The primary objective of the World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) Coupled Model Intercomparison Project (CMIP) is to better understand past, present, and future climate changes arising from natural, unforced variability or in response to changes in forcing in a multi-model context. CMIP provides the focal point for leading national and international entities in climate modelling and is the main resource for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment of climate projections. CMIP activities are overseen and coordinated by two subcommittees of WCRP Working Group on Coupled Modelling (WGCM): the CMIP Panel and the WGCM Infrastructure Panel (WIP).

As the CMIP initiative has evolved, each phase has included more experiments with ever more complex models and exponential growth in data volumes. This has all occurred while remaining a voluntary effort carried out and coordinated by the climate modelling community itself and those within the WCRP secretariat. To respond to this increased demand and the size and complexity of CMIP, the CMIP International Project Office (CMIP IPO) was established in March 2022, hosted by the European Space Agency at their UK site in Harwell, Oxfordshire.

An important goal of CMIP is to make the multi-model output, and additional supporting observational products, publicly available in a standardized format to allow a large and growing stakeholder community to utilise the broad CMIP database and facilitate downstream use. To support this goal the CMIP IPO is looking to recruit an experienced Technical Officer. You will report to the CMIP IPO Director, under the governance of the WIP and the CMIP Panel.

Key Tasks and Responsibilities

As part of the team, you will have the following responsibilities:

• Facilitating the connections and assisting in the support and development of the distributed infrastructure behind CMIP including model documentation, collecting and specifying community data requirements, and the development and management of tools for preparing outputs compliant with these data standards;
• Managing and maintaining Control Vocabularies, variable definitions and workflows around them;
• Making connections and reaching out to the wider climate communities;
• Responding to technical queries around protocols and structures.

Skills & Experience

You will have the following qualifications and relevant experience:

• At least five years of relevant work experience;
• A minimum of a MSc level qualification or equivalent experience;
• Experience of software engineering practices and languages such as Python, C or Fortran, Github and version control systems;
• Adept at working remotely within geographically disparate teams;
• Expertise in working in an international environment;
• Proficiency in English.

The following would also be desirable:

• Experience of project management in a software or scientific environment;
• Experience working with climate models and climate data.

The CMIP IPO office is located at the ESA European Centre for Satellite Applications Technologies (ECSAT) in Harwell with flexible home working options within the UK available.

If you think you have what it takes for this job, please send your CV together with a letter of motivation (both in English and in Word or PDF) to Leandros Foteinias, by clicking on the button “Apply for this job” quoting job UK-HP-4896. Applications will remain open until the position is filled.

An exciting and dynamic international working environment awaits you!