Job DescriptionThe Senior Research Engineer is responsible for developing, enhancing, and supporting the engineering and vulnerability components of Verisk's atmospheric peril portfolio risk analysis models for regions worldwide. Covered perils include straight-line wind from tropical cyclones, severe convective storms, and winter storms, as well as hail, snow, and freezing temperatures. The role focuses on quantifying how these perils affect the built environment, including physical damage that results in monetary loss to buildings and infrastructure, contents, and loss of use (downtime). You will work closely with structural engineers, meteorologists, hydrologists, hydraulic engineers, statisticians, and specialists in the financial application of probabilistic risk assessment. You should be comfortable working both independently and as part of a team, and presenting and explaining results to internal stakeholders and external clients.
As a member of our Atmospheric Perils Vulnerability Team, your day-to-day responsibilities will include the following:
- Acquire, synthesize, and analyze building inventory, industry insured loss, and insurance claims data to understand building vulnerability to atmospheric hazards in multiple regions worldwide
- Learn and work with a variety of proprietary Verisk datasets and integrate them into Verisk's extreme event models
- Conduct analysis and research to develop vulnerability functions and monetary loss curves for structural and non-structural building and infrastructure components subjected to hurricane winds, downbursts or straight-line wind, tornado, hail, and snow hazards in regions worldwide
- Implement research into Verisk's portfolio risk analysis models, including programming loss simulation code and analysis tools, and validating probabilistic risk assessments
- Use GIS and similar tools for data visualization and analysis
- Perform real-time and virtual building damage assessments during and after significant natural catastrophes
- Prepare and present work at internal staff and external client meetings, and write technical content for internal and external publications and client-facing documentation
QualificationsMust Haves:
Non-negotiable skills/experience the candidate needs to succeed from day one.
- Ph.D. or M.S. in Civil Engineering with an emphasis in Structural Engineering or Building Sciences
- 2+ years of Catastrophe Modeling or damage estimation experience
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Experience in performance-based design, probabilistic and stochastic risk assessment and modeling, and reliability theory as applied to structural engineering
- Experience with C#, Python, or similar programming languages (e.g., C/C++, R, MATLAB), or experience implementing AI-assisted coding and familiarity with coding; proficiency in Microsoft Office
- Experience in data analytics, including analyzing, interpreting, and visualizing large datasets to support research and modeling
- Strong organizational and documentation skills
Nice-to-Haves:
Skills that are a plus but can be learned on the job - don't let these gate an otherwise strong candidate.
- Knowledge of GIS applications (e.g., ArcGIS) and SQL Server
- Experience in claims analysis, risk assessment, or forensic engineering
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