Data Scientist - Agriculture & Nature Analytics (Machine Learning/Geospatial)

Who you'll work with

What you'll do

You’ll work with McKinsey’s agricultural and nature analytics team (ACRE) in San Jose, Costa Rica, part of our Agriculture Practiceand Nature & Natural Capital Service Line.

Our Agriculture Practice advises agribusiness, consumer food, government, and investor clients on strategic, marketing & sales, and operations issues, helping support industry-shaping decisions that impact the future of global food production.

The Nature & Natural Capital Service Line helps corporations, public-sector actors and institutions in enabling nature-positive outcomes by integrating biodiversity, land use, water, and ecosystem information into strategy, investment decisions, and operations.

Within this group, ACRE is a team of ~30 expert consultants, data scientists, and engineers focused on bringing cutting-edge analytics to our clients. We apply real-time data and advanced analytics or AI – generally predictive or geospatial in nature – to solve the biggest problems currently facing global agriculture and nature.

You will leverage industry knowledge and analytical expertise to provide insights both to clients as part of client service teams and within the ACRE team by strengthening the core products and algorithms we build for clients. You can expect to split your time delivering impact at clients (either remotely or on site) and building up ACRE’s core analytical offerings.

In the agriculture sector, issues to solve could include determining the suitability of growing different types of crops across different geographies, using local agronomic data and satellite imagery to determine market potential for input products, or optimizing farm operations using yield forecasting. For the nature sector, you may help public-sector clients from low- and middle income clients define their nature conservation strategy, supporting them through geospatial analysis and your domain knowledge.

 Along the way, you will receive best-in-class training in structuring business problems and serving as a client adviser, develop tech-skills through (in-person) trainings curated by big-tech companies, and have opportunities to work closely with and learn from our senior agriculture and nature leaders and industry players that are shaping the future of these fields. You will get access to unparalleled career acceleration, with a huge amount of ownership and responsibility from the get-go in a collaborative, diverse, non-hierarchical environment. You will get the opportunity to travel to client sites and attend in-person trainings, locally and around the world. Lastly, you will be able to provide direct and measurable impact towards solving some of the largest problems facing the global food-system and natural ecosystems.

Your background

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in a quantitative and/or environmental-related discipline, such as: agriculture, agronomy, biology, ecology, geography, climate, or related.
• Strong experience with agronomy/crop science, animal sciences and farm-level production systems, AND/OR nature- and natural-capital–related topics, such as biodiversity, land use, water systems, ecosystem services, or nature-related risk and impact assessment, preferred.
• Geospatial and spatiotemporal analysis, remote sensing, image processing, preferred.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, paired with the ability to develop creative and efficient solutions.
• Clean, efficient coding abilities in Python ideally with experience parallel processing and using cloud computing resources.
• Ability to design and develop geospatial workflows and pipelines for data analysis and processing .
• Ability to use version-control & collaboration tools.
• Strong multitasking and parallel development abilities.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills.
• Creative, naturally curious, and willing to take intellectual risks.
• Able to work under competing, quickly-changing priorities, manage expectations effectively and support the team under pressure.
• Willingness to travel up to 50% 
• Self-management skills and ability to work as part of an Agile team preferred.
• You will be required to work in-person from Costa Rica, and fluency in both English and Spanish is required.