Principal Research Scientist - Risk

Neara is a software technology company that provides a physics-enabled digital twin platform specifically designed for electric utility infrastructure. The platform enables utilities to create a behaviourally identical digital model of their entire network, integrating assets, surrounding terrain, weather conditions, and vegetation into a single physics-accurate environment. This allows network operators to simulate real-world scenarios including severe weather events, wildfires, floods, and equipment failures to understand risk, predict outcomes, and prioritize interventions before incidents occur. Neara's mission centers on improving the resilience, safety, and efficiency of energy infrastructure, which directly supports the clean energy transition by helping utilities manage aging grids, reduce outages, and enable the integration of renewable energy sources. The platform addresses critical climate-related challenges such as wildfire mitigation, storm response, and flood management, making it a key tool for utilities facing increasing climate-driven grid risks. By replacing fragmented point solutions with a unified model, Neara helps reduce the environmental and financial costs associated with infrastructure failures and inefficient maintenance. What distinguishes Neara is its use of physics-based simulation rather than statistical approximation, enabling users to move from broad risk awareness to precise failure prediction and actionable planning. The platform supports a wide range of use cases including vegetation analysis, clearance risk assessment, conductor clashing detection, asset lifecycle management, distribution and transmission network design, and regulatory reporting. Neara operates across multiple geographies including the United States, Europe, and Australia and New Zealand, serving major electric utilities seeking to modernize their network management capabilities.

Imagine having the power to stress-test an entire power grid against a hurricane or thunderstorm before the clouds even gather. That is the reality we are creating at Neara.

We use advanced machine learning to create engineering-grade, physics enabled digital twins of electricity grids across four continents, this helps asset owners understand their biggest challenges and bring the most viable solutions to life across millions of kilometres of infrastructure.

By simulating extreme weather and structural stress at a network-wide scale, we empower the world’s largest utilities to pinpoint risks, optimise investments and build a more resilient global energy future.

Our team is a collection of brilliant minds who are fanatical about making a tangible difference in the real world, utilising AI and machine learning to accelerate everything from data classification to complex scenario analysis. We have built a special culture where innovation thrives because everyone owns the mission and we need smart, creative people to help us scale this impact to every corner of the globe.

Principal Research Scientist - Risk

We are seeking an experienced research scientist to lead Neara’s internal research group in topics of system resilience, reliability, and policy. In this role, you will define a research agenda, develop rigorous statistical and decision models, and translate findings into tools and recommendations for utilities managing billions of dollars in capital expenditure.

Neara provides network-scale structural, loading, and contextual data across complete overhead electrical systems. As the Principal Research Scientist - Risk, you will use this information to build generalizable models of asset failure and determine the value of additional data, inspections, and interventions.

What You Will Do:

• Build and lead Neara’s applied research function for infrastructure risk and resilience.

• Direct a team of researchers and establish rigorous standards for risk modeling, uncertainty quantification, and decision-making.

• Develop predictive models for equipment damage, vegetation failure, outage likelihood and duration, and wildfire-related risk.

• Design decision models that quantify the operational and economic consequences of resilience and reliability investments, including asset replacement, vegetation management, and network redesign.

• Quantify the value of data including pole loading analysis, visual inspections, and the installation of new devices and remote sensing capabilities, both empirically and by analytical methods.

Who You Are:

• A PhD in statistics, applied mathematics, physics, computer science, operations research, engineering, or a comparable record of original research and applied technical work.

• Evidence of having independently defined and led a substantial research program as a group leader or industry principal, demonstrated through influential publications, patents, or production systems.

• Experienced in building technical teams and setting research direction.

• Extensive experience in probabilistic modeling, uncertainty quantification, model validation, scientific computing capabilities and decision-making under incomplete information.

• Substantial experience modeling operational systems. Particularly relevant topics include insurance or catastrophe modeling; weather prediction and climate hazard; outages in power systems; and reliability engineering.

What We Offer:

• A highly competitive compensation package including a significant equity component to ensure you directly benefit from Neara’s sustained success and impact on critical infrastructure.

• The opportunity to work on a cutting-edge, 3D physics-enabled platform used to anticipate the impact of extreme events, reduce infrastructure failure, and direct investment. Access to unique network-scale utility data unavailable in other industrial research settings.

• Freedom to define and build Neara’s research modeling function, establishing the agenda, identifying preferred methods and working on novel under-specified problems.

• A central role in shaping Neara’s long-term product roadmap, analytical standards and customer advisory services.

• Flexible hours and working arrangements designed to help you do your best work from where you work best.

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