Summer Fellowship Program

 

Job Title: Summer Fellow

Location: San Diego, California

Job Type: 3 months full-time, in-person

 

About Us

Evolved Energy Research (EER) was founded to address key energy sector questions accelerated by policy goals and new technology development: What are the costs and challenges to transform the energy system to meet policy driven carbon-reduction goals? What does a rational infrastructure investment strategy look like given uncertain policy targets and technology development? Where are the business opportunities and what impact will energy system change have on people’s lives? Answering these and other related questions requires a fundamentally new approach to examining our energy systems. Our clients include consulting companies, government and regulating bodies, large technology and manufacturing companies, utilities, and NGOs. We help organizations understand the near-term business and policy implications that stem from a rapidly changing energy-economy. Through training and support on software developed in-house and through direct consulting engagements, we help our clients drive change. 

 

Program Description

EER is seeking recent and upcoming graduates from bachelor’s and master’s degree programs to join us as summer fellows from May to August 2025. Summer fellows will work closely with EER partners to support client engagements while also performing an independent research project. Partners will provide extensive hands-on training to help fellows understand our modeling tools and make meaningful contributions to ongoing consulting projects.

 

Key Responsibilities

Fellows' primary responsibility will be to complete an independent research project the support ongoing analysis priorities at EER. Fellows will also have the opportunity to participate in client projects as their time and interest allows. 

 

The research project will be a primarily self-directed effort, with fellows expected to scope and execute the work. Fellows will be assigned a partner-level "advisor" to support their research project, and will periodically present interim results to the partner team for feedback and guidance.

 

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree + 2 years' work experience OR master's degree (master's degree candidates are encouraged to apply)

• Work experience / academic background does not need to be directly energy-related

• Comfort engaging with clients over email and video call

• Ability to operate in an unstructured environment with little oversight

• Passionate about climate solutions

• Early-career, open minded, here to learn

 

Additional Qualifications

Experience with Python, GIS, or Tableau would be especially valuable.

 

Logistics

Fellows are expected to have the equipment necessary to complete research projects.

 

Salary

Fellows will earn a stipend of $6,000 per month for full-time work. Summer fellows are not regular employees of EER and do not receive additional benefits.​​

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Research Proposal Instructions

A key element of the fellowship program is an independent research project. We've provided five possible topics for research projects, detailed below, which relate directly to ongoing work at EER. We are also open to projects on other topics, provided they align with our research priorities. Please include in your application a research proposal on one of the topics below. Proposals should be no longer than 500 words. If you'd prefer to research a different topic, please email a short description (no more than a paragraph) to lindsey.walter@evolved.energy to receive approval for the topic before writing your proposal. You can review a sample proposal here. You can view previous Summer Fellows' projects here.

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Research Project Topics

The following projects relate directly to on-going research at EER. Research proposals should reflect one of these topics. Topics not on the list below may be considered if we receive exceptional proposals and can identify an EER mentor to support the fellow in developing the ‘deliverable.’ If you would like to propose a different topic, email a short description in advance to learn whether there is a fit.

 

1.  Clean Energy Supply Chain Deep Dive

In order to enhance our understanding of regional competitiveness in the clean technology value chain, we’d support primary research into a single technology of interest. Examples could include green ammonia, thermal energy storage, and solid-state vehicle batteries. Fellows would be expected to detail opportunities for a region of interest (U.S., EU as a whole, or individual European counties) across the value chain of deployment for these nascent technologies.

 

2. Cloud Implementation

This opportunity involves working directly with the Evolved team to help build out the end-to-end software architecture necessary for running our core modeling platforms seamlessly in the cloud. We will be focusing on key areas such as infrastructure provisioning, containerization and orchestration, data ingestion and storage, as well as continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD). A computer science background or relevant experience would be necessary to support this research proposal.

 

3. Commercial Building Adoption

Develop a commercial building decarbonization tool, that optimizes the selection of energy equipment and building upgrades to facilitate decarbonization at the individual facility level. Would be a strategy-level screening tool that could be applied to portfolios of commercial buildings to determine pathways for decarbonization.

 

5. Data Center Rate Design

Perform primary research to determine the current state of the industry in terms of data center rate design, demand-response programs, load forecasting procedures, local and state-level tax credits and incentives, behind-the-meter regulatory structures, etc.  The intent of this report is to allow for an understanding of industry practice (and best-practice) for bringing in and accommodating new data center loads.

 

6. Propose your own research project

If you think you have a great idea for a summer project that is not on this list but that relates to the research being done at EER, feel free to propose something new. We also invite you to send an email to gauge interest in a particular topic before submitting an application.

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