Research Assistant in Data-driven in Urban Water

Eawag, the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, is an internationally networked aquatic research institute within the ETH Domain (Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology). Eawag conducts research, education and expert consulting to achieve the dual goals of meeting direct human needs for water and maintaining the function and integrity of aquatic ecosystems.

To support our research on urban water management at our site in Dübendorf, ZH, with a focus on climate change adaptation abating urban heat, reducing pollution and urban flooding and the digitalization of urban water management, we are looking for a

Research assistant in Data-Driven in Urban Water Management (80-100%)

In the coming years, climate change, urbanization and the digitalization of urban water management require solution-oriented engineering of the urban water system with an interdisciplinary approach. In our research, the Urban Water Management (SWW) therefore uses state-of-the-art sensor and IoT technology to record material flows in urban storm
- and wastewater systems. We conduct targeted experiments in the field and in the laboratory and often use external data from industrial control systems, geodatabases or remote sensing systems. To make sense of these data, we use methods and theories from environmental engineering, information and communications technology, statistics and mathematics.

To support our research activities, we are looking for a specialist to assist us in the processing and management of the collected environmental data. The position is at the interface between monitoring, data management and modelling and is highly dynamic due to the rapid development in the ICT field.

**Job description**:

- The researcher will work at the interface of environmental engineering and data science. The work contributes to data-driven urban water management by:

- Support our research by analyzing and interpreting data from smart urban water systems, blue green infrastructure and our urban living labs to assess data quality, identify trends, patterns, and opportunities for improvement.
- Work collaboratively with interdisciplinary teams of researchers, including engineers, urban planners, and policy makers and actively participate in the planning, installation and maintenance of our living labs.
- Support the researchers as a data steward by monitoring the processes and data pipelines for collecting data, organizing the data according to the needs of the individual projects, help solve data-related issues.
- Support the knowledge management of the department by providing programming support, teaching basic courses in Python and data management and maintaining software repositories.
- Support the dissemination of research findings at workshops, conferences or in publications.

**Your profile**:

- Excellent MSc in environmental engineering, geographical information science, information and communications technology, geography, urban planning, or a related field (no PhD accepted).
- Strong programming experience in Python, SQL and SQL dialects, with a demonstrated track record of data collection, analysis and interpretation. Experience in R, Julia, Octave/Matlab, or C/C++, etc. is an asset.
- Ability to setup and maintain databases in Linux to store and manage research data and the associated meta-data.
- Familiar with software development tools: IDE’s, Git and its hosting services, etc.
- Experience with urban water management engineering tools, e.g., hydrodynamic or hydrological rainfall-runoff modelling software, GIS, etc.
- Willingness to familiarize yourself with an open science and open research data principles and to help develop them further.

**Your personality**
- You must be dependable and responsible, able to follow through on tasks and meet deadlines. You should also be able to adapt to changing circumstances and work effectively in different environments. We expect good integrative skills, and social and emotional intelligence. You must be able to communicate technical/coding concepts to inexperienced programmers, such as MSc and PhD students. Good English language skills are required, French, and/or Italian are an asset.

**Who are we?**
- Eawag is a modern employer and offers an excellent working environment where staff can contribute their strengths, experiences and ways of thinking. We promote gender equality and are committed to staff diversity and inclusion. The compatibility of career and family is of central importance to us.