Scientist for development of climate model diagnostics (f/m/d)

Organisation/Company: Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung

Research Field: Environmental science

Researcher Profile: Recognised Researcher (R2), Established Researcher (R3)

Country: Germany

Application Deadline: 29 Apr 2025 - 04:04 (UTC)

Type of Contract: To be defined

Job Status: Other

Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme

Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

Area of research:

Scientific / postdoctoral posts

Job description: Scientist for development of climate model diagnostics (f/m/d)

Background: The Climate Dynamics section of the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in Bremerhaven, Germany, is looking for a skilled and motivated Scientist with expertise in Python programming and a solid background in oceanic, atmospheric or climate dynamics. This role offers an exciting opportunity to contribute to cutting-edge climate modeling efforts by developing advanced diagnostics for high-resolution climate simulations. You will work on projects EERIE and Destination Earth. You will play a crucial part in the development and application of a data analysis framework tailored for novel kilometer-scale climate simulations.

Your Tasks

• Developing and implementing new diagnostics and evaluation metrics for high-resolution ocean and climate models
• Analyzing large volumes of geophysical model data to improve understanding of oceanic and atmospheric processes
• Ensuring scalability and portability of analytics workflows for petabyte-scale datasets on EU Tier-1 HPC systems
• Collaborating with climate modelers, computer scientists, and software engineers across Europe to enhance Digital Twins of the climate system

Your Profile

• A Master’s degree with at least two years of experience, or a PhD in a relevant field such as oceanography, meteorology, climate science, physics, computer science, data science, or applied mathematics
• Strong Python programming skills, particularly in data analysis and scientific computing
• Experience with additional languages (e.g., Julia, R, or MATLAB) is beneficial
• Hands-on experience with geophysical model data, particularly high-resolution oceanic or atmospheric simulations
• Familiarity with Python’s data analytics ecosystem (e.g., Dask, Pandas, Xarray, Jupyter) and best practices in software development (e.g., version control with Git, writing tests, and documentation)
• Very good English knowledge (approximately equivalent to CEFR levels C1)

Preferred Qualifications and Skills

• Experience working with HPC systems and parallel computing frameworks (e.g., Dask)
• Proficiency in working with geophysical data formats (e.g., netCDF, GRIB, Zarr)
• Knowledge of containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Singularity/Apptainer)
• Familiarity with data processing on heterogeneous architectures (CPU/GPU)
• Background in climate modeling and numerical simulations

Further Information

The AWI is characterized by:

• our scientific success - excellent research
• collaboration and cooperation - intra-institute, national and international, interdisciplinary
• opportunities to develop – on the job and towards other positions
• an international environment – everyday contact with people from all over the world
• flexible working hours and the possibility of mobile working up to 50% of regular working hours
• health promotion and company fitness with Hansefit and Wellhub
• support services and a culture of reconciling work and family

AWI values diversity and actively promotes gender parity, as well as an open, inclusive environment that provides equal opportunities. We are convinced that diverse teams and a variety of perspectives enrich our work and our daily collaboration. In a continuous process of learning and reflection, we aim to ensure that all our employees can be themselves and feel a sense of belonging. We welcome applications from qualified people regardless of binary and non-binary genders, race and nationality, ethnic and social background, religion, age, physical abilities, neurodivergence, sexual orientation, and other identities. Applicants with disabilities will be given preference when equal qualifications are present.

AWI fosters work-family compatibility in various ways and has received several awards as a result of this commitment. And as a new international member of our team, you can be sure that we will help you settle in. Our Family Office and International Office will be glad to support you, even before you start at AWI.

This research center is part of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers. With more than 42,000 employees and an annual budget of over € 5 billion, the Helmholtz Association is Germany's largest scientific organisation.