Research Software Engineer for Workflow Management Software

About ECMWF

ECMWF is the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is an intergovernmental organization created in 1975 by a group of European nations and is today supported by 35 Member and Co-operating States, mostly in Europe. The Centre's mission is to serve and support its Member and Co-operating States and the wider community by developing and providing world-leading global numerical weather prediction. ECMWF functions as a 24/7 research and operational center with a focus on medium and long-range predictions and holds one of the largest meteorological archives in the world. The success of its activities relies primarily on the talent of its scientists, strong partnerships with its Members and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world,

Over the years, ECMWF has also developed a strong partnership with the European Union, and for the past seven years has been an entrusted entity for the implementation and operation of the Climate and the Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the EU's Copernicus component of its Space Programme, as well as a contributor to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. The collaboration does not stop there and includes other areas of work, including high performance computing and the development of digital tools that enable ECMWF to extend its provision of data and products covering weather, climate, air quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

ECMWF has recently become a multi-site organisation, with its headquarters based since its creation in Reading, UK, its new data center in Bologna, Italy, and new offices in Bonn, Germany.

It has also recently adopted a hybrid organization model which allows its staff to mix both office working and teleworking. This generous and flexible model provides our staff with considerable flexibility to spend time outside or away from their duty station and decide how they wish to manage their professional working time at ECMWF. ECMWF is an organization that values ​​the whole being and both understands and values ​​the need for flexibility in the way its staff work.

For additional details, see www.ecmwf.int.

About DestinE

ECMWF is a major partner in the implementation of the Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative, together with ESA and EUMETSAT as partners. The objective of the European Commission DestinE initiative is to deploy several highly accurate thematic digital replicas of the Earth, called Digital Twins. The Digital Twins will help monitor and predict environmental change and human impact, in order to develop and test scenarios that would support sustainable development and corresponding European policies for the Green Deal.

DestinE will thus contribute to revolutionizing the European capability to monitor and predict our changing planet, complementing existing national and European efforts such as those provided by the national meteorological services and the Copernicus Services. It will be run in several phases, of which the first, the implementation phase, covers the period end-2021 – mid-2024. Future phases are foreseen (subject to funding) that will operationalize the digital twins, scale-up system production and add applications and new twin options.

DestinE covers several demanding digital technology aspects required to develop, implement and operate the two high-priority digital twins on weather induced and geophysical extremes and on climate change adaptation. ECMWF will be responsible for the delivery of these digital twins, which will rely on complex Earth-system simulation models, data assimilation methods for fusing simulations and observations through inverse modeling and the integration of observations and models from sectors such as water and food management, renewable energies and socio-economic risk and disaster management.

These science components require advanced digital technology solutions to maximize the efficient computing and data handling on extreme-scale infrastructures, and to adapt and operate these infrastructures across different heterogeneous architectures within a federated framework. This federated framework includes the Core Platform and Data Lake developed, deployed and operated by ESA and EUMETSAT respectively.

The DestinE developments take forward the long-term investments of the ECMWF Member States in building a unique European prediction capability and will support the further advancement of member states services and Copernicus Services.

For more information on DestinE, see https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/destination-earth-destine and https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/what-we-do /environmental-services/destination-earth

Summary of the role

ECMWF has exciting opportunities for Computational Scientists and Research Software Engineers to help shape DestinE developments in collaboration with partners throughout Europe. These roles contribute to the provision of much improved prediction capabilities for environmental extremes and for deriving climate change adaptation measures, by developing supporting software components for ultra-high definition Earth system workflows applicable on advanced Exascale HPC architectures.

To manage its operational workflows, ECMWF and other organizations use ecFlow, a software package developed in-house for the purpose of advanced scheduling, dispatching and monitoring of tasks. It features a client-server architecture with the code-base written in modern C++ interfaced with a thin Python layer.

This role offers a unique opportunity to develop new functionality in ecFlow and contribute to its evolution. This will include adding multi-threading capability to its server, improving server-to-server coordination and improving its Python interface. These steps will contribute to the software's ability to work at scale, enabling the complex workflows required to support the production of the Digital Twins.

The successful candidate will join the Software Applications Team in ECMWF's Development Section in the Forecast Department that currently develop the software components which handle ECMWF time-critical operational workflows. They will strongly collaborate with other teams across ECMWF to ensure that workflows are correctly and efficiently served by the new architecture.

Whilst this position is based in Bonn, Germany, there will be strong collaboration with staff based at the ECMWF HQ in Reading, United Kingdom, so it is anticipated that visits to the HQ in Reading may be required.

Main duties and key responsibilities

• Develop, maintain and test ecFlow server.
• Participate in planning for the future of ecFlow and ECMWF's workflow management.
• Support the development, maintenance and testing of complex workflows for DestinE.
• Ensure the quality of service of the DestinE services.

Personal attributes

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive continuous improvement approach
• Initiative and ability to work collaboratively with other ECMWF teams but also able to work independently
• Dedication, passion, and enthusiasm to succeed both individually and across teams of developers
• Highly organized with the capacity to work on a diverse range of tasks to tight deadlines

Education

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

experience

• Professional experience developing object-oriented software with modern C++ is essential
• Experience in multi-threaded programming is essential
• Experience with network programming and server performance would be an advantage.
• Experience working in an international consortium delivering joint software artifacts would be an advantage

Knowledge and skills (including language)

• Knowledge of Object Oriented Analysis and Design
• Knowledge of C/C++ development and software lifecycle maintenance
• Knowledge of multi-threaded servers and network programming in C++
• Knowledge of Python is desirable, in particular interfacing with C or C++
• Demonstrated experience programming in UNIX/Linux
• Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and interviews will be conducted in English.
• Good knowledge of one of the Centre's other working languages ​​(French or German) would be an advantage.

Other information

Grade remuneration: The successful candidates will be recruited at the A2 grade, according to the scales of the Coordinated Organizations and the annual basic salary will be EUR 78.035 NET of tax . ECMWF also offers a generous benefits package, including a flexible teleworking policy. The position is assigned to the employment category STF-PS as defined in the ECMWF Staff Regulations. Full details of salary scales and allowances available on the ECMWF website at www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs, including the ECMWF Staff Regulations and the terms and conditions of employment.

Starting date: As soon as possible.

Length of contract: The contract duration is expected to be approximately two years until 31 May 2024. The DestinE Contribution Agreement is divided into phases, the first of which will last approximately two years. There is the possibility of further contract extensions in the future depending on requirements and funding availability

Location: Bonn, Germany.

As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organization model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking.

Interviews by videoconference (Via Teams) are expected to take place in the first half of July 2022.

Who can apply

Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button below.

At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment as key for our success. We are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of the countries that are part of our community, in an environment that nurtures equality and inclusion.

Applications are invited from nationals from ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States, as well as from all EU Member States.

ECMWF Member and Co-operating States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy.

Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases.