Data Scientist

Position title: Data Scientist

Department: Business Planning, Measurement and Innovation

Reporting to: Head of Climate Data and Analytics

Location: Brazil, Colombia, South Africa & UK -Please note that if your right to work in one of the listed locations is not confirmed at the time of applying, C40 will be unable to proceed with your application.

Salary: (Grade 4)Brazil (IC) USD 63,376, Colombia COP 127,400,000, South Africa ZAR 736,496 & UK GBP £54,920 gross per annum - Due to its commitment to maintain equity and fairness, C40 operates on a spot salary model. This means that our employees are paid the same salary according to their grade and location.

Term: Indefinite

Background

C40 is a network of nearly 100 mayors of the world’s leading cities, who are working to deliver the urgent action needed right now to confront the climate crisis, and create a future where everyone, everywhere can thrive. Mayors of C40 cities are committed to using a science-based and people-focused approach to help the world limit global heating to 1.5°C and build healthy, equitable and resilient communities. Through a Global Green New Deal, mayors are working alongside a broad coalition of representatives from labour, business, the youth climate movement and civil society to go further and faster than ever before.

C40’s team of 400+ staff is based in offices in London, in New York, Johannesburg, Singapore, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Copenhagen, Beijing and Paris, and individual staff based across 25+ different locations.

The strategic direction of the organisation is determined by an elected Steering Committee of C40 mayors, which is chaired by Mayor Sadiq Khan of London and Mayor Yvonne Aki-Sawyerr of Freetown. Three-term Mayor of New York City Michael R. Bloomberg serves as President of the C40 Board of Directors, responsible for operational oversight. A regionally diverse management team, led by Executive Director Mark Watts, leads the day-to-day management of C40. C40’s two core strategic funders are Bloomberg Philanthropies and Realdania.

Our international staff work with the C40 network under the leadership of city governments to deliver this mission. Using a data-driven approach, our team identifies and promotes the exchange of proven programmes and policies developed by cities; provides world-class research, technical expertise and access to key partners to deliver new programmes and policies with cities; and communicates cities’ individual achievements and collective leadership.

Diversity Statement

C40 is committed to supporting and promoting equity and diversity and creating an inclusive working environment for everyone. We believe that when people with different life experiences are involved in decision-making, we deliver better.

We believe having a diverse workforce ensures we connect better with all the different communities and people affected by the climate crisis. This enables us to make better decisions which lead to better outcomes in the work we do through increased creativity, productivity, greater global impact alongside a broader perspective and approach to our work.

We welcome applicants that are diverse in terms of age, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical or mental ability, ethnicity and perspective. Our goal is for C40 to be an environment where everyone, from any background, can flourish and can be themselves whilst contributing to our mission. If you identify as a person with a disability, we work to provide reasonable appropriate measures and any additional support needed to provide an equitable working experience. If you are living with a disability, chronic illness or neurodiversity please inform us, to provide you with the proper assistance in the application process.

C40 promotes a work culture where staff can input to improve equity, diversity and inclusion through staff-led groups and formal forums. We know that creating our ideal working environment is a learning process and we are committed to the ongoing effort.

Department description:

The C40 Business Planning and Reporting (BPR) team is the C40 team responsible for reviewing and reporting C40’s performance and progress against the delivery of the C40 Business Plan for 2025-2030. This includes evaluating the actions of both our cities and C40 the organisation to guide our C40’s strategy.

A strong focus within the team and C40 is to put on powerful and visual data for communication to our Steering Committee, Board, member cities and funders. The BPR team incorporates Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), Analytics (Modelling) and the Programme Management Office (PMO) functions that report to decision-makers and support the annual business planning cycle. The team is small so all team members work closely together on a range of projects with scope for individuals to shape their professional development.

Position Description:

The Data Scientist will be a core member of the small Analytics Team. The position will report to the Head of Analytics and will work closely with other colleagues in the BPR Team and all the technical experts from across C40 globally (e.g. Air Quality, Transport and Resilience).

The Data Scientist will design and upkeep systems that support C40’s effort to track and report climate action progress in C40’s work and throughout its member cities.

The team has the responsibility for C40’s Data Warehouse and Data Portal. The Data Warehouse is essential to C40’s ongoing research, monitoring and evaluation and reporting efforts. A key objective is to maintain and build processes and structures around the Data warehouse and Data Portal that relate to C40’s Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are used by C40 to track our cities’ progress against our Business Plan. This will involve designing and maintaining architecture and programme code that collects, processes and stores technical climate and equity data from a wide range of internal and external sources. This will involve liaising with technical experts across C40 to develop and update data collection, analysis and modelling methodologies. Another key objective is to develop compelling visualisations and narratives for the KPI reporting and related climate (air quality, health, equity) and performance data for both internal staff and also external stakeholders. This is done primarily through the C40 Data Portal (an internal website and dashboard), and other business intelligence tools such as Qlik, the KPI Dashboard, and other bespoke reporting. As the data that C40 collects and the techniques used to process them both expand in terms of their range and complexity, the potential for data-driven techniques such as machine learning to be employed in C40’s work increases. C40 Analytics needs to adapt the technical capacity to meet this challenge.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for managing the C40 Data Warehouse and the Python-based ETL pipelines. Working alongside the Data Warehouse Manager.
• Manage the expansion of the Data Warehouse to include structures for managing data related to the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
• Responsible for maintaining, analysing and reporting on key datasets ( Key KPIs and related data, such as GHG emissions and Air Quality PM2.5) - housed in the Data Warehouse - related to C40 and C40 cities performance measurement.Develop and maintain data pipelines to extract, transform and load C40 KPI related data from different sources into the central Data Warehouse.
• Work alongside climate sector experts to design methodologies to estimate or calculate KPIs and other analyses. This will include identifying data requirements and developing data management solutions including protocols, methodologies and processes.
• Contribute to the development of data visualisations for KPI and related performance data, primarily for the bespoke C40 Data Portal (internal website with intelligence dashboard) and the KPI Dashboard, and other business intelligence tools such as Qlik, or for internal or external powerpoint presentations or papers.
• Work to communicate C40 cities climate and KPI data as widely as possible to ensure that the awareness, uptake and application of the information occurs across C40 staff. In addition, work with Communications colleagues to support any external communication of data, ensuring it is communicated clearly, simply and in a compelling manner ensuring data, narratives and visuals are targeted appropriately depending on the audience.
• Manage the ‘C40 Data Requests Service’ - respond to data queries from C40 staff, via the online request system across the organisation (e.g. data queries for communications at events such as COP).
• Promote good data practices and management, alongside the ‘modelling community’ through enhancing data sharing, methodologies, resources, training and building up staff knowledge and capacity.
• Identify opportunities to embed Machine Learning and data imputation in areas of C40 with the Head of Analytics, constantly review efficacy.
• Develop an understanding of how statistical inference and hypothesis testing can be used for the benefit of C40’s work areas; e.g. assessing climate change denial, health analysis, equality analysis.
• Seek opportunities to acquire research funding and work with external organisations towards setting up joint research opportunities.
• Managing workload, conflicting priorities and the expectation of others.

Person Specification:

• Experience of research, analysis and modelling of climate-related data, or relevant sectoral data (e.g. GHG, Air quality, transport, consumption, adaptation).
• Experience working with analytic databases (data warehouses and cloud technologies) and GitHub.
• Experience and knowledge of using Python and Python data science libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Scikit-learn and SQL Alchemy.
• Experience using SQL for querying, developing and managing databases.
• Advanced Excel skills including knowledge of formulae, VBS macros and pivot tables.
• Knowledge and experience using statistical techniques to analyse data such as hypothesis testing, regression analysis.
• Knowledge of, or willingness to learn, geospatial data management using PostgreSQL and Python.
• Ability to work in a fast paced organisation and deal and juggle projects
• Ability to work with both technical and non-technical experts with data. Experience of translating technical information into simple narratives and compelling visuals.
• Excellent problem-solving and analytical capabilities.
• Collaborative, team-oriented personality.
• Strong written skills (e.g. methodology documentation, memos about KPIs to funders and management team).
• Strong verbal and presentation skills to communicate data methodologies and present technical results to less technical audiences (e.g. staff, funders, and other stakeholders).
• Collaborative, team-oriented personality.
• Research skills gained from a university dissertation or equivalent.

Other Requirements:

Applicants must already have the right to work in the listed locations. Moderate travel will be required as part of the role.

We seek to recruit individuals who not only have the appropriate skills and experience for the role, but are committed to carrying out their roles in line with our organisational values.

C40 offers a comprehensive benefits package to support employee well-being and work-life balance:

• Paid Time Off: Full-time employees receive 35 days of paid time off annually, which includes all national holidays.
• Company Shutdowns: In addition to the standard paid time off, C40 provides two non-contractual, non-statutory shutdown weeks each year (mid-year and end-of-year) for a full break.
• Parental Leave: All employees are eligible for up to 52 weeks of parenting leave. The first 16 weeks are paid at 100% of the employee's current salary. Weeks 17 through 52 are unpaid by C40, unless payment is required by national law.
• Flexible Working: C40 supports flexible working arrangements to enhance work-life balance, provided they align with business requirements.
• Time off in Lieu (TOIL): Employees can take TOIL to recover following periods of excessive hours or travel.
• Sick Leave: Entitlement to sick leave increases upon the successful completion of the employee's probation period.
• Employee Training: Training and development opportunities are available to all staff (excluding temporary staff and interns) after they have completed and passed their probation period.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP): Confidential services, such as counselling, are accessible for short-term support.
• Pension scheme: C40 offers a pension scheme to employees in eligible locations. Availability is determined by the country of employment.
• Private Health Insurance: This is provided in countries where publicly funded healthcare is not available.

Application Process:

Closing date for applications is Monday, 6th April 2026 at 5pm UK Time. C40 reserves the right to close this job opening before the closing date for applications so please do submit applications early.

To learn more about the work of C40 and our cities, please visit www.c40.org, follow us on Twitter @c40cities and like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/C40Cities.

For any queries about the role, please contact careers@C40.org. Kindly note that this email address is for recruitment related queries only. We are unable to accept CVs and cover letters sent to this inbox. We can only accept and process applications that are submitted via our website.

C40 is an equal opportunities employer.