Max Planck Society 
Jena, Germany Offer Summary
The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany, seeks a Postdoctoral Researcher to advance usable extreme weather projections at impact-relevant scales. This full-time position, starting January 1, 2027, focuses on identifying biases in climate models and developing AI-driven downscaling approaches for extreme events. Candidates must hold a PhD in climate science, physics, or data science, with strong programming skills in Python and experience in machine learning methods. Responsibilities include publishing research, co-supervising PhD students, and contributing to real-time online tools. The role offers a three-year contract with extension options, remuneration according to TVöD Bund pay group 13, and benefits including an annual bonus, 31 days of holiday, flexi-time, remote work options, and family-friendly policies. Applications require a cover letter, CV, research summary, publication list, and referee contacts.
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Project Description
Postdoctoral Researcher (m/f/d): Usable Extreme Weather Projections at Impact-Relevant Scales
Scientist Jena Developmental and Evolutionary Biology & Genetics Immunobiology and Infection Biology & Medicine Earth Sciences and Climate Research Social Sciences Linguistics Job Offer from October 23, 2026
The Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology (MPI-GEA) was founded in summer 2022 and is a dynamically growing, highly-interdisciplinary and international research institution. The research focuses on modeling and analyzing the interrelationships between biophysical and human-made systems, looking from the deep past to the future. The institute examines how humanity has driven the emergence of the Anthropocene – the period in which human activities began significantly impacting our planet’s climate and ecosystems – and identifying potential intervention points towards a more sustainable future.
The Carl Zeiss Stiftung Independent Research Group on High-End Climate Risks (CZS-HECR) at MPI-GEA works towards an end-to-end understanding of worst-case climate outcomes, from unprecedented and compounding extremes to their societal impacts. The group combines fundamental physical process understanding rooted in climate physics and Earth System analyses, targeted climate model experiments, advanced statistics, including machine-learning- and explainable AI to deliver usable climate risk estimates under current and future climates for core societal sectors such as health, food, energy and finance.
Candidate tasks
- Identify, quantify and understand the sources of biases in impact relevant trends in state-of-the-art climate models (e.g. CMIP6/7, large ensembles, km-scale models)
- Develop and evaluate AI/ML-driven downscaling approaches for extreme and compound weather events, using model simulations, observational and reanalysis datasets
- Design physics informed bias-adjustment methods targeted at the tails of hazard distributions to preserve impact-relevant relationships between variables
- Publish in leading international journals, present at conferences, and contribute to the group's workshops and symposia
- Co-supervise PhD students and contribute to the development of the group's real-time online tool
Your qualification
Essential
- PhD in climate, physics, math, data science, or related fields
- Demonstrated experience with climate model output, reanalysis observational climate data and large-gridded datasets
- Strong programming skills (e.g. Python)
- Experience with Causality tools, AI and/or machine-learning methods
- Track record of peer-reviewed publications appropriate to career stage
- Excellent communication skills in English, and the ability to work independently and in a team
Advantageous
- Experience with deep learning for downscaling or bias adjustment
- Knowledge of extreme value statistics and compound event detection methods
- Experience with (high-resolution) climate simulations and HPC environments
- Familiarity with impact-relevant applications (energy, health, agriculture, economy)
- Experience in co-supervising students and academic teaching
Our offer
This full-time or part-time position with at least 34 hours/week will begin on the 1st of January, 2027, though some flexibility in start date is possible. The term is three years, with the option of an extension. Renumeration will follow the public service pay scale (TVöD Bund ) up to paygroup 13, according to the candidate’s qualifications and experience. You are entitled to an annual bonus, 31 days' holiday and time off on 24th and 31st December. We also offer attractive, family-friendly flexi-time and remote-working arrangements. A company pension scheme (VBL), an employer subsidy for public transport, the opportunity for further training, and language and health courses complete our offer.
The Max Planck Society is committed to employing more individuals with disabilities and especially encourages them to apply. We are also committed to encouraging diversity and actively challenging biases based on gender, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion and other components of identity. We were honored with the TOTAL E-QUALITY award for the first time in 2023 for our commitment.
The Max Planck Society supports the compatibility of family and career and is certified according to the "berufundfamilie" (“job and family”) audit.
Your application should include
- A cover letter
- A CV of no more than 3 pages
- A summary of research interests with max. 2 pages
- A list of at most 10 scientific, peer-reviewed publications related to the position
- Contacts of two referees
- Any relevant certificates
Position remains open until filled.
Contact for more information
Application portal
Dr. Kai Kornhuber
Email: kornhuber@gea.mpg.de