Analyst/Senior Analyst

Develop and maintain the observation handling within the Integrated Forecasting System (IFS)

Interviews for this post are expected to take place in Reading, Berkshire on 31 July 2013.

Reference no.: VN13-12

Grade: A2/A3, according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations

Location: ECMWF Headquarters at Shinfield Park, near Reading, Berkshire, United Kingdom.

Environment:

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an international organisation supported by 34 States*.

ECMWF’s principal objectives are the development of numerical methods for medium-range, monthly and seasonal weather forecasting; the preparation, on a regular basis, of these weather forecasts for distribution to the meteorological services of the Member States; scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts; and the collection and storage of appropriate meteorological data. Satellite and in situ observations provide the information for up-to-date global analyses and reanalyses of the atmosphere, ocean and surface. For details see:

ECMWF’s main computing facility includes supercomputers, archiving and data handling systems. ECMWF is connected to the meteorological telecommunication system and to its Member States via efficient networks linking 44 countries. A detailed description is available at:

This vacancy is for a scientific programmer working in the Satellite Data Section of the Research Department.

The processing of observations is a core part of the operational weather forecasting system. The Integrated Forecasting System (IFS) runs in a highly parallel environment on ECMWF's state-of-the-art supercomputer and it needs to be efficient and reliable. It takes in 300 million observations every day from around the world and from dozens of satellites and it is a challenge to manage this huge volume of observations. The system also needs to be maintainable and easy to use when adding new types of observations.

The staff member will have responsibility for the observation processing chain and will support the scientific work of the satellite, data assimilation and reanalysis teams. He or she will make sure that it works reliably on a day-to-day basis and will regularly help to update it with scientific enhancements to improve the quality of forecasts. The staff member will be at the interface between the scientific and technical aspects of this work. 

The main duties of the staff member will be to:

• Have prime responsibility for the technical side of observation handling in the IFS including systems such as ODB, blacklisting, quality control, thinning
• Support the processing of observations in the operational system, for example rapidly solving problems affecting the regular production of forecasts
• Be part of a small team producing new releases of IFS several times a year
• Support scientists in the research department at ECMWF and liaise with other departments and with organisations in the Member States on developments related to observations.
• Be a main contributor to observation-related aspects of the design and development of the future numerical weather prediction system, including the new continuous observation processing environment (COPE) and the object-oriented prediction system (OOPS) projects.

Qualifications:

A university degree and postgraduate expertise in meteorology, computer science or a related subject are required, together with extensive experience in scientific computing particularly on large high-performance computers with massively parallel environments. The IFS uses Fortran95, C, C++, Python, Perl and korn-shell scripting languages in a UNIX computing environment parallelised with MPI and OpenMP and substantial experience of these is desirable. Experience of working with scientists and technical specialists in an operational environment is also desirable. Previous experience in weather forecasting or satellite data processing would be preferable. Good interpersonal skills are required.

The working languages of ECMWF are English, French and German. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English. A good knowledge of one of the other working languages would be desirable. Interviews will be conducted in English.

ECMWF has an Equal Opportunities Policy Statement and applications from all suitably qualified candidates are welcome.

Staff are normally recruited from among the nationals of the Member States and Co-operating States.

Remuneration:

The successful candidate will normally be recruited at the A2 grade and the annual basic salary will be £52,299 net of tax.

Recruitment at the A3 level may be considered for candidates with demonstrated evidence of several years’ of experience at a senior level. The annual basic salary for the A3 grade will be£64,532 net of tax.

Full details of salary scales and allowances are available on the ECMWF website at:

www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/conditions_en.html 

Starting date:

As soon as possible.

Length of contract:

Maximum of four years for initial contract, with the possibility of renewal.

Applications:

An application form in Word format can be downloaded from here (162kb) and completed on-line. If you download, you may (if near to the closing date) e-mail the completed form onlyback to ECMWF at jobs@ecmwf.int. Please note, however, that you must still send your full application form together with all the attachments to ECMWF by post. Under no circumstances should you e-mail your attachments.

Closing date: Completed applications for this post must reach the Personnel Section of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts not later than 23 July 2013.