Senior Data Scientist

Volunteer for a startup making earth's soil healthier ?

betterSoil is a sustainable start-up and a movement that is passionately committed to the health of our earth's soil.

We are currently losing around 10 million hectares of fertile soil worldwide. That's about 14 million football pitches. However, good soils are the source of more than 90% of our food. At the same time, the world's population will grow to 10 billion people by 2050. Food will therefore become scarce, especially high-quality food, as this depends on the quality of the soil. The effects of climate change are worsening the situation of soils because droughts and extreme rainfall are becoming more severe and more frequent. Current farming methods lead to high CO2 emissions, diseased soils produce low-quality food and biodiversity is rapidly declining, as around half of biodiversity lives in the soil.

Since 2020, betterSoil has been involved at European level, e.g. with an event with the EU Parliament and prominent supporters such as Prof. Dr Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Dr Franz Fischler (Former EU Commissioner for Agriculture) and Dr Peter Johnston (European Policy Centre) in a national and international context to improve soil quality for climate resilience and climate protection as well as the promotion of biodiversity and sustainable food production. Our way of working goes far beyond soil consulting. We combine local, indigenous knowledge with the latest science and offer practice-orientated betterSoil recipes for farmers. We also offer individual consultations for companies and organisations of all kinds. In this way, we create a comprehensive awareness of soil health that helps to position oneself more sustainably and thus achieve business goals.

Role (Volunteer, unpaid): Senior Data Scientist with Python skills

Role Description: At betterSoil, we are building a digital solution, the betterSoil Farm Assistant, to support sustainable agriculture using data, satellite insights, and science-based recommendations. We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist to help us take this product to the next level.

Your Role

You will support the development and improvement of our Farm Assistant, working on data models, AI integration, and analytical logic that translates complex data into actionable insights for farmers.

What you’ll do

• Develop and improve data models and analytical frameworks for the Farm Assistant
• Work with Python and data pipelines to process and analyse agricultural and environmental data
• Apply and experiment with AI tools (e.g. Gemini, LLMs, ML models) to enhance recommendations and user value
• Translate satellite, weather, and soil data into meaningful outputs
• Collaborate with our developers, scientists, and product team
• Contribute to the technical vision and architecture of the product

What you’ll gain

• Work on a real-world climate-tech product with impact
• Shape an early-stage digital solution from the ground up
• Collaborate with an international, interdisciplinary team
• Apply your expertise to sustainability, agriculture, and climate challenges

Commitment

• Flexible, voluntary engagement
• Ideally ~10 hours per week, with flexibility depending on project phases

Who you are

• Strong experience in data science and Python programming
• Experience with AI/ML models and tools (e.g. Gemini, LLMs, or similar)
• Comfortable working with complex datasets (e.g. environmental, geospatial, or time-series data is a plus)
• Ability to translate data into practical applications
• Independent, structured, and motivated to contribute to a purpose-driven initiative

Time Commitment: Volunteer 10+ hours per week for 6+ months remotely.

If you want to make change, apply to volunteer with betterSoil!