Posting Title

Postdoctoral Researcher – Life Cycle Inventory Modeling at Scale

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Location

CO - Golden

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Position Type

Postdoc (Fixed Term)

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Hours Per Week

40

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Working at NREL

From day one at NREL, you’ll connect with coworkers driven by the same mission to save the planet. By joining an organization that values a supportive, inclusive, and flexible work environment, you’ll have the opportunity to engage through our ten employee resource groups, numerous employee-driven clubs, and learning and professional development classes.

NREL supports inclusive, diverse, and unbiased hiring practices that promote creativity and innovation. By collaborating with organizations that focus on diverse talent pools, reaching out to underrepresented demographics, and providing an inclusive application and interview process, our Talent Acquisition team aims to hear all voices equally. We strive to attract a highly diverse workforce and create a culture where every employee feels welcomed and respected and they can be their authentic selves.

Our planet needs us! Learn about NREL’s critical objectives, and see how NREL is focused on saving the planet.

We invite all interested candidates to apply for this opportunity. While we recognize that job seekers may hesitate if they don’t meet every requirement, we encourage dedicated individuals who meet all the basic and additional required qualifications of the role to submit an application. We value the opportunity to consider those who believe they have the necessary skills and ambition to succeed at NREL.

Job Description

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) is seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to support the development of next-generation, open-source life cycle inventories. This role is part of a multi-year collaboration with experts in data integration, emissions analysis, statistical modeling, and life cycle assessment. The focus will be on creating unit process datasets for industries undergoing significant transformation, while also updating legacy data, investigating future environmental impacts, and exploring alternative industrial energy sources.

We are seeking candidates with a recent PhD in Environmental Science, Environmental Engineering, Industrial Ecology, or a closely related discipline. Applicants must have experience with industrial emissions datasets, process modeling, and proficiency in advanced LCA tools and energy systems models. Familiarity with NREL’s publicly available databases and tools (such as USLCI, Federal LCA Commons, OpenLCA, or SimaPro) is highly desirable.

The ideal candidate should have strong programming skills in Python or R, be self-motivated, and able to work independently. The position is expected to start in Summer 2025. The candidate will join NREL’s Complex Decision Analysis (CODA) group within the Strategic Energy Analysis Center (SEAC) and collaborate with analysts and researchers on environmental sustainability and economic assessments of various industrial sectors from a systems perspective. For more information about SEAC, visit www.nrel.gov/analysis.

The candidate will join NREL’s growing team in life cycle analysis, contributing to a multi-year project to develop next-generation, open-source life cycle inventories. Key responsibilities include supporting the integration of LCA and energy system models, developing life cycle inventory datasets, and assisting with regional and national decision-support frameworks. The successful candidate will also contribute to manuscript preparation and collaborate with senior engineers and analysts.

Specific duties include:

·       Updating legacy datasets and exploring emerging industrial sectors.

·       Curating and analyzing data to build unit datasets for life cycle in