Scientific Programmer

Are you passionate about tackling the urgent challenges of climate change and its effects on local weather and its extremes? Join us at ETH Zurich in our High-Resolution Weather and Climate Modeling group, where we strive to understand how climate change reshapes local weather supporting a sustainable and prosperous future.

Our research is leveraging the state-of-the-art high-resolution weather and climate model ICON deployed on modern supercomputers to study how meso- and local-scale processes affect today's and tomorrow‘s weather and climate. This is a major scientific and technical challenge including efficiently running large-scale simulations on HPC architectures, managing the pre-and post-processing as well as the analysis of vast data volumes, supporting the calibration and development of ICON, and assisting larger software development projects. Collaboration is central to our success, and we work closely within a dynamic and supportive team environment and engage with national and international partners to advance our scientific goals.

We welcome your application if you are experienced in working with high-resolution weather or climate models on modern supercomputers, handling big data volumes, and are interested in weather and climate research. You will be able to work on a variety of exciting and challenging topics, including:

• Support the use of modeling tools in the group. Set up new model versions to run on ETH‘s HPC systems. Assist with technical problems in the group, such as running, compiling, and debugging model code.
• Lead specific longer-term model development and flagship modeling projects.
• Data and workflow management and development.
• Develop and assist with implementing visualization and data analysis methods and codes.

Based on your background and interests, you will also have opportunities to engage in scientific projects, collaborate on research, and contribute to student supervision and teaching activities.

The ideal candidate should have:

• A MSc or PhD in atmospheric science, computational sciences, physics, applied mathematics, or related fields. 
• Experience with weather and climate models (e.g., regional or global models such as ICON, COSMO, WRF, or similar) and their application. 
• Proficiency in Linux environments, shell scripting, Fortran and Python programming, data analysis, and visualization.
• Excellent skills in scientific software development including subversion control.
• Ability to work independently and with high integrity, collaborate with an international research team, take initiative, and efficient time management. 
• Respectful behavior towards others and mindfulness about the well-being of colleagues.

Excellent communication skills in English (both spoken and written) are required. Employment will be according to standard regulations at ETH. With the social and leadership competencies, ETH Zurich has developed a common understanding of a shared work culture.

• Advance your career in a stimulating, supportive, and team-oriented research environment in a world-class climate science research institute that is well-connected to the national and international research community.
• Access to high-end research infrastructure such as supercomputing, model development, and storage facilities.
• ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent working conditions. You can look forward to a competitive salary, an exciting and flexible working environment, cultural diversity, and attractive offers and benefits.
• Elevate your technical skills and personal growth with a large variety of training opportunities.

Our group includes researchers from around the world and offers a collaborative and supportive environment, with English as our working language. Researchers in the group work on a wide range of topics and are exposed to each others’ work through weekly group meetings. The group is part of the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science which hosts a seminar series and maintains educational programs at the BSc and MSc levels. We are also part of the larger ICON and global high-resolution modeling community. The group is located at ETH’s central campus and the position is expected to be in-person with some flexibility in working hours and location. The position is permanent and has an anticipated start date during the first half of 2025, but the timing is negotiable.