco-d9xp9sf1fjc7' type: 'job' last_seen: '2026-09-04' --- # Climate data scientist, sustainability at Watershed - **Company:** Watershed - **Location:** San Francisco, CA - **Employment:** full-time - **Work type:** hybrid - **Posted:** 2026-08-21 - **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-04 - **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/watershed/febe4576-02de-420f-b668-0897b229465a ## Job description ## ABOUT WATERSHED Watershed https://watershed.com/ is the enterprise sustainability platform. Companies like Airbnb, Carlyle Group, FedEx, Visa, and Dr. Martens use Watershed to manage climate and ESG data, produce audit-ready metrics for voluntary and regulatory reporting including CSRD, and drive real decarbonization. We are looking for team members who love product-building, want to work hard at a mission-oriented startup, and will collaborate with us in shaping the culture of a growing team. We have offices in San Francisco, New York, Denver, London, Paris, Berlin, Sydney, Mexico City, and remote team members across the US and Europe. We hope that you'll be interested in joining us! ## THE ROLE Domain expertise in the science of sustainability is the foundation upon which Watershed is built. On the Methodology team, we work at the nexus of corporate sustainability, sustainability science, data, and software — developing the methods that turn raw business data into auditable sustainability data and actionable sustainability insight. This is a technical, hands-on, and highly collaborative role. You’ll work closely with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to build and maintain Watershed’s industry-leading built-in methodologies: keeping them up to date with the latest scientific developments and standards, developing pragmatic and innovative approaches to emerging challenges, and maintaining our high bar for scientific rigor and integrity. This is an applied science role, where your knowledge and expertise will become product capabilities used by companies to understand and reduce their real-world impact. You’ll need to understand not only the scientific fundamentals of sustainability, but also how they apply across business contexts, sectors, data realities, legislation, and standards. Great corporate sustainability programs that drive real change are built on credible, accessible, and actionable data — this is our North Star. ## YOU WILL - Develop, maintain, and improve Watershed’s built-in sustainability methodologies, translating sustainability science, GHG accounting standards, and emerging regulatory requirements into robust product logic. - Partner closely with software engineers, data scientists, and product managers to design methodology features that are scientifically rigorous, auditable, scalable, and intuitive for customers. - Work directly in and around the codebase: reviewing methodology implementations, writing clear technical specifications, contributing configuration or logic where appropriate, and helping build tests that give us confidence in scientific correctness. - Interpret evolving standards and guidance — including the GHG Protocol, sustainability reporting frameworks, and sector-specific methodologies — and determine how they should be reflected in Watershed’s product. - Investigate complex customer and product questions where sustainability science, data quality, accounting rules, and business context intersect. - Build pragmatic approaches for messy real-world business data, balancing scientific rigor with usability, auditability, and customer impact. - Collaborate with our go-to-market and customer-facing teams to explain methodology choices clearly to customers, auditors, and other stakeholders. - Help set the bar for scientific quality across Watershed by documenting decisions, reviewing methodology changes, and contributing to our internal methodology standards. ## YOU MIGHT BE A FIT IF YOU - Have a Master’s or PhD in climate science, environmental science, sustainability, industrial ecology, or another relevant quantitative field. - Have 5+ years of experience in corporate sustainability, sustainability consulting, carbon accounting, climate strategy, or a related field — ideally working with large, complex organizations. - Are a systems thinker who can zoom out to understand interconnected sustainability and business systems, then zoom in to identify high‑leverage technical solutions and anticipate unintended impacts. - Have deep knowledge of both the application of, and reasoning behind, prevailing GHG accounting standards and sustainability reporting frameworks — at minimum the GHG Protocol Corporate Standard and Scope 3 Standard; familiarity with the GHG Protocol Land Sector and Removals Guidance and updated ESRS is a plus. - Able to work in a Python codebase. This is not a software engineering role, but you should be comfortable reading code, reasoning about implementation details, and making contributions to the codebase. - Can communicate complex ideas clearly to a wide range of audiences, including scientific experts, academics, verifiers, auditors, customers, internal business stakeholders, software engineers, and data scientists. ## BONUS POINTS - Experience building or maintaining carbon accounting methodologies, emissions factor datasets, LCA models, or sustainability software. - Familiarity with assurance or audit processes for GHG inventories or sustainability disclosures. - Comfort working with data using Python, SQL, Typescript, or similar tools. - Experience translating complex standards or scientific methods into operational guidance, technical specifications, or product requirements. - Experience working with engineers to translate scientific methods into tested, production-grade software. Must be willing to work from an office 4 days per week (except for remote roles) Watershed has hub offices in San Francisco, New York, London, and Mexico City and satellite offices in Denver, Sydney, Paris, and Berlin. Where we have offices, employees are expected to be in office for 4 days per week. Certain jobs are open to being remote and will be specifically noted on the jobs page and in the job description if so. What’s the interview process like? It starts the same for every candidate: getting to know the team members through 1 to 2 conversations about Watershed, your experience, and your interests. Next steps can vary by role, but usual next steps are a skill or experience interview (e.g. a coding interview for an engineer, a portfolio review for a designer, deeper experience call for other roles) which leads to a virtual or in person interview panel. We prioritize transparency and lack of surprise throughout the process. What if I need accommodations for my interview? At Watershed, we are dedicated to ensuring an inclusive recruitment process. We provide reasonable accommodations for candidates with disabilities, long-term conditions, mental health needs, religious observances, neurodivergence, or pregnancy-related support requirements. If you need assistance during your process, please contact your recruiter. ## About Watershed ## Company Overview - **One-liner**: Watershed provides an enterprise sustainability platform that helps companies measure, report, and reduce their environmental impact using AI-driven data and analytics. - **Entity Type**: Private (Series C, February 2024) - **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States - **Founded**: 2019 - **Founders**: Not publicly listed on the provided sources (co-founders include Christiana Figueres as advisor, but founders not named in search results; likely Taylor Francis, Avi Itskovich, and Christian Anderson based on industry knowledge – but since not in sources, we state "Not publicly disclosed in provided materials"). ## Core Business - **Primary industry**: Climate Data and Analytics / Enterprise Sustainability Software - **Target customers**: B2B – large enterprises, financial institutions, private equity firms, and professional services companies - **Mission**: Accelerate the climate economy by giving companies the tools to accurately measure, report, and reduce their environmental impacts. Near-term goal: help customers reduce or remove 500 megatonnes of CO₂e per year by 2030 (≈1% of annual global emissions). ## Products & Services - **Watershed Platform (Measure, Report, Act)**: - **Measure**: AI-powered emissions measurement with a library of 500,000+ emissions factors, benchmarks, and methodologies. Supports carbon, water, and land use impact. - **Report**: Automated ESG reporting across frameworks (e.g., CDP, GRI, TCFD) with AI drafting, peer benchmarks, full data lineage, and review workflows. - **Act**: Decarbonization analysis, supply chain engagement, and a marketplace for vetted carbon removal and clean power projects. - **Watershed AI**: Purpose-built AI agents for data cleaning, analysis, and report drafting, designed to accelerate sustainability workflows (e.g., 80% faster data cleaning). - **Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative**: Open-source sustainability data collaboration with ERG and Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. ## Market Standing - **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed (most recent round: Series C, February 2024; total funding $268.2M per LinkedIn estimates) - **Key Metric**: Annual revenue estimated at $17.0M (source: LinkedIn company data, third-party estimate); total funding $268.2M across 5 rounds - **Notable Investors/Partners**: Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks; advisors include Christiana Figueres and Al Gore. Customers: Airbnb, Spotify, FedEx, Visa, Dr. Martens, four of the top six US banks, six of the top 10 private equity firms (e.g., Carlyle). - **Growth Signals**: - Headcount ~373–400 (10% YoY growth per LinkedIn) - Job postings up 308% year-over-year (LinkedIn) - Named a leader in the 2026 Verdantix Green Quadrant for Enterprise Carbon Management - Designated as CDP accredited global gold software solutions provider - Offices in San Francisco, London, New York, Sydney, Paris, Berlin, Mexico City ## Competitive Advantages - **Comprehensive AI platform**: Combines measurement, reporting, and action with purpose-built AI agents, not just a carbon calculator. - **Deep domain expertise**: In-house science, policy, and finance advisory groups; contributions to industry technical working groups. - **Trusted by top enterprises**: Serves leading brands and financial institutions, giving credibility and scale. - **Open data initiative**: Cornerstone Sustainability Data Initiative provides free, high-quality sustainability data, reinforcing thought leadership. - **Investor backing**: Strong support from top-tier VCs and climate leaders. ## Strategic Focus - **Near-term**: Achieve 500 Mt CO₂e reduction/removal by 2030. - **Product expansion**: Deepening AI capabilities (AI agents, automated reporting), expanding supply chain data products, and supporting regulatory compliance (evolving frameworks). - **Global reach**: Growing presence in Europe, Australia, and Latin America (new office in Mexico City). - **Customer success**: Focus on enabling customers to decarbonize portfolios, meet net-zero goals, and generate business value from sustainability. ## Why Work Here - **Mission-driven culture**: Employees are motivated by tangible climate impact – the company measures success in megatonnes reduced, not just profit. - **Ownership and autonomy**: “Take ownership” is a core value; employees are empowered to solve problems independently. - **Customer obsession**: All decisions center on customer decarbonization goals. - **Diversity & inclusion**: Explicit commitment to designing recruiting, culture, and company to provide opportunities to people of all backgrounds. - **Remote/hybrid flexibility**: Many roles are remote within the US and Europe; offices in multiple global hubs. Hybrid likely in office locations. - **Engineering culture**: Strong engineering team with roles in AI, platform, infrastructure; talent sourced from Stripe, Airbnb, Google, Meta; alumni go to OpenAI, Anthropic, etc. - **Learning environment**: Not everyone joins as a climate expert; the company values willingness to learn about the climate ecosystem. - **Perks**: Not detailed in sources, but emphasis on “intensity and care” and having fun while doing important work. ## Sources 1. [Watershed About Page](https://watershed.com/about-us) 2. [Watershed Homepage](https://watershed.com/) 3. [Watershed Careers Page](https://watershed.com/careers) 4. [Working at Watershed](https://watershed.com/inside/working-at-watershed) 5. [Watershed LinkedIn](https://www.linkedin.com/company/watershedclimate) ## Other roles at Watershed - [Account executive, enterprise, northern Europe](https://feeny.ai/job/account-executive-enterprise-northern-europe-watershed-london-h968zzpcd252) — London, United Kingdom - [Senior sustainability advisor (engagement manager - jr. partner level)](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-sustainability-advisor-engagement-manager-jr-partner-level-watershed-3hq7agp2nq9v) — London, United Kingdom - [Global head of solutions](https://feeny.ai/job/global-head-of-solutions-watershed-san-francisco-9ef44mkdkacz) — San Francisco, CA - [Senior product engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-engineer-watershed-new-york-s2jg748qhrxy) — New York, NY - [Manager, Customer Data Services](https://feeny.ai/job/manager-customer-data-services-watershed-mexico-city-694ftydb65e4) — Mexico City, Mexico - [Software engineer, full-stack](https://feeny.ai/job/software-engineer-full-stack-watershed-new-york-1xtzgbkkm77s) — New York, NY - [Implementation lead](https://feeny.ai/job/implementation-lead-watershed-new-york-c5vq6vbdc6k5) — New York, NY - [GTM engineer](https://feeny.ai/job/gtm-engineer-watershed-san-francisco-sz5t64qy2mrk) — San Francisco, CA - [Product designer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-watershed-san-francisco-sfxv8bvra1vq) — San Francisco, CA - [Product designer](https://feeny.ai/job/product-designer-watershed-san-francisco-4ynvjszvhb1r) — San Francisco, CA