Senior Scientist in Agentic AI for Environmental Digital Twins

How will you contribute?

LIST seeks an experienced Senior Scientist to strengthen its capabilities in agentic AI for geospatial and environmental applications, focusing on large language models (LLMs), scientific workflow orchestration, and space-enabled environmental digital twins. You will join the Remote Sensing and Natural Resources Modelling (REMOTE) group—an interdisciplinary team combining Earth Observation (EO), environmental modelling, AI, data assimilation, and terrestrial/non-terrestrial communication networks—to develop solutions for disaster risk reduction, resilient agri-food systems, ecosystem resilience, civil security, and humanitarian action.

Building on REMOTE’s expertise in AI for EO and environmental modelling, you will design reliable LLM-based agentic systems that reason across EO datasets, scientific knowledge, and models; plan and execute workflows; verify results; and communicate uncertainties transparently. Experience with vision-language models (VLMs) and geospatial foundation models is an asset.

A core objective is enabling intuitive interaction with environmental digital twins—such as flood-risk or agricultural "what-if" scenarios—so users can ask natural-language questions, configure simulations, compare options, and receive interpretable, scientifically grounded answers. You will work across urban, coastal, and agricultural systems, exploring synergies with IoT, distributed sensing, and satellite connectivity, while aligning with European digital-twin and data-space ecosystems (e.g., DestinE, ESA Digital Twin Earth, TerraTwin, BioDT, and European Green Deal/Agricultural Data Spaces).

Key responsibilities:

• Design and evaluate LLM-based, tool-using, and multi-agent systems to orchestrate EO data access, geospatial processing, environmental models, and digital-twin services.
• Translate natural-language questions into traceable model configurations and executable workflows with robust planning, verification, spatial/temporal reasoning, uncertainty handling, and explainable outputs.
• Contribute to ongoing RDI projects and co-develop scalable, reproducible solutions with EO scientists, modellers, and infrastructure specialists.
• Connect AI workflows with cloud/HPC environments, research infrastructures, IoT sensor streams, satellite observations, and weather data with appropriate governance and traceability.
• Initiate and lead new interdisciplinary research projects, partnerships, and competitive proposals; supervise researchers; and disseminate results.

Your profile

• Education: PhD in AI, Computer Science, Data Science, Geoinformatics, Applied Mathematics, Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience & skills:
  • Proven scientific track record in AI with hands-on expertise in LLMs and agentic systems (tool use, planning, orchestration, API/model interaction).
  • Strong grasp of foundation-model frameworks (RAG, context engineering, multi-agent architectures, systematic evaluation).
  • Strong programming skills and ability to build reproducible workflows with validation, uncertainty assessment, and interpretability.
  • Working knowledge of EO/geospatial data, spatial/temporal reasoning, and an interdisciplinary mindset.
  • Demonstrated scientific leadership: securing competitive grants, building collaborations, supervising researchers, and publishing high-quality work.
• Languages: Fluency in English; French, German, or Luxembourgish is an asset.

Your LIST benefits

• Purpose-driven, sustainable RDI environment with 5,000+ m² of cutting-edge labs and 60+ nationalities.
• Personalized learning programme, flexible hours, hybrid work policy (not remote), and digital lunch vouchers.
• 32 days’ paid annual leave, 11 public holidays, 13-month salary, and statutory health insurance.
• Gross monthly salary of €7,460–€9,742 over 13 months (€96,980–€126,646 annually) for full-time employment (pro-rata for part-time), based on experience.

Application procedure Apply online via the HR system (email applications are not considered) with:

• Motivation letter
• Scientific CV with contact details
• List of publications (and patents, if applicable)
• Contact details of 2 references

LIST is an equal opportunity employer reviewing applications continuously until filled. Nationality is requested strictly for confidential diversity statistics. Selected candidates may undergo background, export-control, and criminal-record checks per applicable laws.

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