Indigo Ag transforms on-farm regenerative agricultural practices into durable new revenue streams for farmers and agribusinesses, creating a more resilient world with thriving farmers and more sustainable and environmentally prosperous companies. Since 2013, Indigo’s mission has revolved around on three key principles:

• Helping farmers enhance their profitability and soil health
• Improving the quantity, quality, and traceability of the food available to consumers
• Protecting the environment by reducing and removing harmful greenhouse gases from the atmosphere by storing it into agricultural soils, while incentivizing sustainable land stewardship practices from large corporations

Our people build partnerships, explore the science, and engineer the technology to help grow the future of sustainable agriculture. The only way to achieve it is through a unique combination of expertise – from Fortune 500 to academia, soil science and agriculture, to tech start-ups.

The Science & Modeling team connects advancements in science and research with quantification methodologies at scale through deeply cross-disciplinary work. It includes ecosystem modelers, data scientists, and remote sensing experts. We define the science requirements behind high-quality carbon credits, scope 3 emissions, and water benefit reporting to help farmers get paid for sustainable practices. We collaborate with scientists across academia and industry, and work on world-class data sets and experiments to advance the science around sustainability and agriculture.  

To quantify impact rigorously and cost effectively, we collect data on farming practices, remote sensing, and other data sources that we combine with direct measurement data to model and analyze water savings, GHG, soil carbon outcomes and other sustainability attributes. We combine science, data, technology, and software engineering to fight climate change and support grower success when making sustainability-driven decisions. Reporting to a Principal Data Scientist, this role is responsible for designing and developing the scientific foundation of our water modeling platform.  

What You'll Do

Scientific Research and Modeling:

• Develop, calibrate, and validate water quantity and quality models at the field, watershed, and regional scales.

• Quantify impacts of agricultural management practices on water quantity (e.g., runoff, infiltration, water storage) and water quality (e.g., nutrient and sediment loads).

• Integrate remote sensing, soil, weather, and management datasets to support robust water outcome modeling. 

• Stay current with advances in hydrological modeling, environmental data science, and agricultural water management.

• Collaborate with software engineers to scale and deploy models/approaches.

 Commercial and Customer Partnerships:

• Provide hands-on scientific review and interpretation of quantification results to drive high-quality reporting and presentations to internal and external stakeholders. 

• Collaborate closely with commercial leads to align program design and modeling outputs with market needs and customer priorities. 

• Participate in customer-facing engagements such as workshops, sales calls, and strategic partnership meetings. 

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams (e.g., agronomists, engineers, and commercial) to optimize our water quantification platform and to translate scientific insights into actionable results. 

• Serve as a scientific partner for the policy team to ensure our quantification platform is aligned with Volumetric Water Benefit Accounting (VWBA).  

Required Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or Master’s degree with equivalent experience in Hydrology, Environmental Science, Agricultural Engineering, Water Resources, or a related field, and 4+ years of experience working in a professional environment.

• Strong background in hydrological and/or water quality modeling with expertise in models used to quantify water benefit outcomes (e.g., SWAT, HYDRUS, AquaCrop, or similar) 

• Proficiency in statistical analysis and programming languages (e.g., Python, R, SQL). 

• Experience integrating diverse datasets (field measurements, soil data, remote sensing, and climate data) into model frameworks. 

• Excellent problem-solving skills, attention to detail, and ability to work both independently and collaboratively. 

• Experience operating in a business setting, interfacing with customers, and distilling complex scientific concepts or findings into actionable insights for non-technical audiences.   

• Comfortable working in a remote-first, fast-paced, and highly dynamic environment  

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience performing emissions accounting or Life Cycle Assessment 

• Experience with one or more soil biogeochemical models (DNDC, DayCent, RothC, etc.)  

• Strong record of scientific communication, including peer-reviewed publications 

• Comfortable using project management software (e.g., Jira, Confluence) 

How We'll Take Care of You

• Base salary of $145,000 - $155,000 annually

• Equity options & annual cash incentives

• Generous paid time off, including Flexible Time Off, 5 sick days, 5 floating holidays, and 12 annual company holidays as well as one week between Christmas and New Year’s for a company-wide annual break, parental leave, and bereavement leave.

• Robust wellness benefits for employees and their eligible dependents including medical, dental, vision, mental health, and basic life and disability insurance

• Optional benefits available include Flexible Spending Account (FSA), Health Savings Account (HSA), identity protection, accident, and hospital indemnity insurance

• 401K savings plan

Pay Transparency Statement

Indigo is committed to competitive and equitable pay for all employees. The listed pay range for this role is a good faith estimate of the hiring range for this position. Compensation offered will be determined based on several factors including an individual’s experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

Benefits Statement

All regular, full-time, permanent employees who work 30 hours or more each week are eligible to enroll in Indigo’s benefits. Additionally, all full-time employees and some parttime employees are eligible for paid time off as outlined above. Based on their role, employees may also be eligible to receive long-term equity incentives and annual cash incentives.

At Indigo Ag, we understand that talent is not a one-size-fits-all. We want candidates who are passionate about our mission and aligned with our Core Values. That’s why we encourage you to apply, even if you do not meet all the requirements listed above. So let us know what skills you bring to the table and how you will add to our culture!