Early-Career Water Resources Engineer / Scientist

Why RTI

RTI International is an independent, scientific research institute dedicated to improving the human condition. Our vision is to address the world's most critical problems with technical and science-based solutions in pursuit of a better future. Clients rely on us to answer questions that demand an objective and multidisciplinary approach—one that integrates expertise across social, statistical, data, and laboratory sciences, engineering, and other technical disciplines to solve the world’s most challenging problems.We believe in the promise of science and technical solutions, and we push ourselves every day to deliver on that promise for the good of people, communities, and businesses in the US and around the world. If you are looking for the opportunity to make a real difference, RTI is the place for you.

About the Hiring Group

RTI’s Center for Water, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Energy Solutions (WARES) improves the human condition by leveraging leading-edge analytics and multidisciplinary expertise to deliver evidence-based insights and practical solutions to complex environmental and economic challenges. Within WARES, RTI’s water resources staff develop and apply models, data systems, decision-support tools, and operational technologies that help agencies, utilities, and water managers understand risk, evaluate alternatives, and make better decisions. WARES water resources work spans river forecasting and decision-support systems, water supply planning, hydrologic risk analysis, hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, reservoir operations modeling, and data management solutions for domestic and international clients.

WARES is seeking a motivated Early-Career Water Resources / Environmental Engineer or Scientist to join our Forecasting and River Operations team. The Forecasting and River Operations team develops operational river forecasting systems, hydrologic and reservoir models, data workflows, and decision-support tools for water management agencies, hydropower utilities, and other clients. The team has extensive experience implementing and supporting river forecast systems, integrating hydrologic, hydraulic, reservoir

operations, and other models, and developing workflows for data ingestion, quality control, visualization, reporting, and forecast evaluation.

Why Join Us:

• Work on impactful domestic and international projects that support water resources planning, river forecasting, reservoir operations, flood risk management, and environmental decision-making.
• Learn from a multidisciplinary team of water resources engineers, hydrologists, modelers, software developers, data scientists, and project managers.
• Contribute to tools and systems that help clients make timely, science-based decisions.
• Grow technical, communication, and project leadership skills in a supportive research environment.

Working Style and Growth Opportunities:

The Forecasting and River Operations team works collaboratively across project teams and technical disciplines. Early career staff are expected to contribute to project work while continuing to build technical depth through mentoring, training, and hands-on experience. Over time, the successful candidate may grow into roles involving independent technical task leadership, client communication, model development, system design, proposal support, and project management.

What You'll Do

The Early Career Water Resources / Environmental Engineer or Scientist will support development, implementation, testing, and maintenance of operational river forecast systems, with an emphasis on Delft-FEWS (Flood Early Warning System) configuration and related data ingestion and modeling workflows. The position may also support hydrologic modeling, reservoir modeling, forecast evaluation, data processing, visualization, documentation, and client-facing technical support.

This role is well suited for a motivated early-career professional who is interested in applied water resources, enjoys learning new technical tools, and wants to contribute to systems that support real-time water management decisions. The candidate should be familiar with the underlying concepts of the tools used by the team. Strong candidates will bring curiosity, attention to detail, technical problem-solving skills, and an interest in working collaboratively with engineers, hydrologists, software developers, project managers, and clients.

This position can be either based in RTI’s U.S. office in Research Triangle Park, NC, or it can be fully remote. Teleworking is permitted within the United States only. 

Responsibilties include, but are not limited to:

• Support the development, testing, and maintenance of operational river forecasting systems, particularly Delft-FEWS.
• Assist with development and modification of FEWS workflows for data ingestion, data processing, quality control, model execution, visualization, reporting, and archiving.
• Support integration of hydrologic, hydraulic, reservoir operations, and related models into forecasting and decision-support systems.
• Process, analyze, and summarize hydrometeorological and water resources data, including observed streamflow, precipitation, reservoir operations data, gridded meteorological data, and forecast products.
• Develop, update, and test scripts, spreadsheets, databases, and other tools to improve efficiency in data processing, modeling, analysis, and visualization.
• Assist with hydrologic model setup, calibration, verification, and forecast evaluation, including comparison of simulations or forecasts against observations.
• Support reservoir modeling tasks, which may include model setup, data preparation, rule or logic testing, scenario evaluation, and integration of reservoir model outputs with forecasting workflows.
• Troubleshoot model, system, data, and workflow issues in collaboration with project teams and, as appropriate, client technical staff.
• Prepare clear documentation, user guidance, training materials, technical notes, and project deliverables.
• Participate in client meetings, internal technical discussions, trainings, and project coordination activities.
• Contribute to applied research, proposal development, and business development efforts as experience grows.

What You'll Need

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in civil engineering, environmental engineering, hydrology, water resources engineering, environmental science, computer science, geography, or a related discipline with relevant coursework or experience and at least one year of relevant professional experience.
• This position is intended for an early-career staff member.  Candidates with coursework, internships, research assistantships, capstone projects, or early professional experience related to water resources, hydrology, environmental modeling, data analysis, programming, or decision-support systems are encouraged to apply.

• Coursework or experience in hydrology, hydraulics, water resources engineering, reservoir operations, meteorology, environmental modeling, statistics, GIS, or data science.

• Ability to process, analyze, and interpret technical data accurately.

• Basic programming, scripting, or data analysis experience, such as Python, R, MATLAB, SQL, Excel, or similar tools.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to document methods, summarize technical findings, and communicate with multidisciplinary teams.

• Strong attention to detail and willingness to test, troubleshoot, and validate technical work.

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary project environment.

• Ability to manage multiple priorities and meet deadlines.

• Willingness to learn new software platforms, modeling tools, data systems, and technical workflows. 

• To qualify, applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States and should not require, now or in the future, sponsorship for employment visa status (e.g., H-1B visa status, etc.). 

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Delft-FEWS, CHPS, HEC-HMS, HEC-RAS, HEC-ResSim, RiverWare, WISKI, SQL databases, Git/GitHub, cloud computing, or similar tools.
• Experience with hydrologic model setup, calibration, verification, or forecast evaluation.
• Experience working with time series data, geospatial data, gridded meteorological products, streamflow observations, or reservoir operations data.
• Experience developing scripts or tools to automate repetitive data processing, modeling, visualization, or reporting tasks.
• Familiarity with operational forecasting concepts, including forecast workflows, ensemble forecasts, quality control, model initialization, data assimilation, or forecast verification.
• Interest in client-facing technical support, training, and documentation.
• Interest in applied research, software-enabled decision support, and collaborative problem solving for water management challenges.

EEO & Pay Equity Statements

For San Francisco, CA USA Job Postings Only: Pursuant to the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance, we will consider for employment qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records. Further information is available here.

RTI accepts applications to our job openings from candidates with criminal histories or conviction records in accordance with all applicable laws, including the Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers and the California Fair Chance Act.

For Applicants in Massachusetts Only: It is unlawful in Massachusetts to require or administer a lie detector test as a condition of employment or continued employment. An employer who violates this law shall be subject to criminal penalties and civil liability.

The anticipated pay range for this role is listed below. Our pay ranges represent national averages and may vary by location as a geographic differential may be applied to some locations within the United States. RTI considers multiple factors when making an offer including, for example: established salary range, internal budget, business needs, and education and years of work experience possessed by the applicant. Further, salary is merely one element to our offer.

At RTI, we demonstrate our commitment to rewarding individual and team achievement through a total rewards package. This package includes (among other things) a competitive base salary, a generous paid time off policy, merit based annual increases, bonus opportunities and a robust recognition program. Other benefits include a competitive range of insurance plans (including health, dental, life, and 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, an employee assistance program, and numerous other offerings to support a healthy work-life balance.

Hiring Salary Range