Rainmaker Fellow, Radar Science

Make it rain. Make Snow. Make Earth Habitable.

Rainmaker builds and deploys audacious technologies that work with nature to create an abundant, habitable planet. We are modernizing proven cloud-seeding science with weather-resistant UAS, radar and satellite observations, numerical weather prediction, novel sensing and validation systems, and sustainable seeding technologies. We are building an integrated system to make more freshwater available to farms, ecosystems, and communities.

Our ambition is bold, but we pursue it with humility. We take on difficult problems in the real world with technical rigor, grit, integrity, and an openness to learning and course-correcting. We are hiring individuals with evidence of exceptional ability. If you want to build systems that endure, restore, and provide, and help deliver the future we were promised, we want to hear from you.

About Rainmaker

Rainmaker is pioneering a modern cloud-seeding system to increase precipitation, improve water availability, and address severe-weather challenges. We combine atmospheric science, weather-resistant UAS, radar and satellite observations, numerical weather prediction, novel sensing systems, and sustainable seeding technologies to design, operate, and evaluate precipitation-enhancement programs.

Radar is central to how Rainmaker observes storms, targets operations, evaluates atmospheric evolution, and learns from field programs. Fellows work with scientists and operators who use the resulting analysis in real decisions.

About the Fellowship

The Rainmaker Radar Science Fellowship is a paid, full-time research appointment for exceptional undergraduate and graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, recent graduates, and other early-career researchers.

You will join Rainmaker's radar-science group and work alongside our researchers on a scoped project drawn from the team's current research priorities and defined in close collaboration with your research lead or mentor. Project matching will consider available data, mentor capacity, team needs, and your background. You will take responsibility for a concrete workstream while contributing to ongoing analysis, scientific review, and operational support across the radar team.

Examples of the Work

• Fellowship projects change with Rainmaker's research and operational priorities. Examples of the work our radar team may pursue include:
• Creating a radar-aircraft collocation atlas to investigate which radar structures and dual-polarization features contain useful information about measured supercooled liquid water.
• Extending and validating an MRMS/MESH hail-event catalog and storm-object tracker.
• Building a carefully controlled radar evaluation framework for cloud-seeding operations
• Automating an existing radar-analysis workflow used by Rainmaker scientists and operators.

What You'll Do

• Build quality-controlled radar datasets aligned with aircraft, UAS, satellite, model, surface, or operational observations.
• Implement and validate radar-processing, feature-extraction, retrieval, storm-tracking, or statistical-analysis methods.
• Investigate how results vary with storm type, range, terrain, temperature regime, observing geometry, and data quality.
• Develop honest baselines and quantify uncertainty, false detections, selection effects, and failure modes.
• Create case visualizations and scientific analyses that domain experts can inspect.
• Produce clear, reusable code and documentation.
• Present findings to Rainmaker's radar scientists, meteorologists, operators, and technical leadership.
• Deliver a final artifact such as a validated dataset, case atlas, tracking system, retrieval candidate, operational product, analysis protocol, or research paper.

What We're Looking For

• Current undergraduate, master's, or PhD students; postdoctoral researchers; recent graduates; and other early-career researchers are all eligible.
• Strong quantitative and programming ability, preferably in Python.
• Experience with radar meteorology, atmospheric science, signal processing, remote sensing, image analysis, geospatial data, or a closely related field.
• Ability to formulate a scientific question, implement an analysis, and validate the result carefully.
• Comfort working with large, imperfect observational datasets.
• High agency and the ability to take responsibility for a bounded workstream while collaborating with experienced researchers.
• Clear written and verbal communication.
• Availability for full-time, on-site work in El Segundo for the agreed appointment.

What Success Looks Like

• By the end of the fellowship, you will have answered a clearly defined scientific or operational question and delivered a result the radar team can continue using. Depending on the project, that might be a validated dataset, novel retrieval, tracking system, analysis framework, or automated operational workflow.

Fellowship Details

• Paid, full-time, and on-site in El Segundo, CA or Norman, OK.
• Three month appointment
• Rolling applications and project-specific start dates.
• Attached directly to Rainmaker's radar-science group with a named mentor.
• Possible consideration for future full-time roles, without any promise or expectation of conversion.
• Publication may be supported when it does not compromise Rainmaker intellectual property or operational know-how.

Compensation and Benefits

• $8,000 per month

Benefits:

• Full health coverage (medical, dental, and vision insurance)
• Lunch provided when working in-office and a fully stocked kitchenette
• Free EV charging at the HQ

Supporting the Rainmakers behind the mission

Making earth more habitable is ambitious work and we want the people doing it to feel supported:

• A stake in what we build: Meaningful stock options and the opportunity to help shape Rainmaker as an early member of the team.
• Support for your health: Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance for you and your family.
• An investment in your future: A 401(k) with employer matching to help you build long-term savings.
• Time to recharge: Unlimited PTO for rest, exploration, and the people and pursuits that matter to you plus a generous paid holiday schedule.
• Time for a growing family: Paid parental leave for both parents to welcome a child and spend time together.
• Lunch together: Daily lunch provided at our El Segundo headquarters, giving Rainmakers a chance to share a meal and connect with teammates.
• Help making the move: Relocation assistance for eligible roles to support your transition to Rainmaker.

Rainmaker Is An Equal Opportunity Employer

Employment decisions are made without regard to any characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local law.

Rainmaker provides reasonable accommodations to qualified individuals with disabilities and for other protected reasons as required by law. If you need accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, contact hiring@makerain.com. Requests for accommodation will be handled confidentially to the extent reasonably possible.

Data Privacy

California applicants can review our California Applicant Privacy Notice. The notice explains the personal information we collect, how we use it, how long we retain it, and the privacy rights that may be available.

E-Verify

Rainmaker participates in E-Verify for U.S. Employees. To learn more, including your rights and responsibilities, please visit E-verify.gov.