Help show which buildings and materials fit within the carbon budget, so that construction can meet human needs within planetary limits. You will lead our scientific work on whole life cycle assessment of buildings, materials and building stocks: the material basis of human settlements. You will develop the methods and data that make WLCA comparable and usable worldwide, for GBDI and INDICATE, build GBDI’s data partnerships in Asia and Africa, and help shape GBDI’s open building data format (openBDF).
You will work directly with the Director and the Global Partnerships and Programmes Lead (RISE-Team-2611-01), and closely with our Junior Scientist for whole life carbon and LCA (RISE-Team-2611-03) and GBDI’s software engineers.
This profile is tentative. We will design the final profile and the extent together with the person we hire, based on their strengths, interests and our project needs. We value initiative: if you see a better way to contribute, tell us.
Read the full advert as a PDF: the role, what you bring, how we work, what we offer, relocation and housing, and how to apply, in one document.
What you will do
- Develop regional material emission factors and prospective WLCA methods, and specify checks against benchmarks and limit values for GBDI’s open-source WLCA calculation engine.
- Identify and onboard data partners in Asia and Africa, and co-develop emission factors, openBDF adaptations and trainings with local universities and partners.
- Contribute to the global WLCA data standard developed in CLEAR on the basis of openBDF.
- Lead INDICATE’s technical onboarding pathway for new countries: minimum data requirements, quality assurance, open-source tools and templates, aligned with the EPBD, EPC databases and national building registries. Co-lead guidance on linking whole life carbon with EPCs, Renovation and Material Passports, CRREM and GRESB.
- Upscale results to building stocks and scenarios, including renovation-first, circular and low-carbon material strategies. Publish, supervise and help raise funding.
What you bring
- Essential: experience with scaling up building LCA, material flow analysis, building stock modelling or scenario analysis, ideally including carbon budgets and sufficiency-first strategies (avoid, shift, improve).
- Essential: a publication record in peer-reviewed journals and experience leading or contributing to research proposals or grants. Tell us which funds you helped raise and what your role was.
- A PhD, or a Master’s degree with at least 3 years of relevant research experience, in industrial ecology, environmental or civil engineering, architecture or a closely related field.
- Proven expertise in LCA of buildings and construction products according to EN 15978, EN 15804+A2 and ISO 14040/44, including whole life carbon, life cycle inventory and emission factor data.
- Demonstrated coding experience in Python and reproducible workflows (Git, documented code). Name the frameworks and packages you have used, for example brightway, premise, openLCA, ODYM, pandas or polars.
- Professional proficiency in English, spoken and written. German is appreciated but not required.
Nice to have
- Experience with data standards, schemas or exchange formats (JSON schema, APIs), EPDs or LCA databases.
- Experience with input-output or parametric modelling of building stocks, or with impacts beyond global warming potential, such as land use, biodiversity or life cycle costs.
- Knowledge of EU whole life carbon policy (EPBD, Level(s)) and of building practices and data in our focus countries.
- Experience supervising students or junior researchers.
How to apply
Send your application as three PDFs to office@riselabs.at with the subject line RISE-Team-2611-02 - [Your name]. Applications without a Position ID in the subject line may not be considered.
- Motivation letter, at most two pages, including names and contact details of three professional references. They are contacted only after an interview, with your consent.
- CV, including a list of projects and publications.
- Examples of your work relevant to the position, for example a link to a code repository (GitHub, Zenodo) or a publication that shows your WLCA or modelling work.
Applications are open until 4 December 2026. Reviewing and interviewing start on 18 November 2026 and continue until the position is filled, so earlier applications have the advantage of an earlier conversation.
Applying for more than one position? List all Position IDs in the subject line and tell us in your letter which you prefer and why.