Postdoctoral Researcher (f_m_x) – Flood Risk and Adaptation under Climate Change

Deutsches Helmholtz GeoForschungs-Zentrum

GFZ is Germany's national centre for solid Earth research. We advance the understanding of dynamic processes to address global challenges, from mitigating the impacts of natural hazards and sustaining our habitat amid global change to responsibly managing georesources. We are part of the Helmholtz Association, the largest German scientific organisation. With around 1,200 employees as well as ca. 500 guest researchers, we contribute to the Helmholtz Research Field Earth and Environment, aligning cutting-edge research with societal relevance and international collaboration. Our work integrates multidisciplinary studies across Earth's system components, leveraging advanced technologies and infrastructure to research solutions and to transfer our knowledge to society. We are doing this in line with our vision: “Taking the pulse of our Earth to safeguard a habitable planet”.

For section 4.4 Hydrology (department “Geosystems”), we are looking for a:

Postdoctoral Researcher (f_m_x) – Flood Risk and Adaptation under Climate Change
Reference Number 11403

This position is part of the project “KAHR 2.0: Wissenschaftliche Begleitung der Wiederaufbauprozesse nach der Flutkatastrophe in Rheinland-Pfalz und Nordrhein-Westfalen: Impulse für Resilienz und Klimaanpassung“. The position is responsible for developing and providing locally tailored flood projections under climate change and plays a key role in evaluating flood safety targets and risk-reduction measures.

We are looking for a candidate to run the GFZ model chain RFM (Regional Flood Model) for catchments in Germany. This includes implementing and validating specific components (the weather generator nsRWG and the hydraulic model RIM2D) and running the entire model chain for current and future climate. In addition, the successful candidate uses the model chain to develop stress tests, assess the effectiveness of specific risk-reduction measures, develop maps of compound flooding, and provide climate factors to regional stakeholders.

Your responsibilities:

• Implement and validate the non-stationary weather generator nsRWG for the project region
• Apply and validate the GFZ flood model chain RFM (mHM, RIM2D, FLEMO) to the project catchments for current and future climate
• Integrate selected flood adaptation measures in RFM
• Develop climate factors for extreme rainfall and flooding
• Develop extreme flood scenarios for stress testing, beyond the 200-year flood
• Communicate and discuss results with stakeholders and provide the findings to regional water management and disaster management
• Interpret, publish and present findings in peer-reviewed journals and workshops

About You:

Essential Qualifications:

• A Master`s degree (or equivalent) and a PhD in Civil or Environmental Engineering, Hydrology, Geosciences, Physics or Mathematics
• Knowledge of hydrological and meteorological processes and flood risk concepts
• Experience in statistics, particularly extreme value statistics, and stochastic simulation
• Knowledge in using stochastic weather generators
• Experience with climate data (GCM output, etc.) and large data sets
• Experience in hydrological and hydrodynamic simulation
• Very good programming skills
• Very good communication and interpersonal skills
• Experience in writing scientific publications
• Good command of English

Desirable Qualifications:

• Knowledge of the GFZ flood risk model RFM is an asset
• Knowledge of the German language is an asset

What we offer:

• Ambitious and varied tasks in a dynamic and international research environment
• State-of-the-art equipment
• Public service benefits
• Extensive training opportunities
• Professional career advice offered by our in-house Career-Centre
• Flexible working hours and conditions
• Support with finding a good work-life balance offered by benefit@work
• Institute day-care centre on site
• Working at the Albert Einstein Science Park on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam
• Workplace within walking distance of Potsdam main train station, or just a short ride on the shuttle bus

Start date: 1st October 2026
Fixed-term: 16 months with option for extension
Salary: The position is classed as salary group 13 according to “TVöD Bund ”. The salary group is determined on the basis of the Collective Wage Agreement and the respective personal qualifications.
Working hours: Full-time (currently 39 h/week); The position is generally suitable for part-time work.
Place of work: Potsdam

Apply

Have we piqued your interest?
If so, we look forward to receiving your application by 31st July 2026. Please use our online application form only.

Required documents:

• CV (including scientific publication list)
• Cover letter on research interests and motivation
• Names and contact information of two referees
• Transcripts and certificates for your master’s and PhD degree; if not yet available, a confirmation from your institution on completed degree by the application deadline

Important Technical Note: Currently, email addresses associated with domains such as @hotmail.com, @outlook.com, or @live.de may experience occasional delays or restrictions in receiving messages. To ensure smooth communication during the application process, we recommend using an alternative email address and providing an additional contact method (e.g., a phone number).

The GFZ actively promotes diversity and explicitly welcomes applications from all qualified individuals, regardless of ethnic and social origin, nationality, gender, sexual orientation and identity, religion/belief, age and physical characteristics. We also promote an inclusive working environment in which everyone can fully develop their own talents. Anyone who has been recognised as severely disabled will be given preferential consideration in the event of equal suitability and qualification in accordance with the provisions of the German Social Code IX. If you have any further queries regarding gender equality, please do not hesitate to contact our Equal Opportunities Officer.

“Diversity in perspectives” is one of GFZ's core values. As an integral part of supporting diversity at our centre, we actively promote women in science and in leadership positions. We, among others, do this through our gender equality plan and the cascade model measures, which we actively implement to enable sustainable equal opportunities in academic career paths. The GFZ thus committedly strives for gender equality in science, including in leadership positions, and strongly encourages women to apply.

Data protection information for applicants

In case of any further queries regarding the field of activity, please contact Prof. Dr. Bruno Merz via email. If you have any general questions about the application process, please contact our recruiting team at our phone number +49 (0) 331-6264-28787.

www.gfz.de