Research Software Engineer - Novel Access Patterns for Petabyte-Scale Climate and Weather Datasets
ECMWF - European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Bonn, Germany

Job reference: VN25-037
Salary and Grade: Grade A2 EUR 89,168.64 (Germany) NET annual basic salary + other benefits
Deadline for applications: 03/08/2025
Department: Forecasts and Services
Contract type: STF-PL
Contract Duration: 3 years up to 30 September 2028, with possibility of extension

The role

Help shape the way that climate and weather data is used in the future!

The way we use computers is evolving fast - and so is the way we handle data. Whether it's training powerful AI models or zooming in on climate patterns in specific regions, modern science demands quick, flexible, and smart access to massive amounts of data.

At ECMWF, we hold one of the world’s largest collections of weather and climate data, from freshly produced forecasts through to decades worth of historical archives. These data live across a mix of supercomputers, cloud storage and tape-backed long-term archive. Typically, we store 2D slices of our atmosphere (think of the skins of an onion). But scientists and developers should not be burdened with concerns where this data lives or how it is stored – so we build systems to make this data available according to descriptive scientific metadata. This is nowhere more true than for climate-related datasets of the Copernicus programme, which have an audience far outside that for typical weather forecasting data.

That’s where you come in!

We’ve built a new service called Polytope, which lets users request just the parts of datasets which they need – not just finding specific 2D slices, but accessing smaller, arbitrary regions, and accessing slices across different axes, such as time series. These capabilities have the potential to revolutionise the way meteorological data is accessed and used. The implementation includes a library, called GribJump, which provides the low-level accesses to our stored data. In-situ, able to pick a few bytes out of massive Gigabyte arrays. Even if that data is compressed.

We’re looking for a Research Software Engineer (A2) to take the capabilities of Polytope and GribJump to the next level. You’ll extend GribJump to work for more use cases and more types of data. You’ll also help plug it into our major data systems including the MARS archive and the Copernicus Climate Data Store (CDS). You will be applying GribJump to the very popular and impactful dataset ERA5 and later to ERA6, finalising and building on the work carried out in the ClimEmpower project.

You’ll be part of the Data Management Services Team, where we handle all things data – from real-time observations coming in, to model output, to long-term archival and dissemination to clients. We design specialist high-throughput software and services to make sure weather, and climate, gets where it needs to go, with specific focus on the use of semantically meaningful metadata, efficient routing and novel tech to handle the ever-growing scale of the field.

If you love writing software, solving complex challenges, and contributing to science that matters, this could be the right position and a unique opportunity for you!

Your responsibilities

• Develop GribJump and associated software and systems to handle arbitrary data accesses to ECMWF’s underlying data systems and archives;
• Develop integrations between ECMWF’s internal data systems and the Climate Data Store;
• Work with the operational teams to build and support operational services, connecting data to users;
• Represent ECMWF at external and international meetings and scientific conferences to present these novel data systems.

About ECMWF

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a world leader in Numerical Weather Predictions providing high-quality data for weather forecasts and environmental monitoring. As an intergovernmental organisation we collaborate internationally to serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions, data and training activities that are critical to contribute to safe and thriving societies.

The success of our activities depends on the funding and partnerships of our 35 Member and Co-operating States who provide the support and direction of our work. Our talented staff together with the international scientific community, and our powerful supercomputing capabilities, are the core of a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions. We also hold one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world.

Our mission: Deliver global numerical weather predictions focusing on the medium-range and monitoring of the Earth system to and with our Member States.

Our vision: World-leading monitoring and predictions of the Earth System enabled by cutting-edge physical, computational and data science, resulting from a close collaboration between ECMWF and the members of the European Meteorological Infrastructure, will contribute to a safe and thriving society.

In addition, ECMWF has established a strong partnership with the European Union and has been entrusted with the implementation and operation of the Destination Earth initiative and the Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the Copernicus Programme, as well as being a contributor to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. Other areas of work include High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools that enable ECMWF to extend provision of data and products covering weather, climate, air quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

ECMWF is a multi-site organisation, with its headquarters in Reading, UK, a data centre in Bologna, Italy, and a large presence in Bonn, Germany as a central location for our EU-related activities. ECMWF is internationally recognised as the voice of expertise in numerical weather predictions for forecasts and climate science.

See www.ecmwf.int  for more info about what we do. 

About the Copernicus Programme

Copernicus is the earth observation component of the European Union (EU) space programme. Based on the exploitation of spaced based and in situ (earth-based) observations and scientific models, Copernicus provides information services for land, marine, atmospheric and climate monitoring, as well as emergency management and security. These services, and their free, open and quality assured data and tools, support a range of environmental and security applications across sectors and policy domains. For details, see www.copernicus.eu. The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) service provides authoritative information about the past, present and future climate, as well as tools to enable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies by policy makers and businesses. For details, see https://climate.copernicus.eu.

What we are looking for

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive and constructive approach;
• Flexibility, with the ability to adapt to changing priorities and user needs;
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills are vital, to communicate with a wide range of technically skilled colleagues, including remote teams, and to non-technical staff;
• Dedication and enthusiasm to work in a team and across teams;
• Highly organised with the capacity to work on a diverse range of tasks.

Education

• An advanced university degree (EQ7 level or above) or equivalent experience in computer science or engineering, computational science, physics or natural sciences, mathematics, or a related discipline.

Knowledge, Skills & Experience

• Demonstrated experience developing large scale, object-oriented software;
• Experience in Object-Oriented Analysis and Design;
• Experience with development in C++ is required, and interfacing C++ libraries with other programming languages and paradigms is an advantage;

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