[ES_JOBS_NET] ECMWF Job for: Head of Development, Grade A5, Ref.: VN21-19 - Closing date: 10 May 2021

[ECMWF Recruitment Team]

Please share this exciting opportunity at ECMWF.
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Julie Palmer


Head of Development

1.    Position information



Vacancy No.: VN21-19

Department: Forecast

Grade: A4

Section: Development

Job Ref. No.: STF-C/21-19

Reports to: Director of Forecasts

Publication Date: 1 April 2021

Closing Date: 10 May 2021

Location: Bonn, Germany



2.    About ECMWF

ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is an intergovernmental organisation created in 1975 by a group of European nations and is today supported by 34 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 centre 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 Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies such as machine learning across its operations.



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 Copernicus Programme, as well as a contributor to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. The collaboration does not stop there and include other areas of work, including High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools. It is enabling ECMWF to now provide data and products covering weather, climate, ait 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 centre opening in 2021 in Bologna, Italy, and new offices, also opening in 2021 in Bonn, Germany.



For additional details, see www.ecmwf.int/<http://www.ecmwf.int/>.



The Development Section provides software packages and services that are critical for ECMWF’s operational forecast chain which enables ECMWF users to work efficiently with forecast and observations data. The Section's software developments are mostly available to external users and therefore benefit the wider meteorological community. The Section is responsible for both software development projects across ECMWF, as well as the evaluation and integration of external open-source software solutions within ECMWF software packages. It also manages out-sourced development activities and operates externally funded projects to explore new technologies for future use at ECMWF. The Section work closely with other sections at ECMWF to develop new systems for cloud and machine learning activities and the management of research experiments.

3.    Summary of the role

The Head of the Development Section is responsible for the management of software development activities at ECMWF. This role is pivotal in ensuring that ECMWF users worldwide can work efficiently with forecast and observational data.

Reporting to the Director of Forecasts, the successful candidate will also be part of ECMWF's Senior Management Team, and they will be responsible for co-ordinating and/or delivering strategic cross-cutting, inter-dependent projects and programmes in an operational environment, which involves close collaboration and frequent interaction with a variety of internal and external users and partner organisations. They will also contribute to the development of the long-term vision for ECMWF software development activities supporting the ECMWF Strategy 2021-2030 and, in particular, addressing the needs for improved efficiency and scalability.

The successful candidate will play an important role in linking and integrating development activities across departments distributed across multiple ECMWF locations to develop new software applications, services and other relevant activities addressing the organisation’s long-term Strategy.

The role will closely collaborate with other ECMWF sections in the Forecast, Computing, Research and Copernicus Departments. They will also represent ECMWF in international meetings in their areas of expertise.

Success in this role requires an individual who will encourage and nurture continuous innovation and improvement by leading and providing expertise to ensure development activities meet future strategic requirements.

There are three teams within the Section, each with a team leader, covering the following service areas:

Production Services: responsible for the design and development of all software and systems related to ECMWF core data production services. This includes:

  *   high-throughput specialist software that supports the operational forecast model
  *   systems for acquisition of incoming observations
  *   management of direct model output, archival of forecasts and observations
  *   generation and dissemination of products to Member States and commercial users

The Production Services Team develops MARS, FDB, ECFS and ECPDS services, and in addition develops cloud meteorological and climate data provisioning services (Data-as-a-Service) in support of ECMWF's cloud activities. A significant focus of the team is the scalability, performance, and robustness of the full operational weather forecasting pipeline to future model upgrades, with the aim of achieving exascale NWP by 2030, when it is expected that data volumes will reach 1PiB per cycle. The team actively engages in research of novel, potentially disruptive algorithms and methods to achieve these objectives. It also invests in the analysis and development of new data-access paradigms in support of novel data-centric workflows, which enable new insights into ECMWF's massive datasets.

Software Applications: responsible for the development and maintenance of software building blocks and complete applications to enable:

  *   data creation, transformation, processing, visualisation, and exploration in multiple dimensions
  *   workflow creation, scheduling, and monitoring
  *   software deployment and testing

The software is being made cloud-ready, scalable for distributed systems, and able to integrate with other packages through interfaces such as Python. It is Open Source where possible, available on platforms such as conda and PyPi, and external developers can contribute to it.

Web Services: responsible for developing and maintaining web services to allow users to access ECMWF forecast outputs as data or graphical products. These services include:

  *   Highly interactive applications: eccharts/EFAS
  *   Data portal to browse and download from the MARS catalogue
  *   API endpoints to access data and graphical products

The Web Services Team supports the development and integration of other web applications, making sure that the look and feel and the user experience stays consistent through diverse applications.

The team also has a strong interest in cloud technology, and plays an active role to ensure a smooth transition to an Open Data policy by:

  *   preparing new services to discover, access, process and visualise these data
  *   offering new services to downsize the data to download: time-series, vertical profile
  *   managing the increase of users of these services

4.    Main duties and key responsibilities

·    Leading the Development Section by providing leadership, direction, coaching and support

·    Planning, organising and managing the resources of the Section, and complementing these when appropriate by attracting funds from externally funded projects (e.g. EU funded activities)

·    Providing vision and managing the evolution and continuous improvement of ECMWF’s software applications

·    Leading the Section’s interaction with the Principal Software Strategist and contributing to IT Technical Design Authority

·    Leading software development projects and activities in close liaison with other teams in the Forecast, Research, Computing and Copernicus Departments

·    Ensuring the provision of very high quality and reliable software to Member States and other users of ECMWF forecasts and products

·    Ensuring compliance of new developments to IPR guidelines and applications of licences

·    Staying in touch with technologies used and codes developed by the Section

·    Monitoring and reporting on the progress of the work within the Section and taking appropriate action

·    Taking initiatives to ensure the success of matrix management work across multiple locations

·    Developing and maintaining strong relationships with key internal stakeholders from across all departments at ECMWF

·    Providing insights, input to reports and recommendations to the ECMWF Leadership Team and governing bodies

·    Supporting the senior leadership of the Forecast Department in the delivery of the Centre’s strategy in relation to the development of forecast production services, and contributing to future strategic plans

·    Planning and controlling spend in the capacity of budget holder, including the management of the Section’s human resources within budgetary constraints and outsourced developments

·    Representing ECMWF in committees and at other international conferences, meetings and collaborations (e.g. OpenWIS, OGC)

5.    Personal Attributes

·    Excellent communication and interpersonal skills

·    Ability to motivate and develop diverse teams, whilst creating a compelling vision

·    Ability to cope with the demands of a constantly changing and time-constrained operational environment

·    A supportive service-oriented and practical approach

·    Good technical skills, diplomacy, and tact

·    Positive attitude with a willingness to embrace change and new challenges

·    Ability to develop strong relationships and influence others

·    Flexibility and the ability to work on multiple concurrent projects efficiently and effectively

·    Ability to work in a matrix-managed environment across multiple locations

·    Excellent decision-making skills and strong influencing skills

·    Excellent ability to analyse complex, diverse, and sometimes conflicting user requirements and to deploy adequate strategic responses.

6.    Qualifications and experience required
Education

Advanced university degree (EQF Level 8) or equivalent professional experience.
Experience

Considerable experience in managing software development projects and their introduction into production.



Demonstrated experience of using emerging technologies, services, and applications.



Demonstrated experience of managing and developing diverse teams.

Strong experience of leading significant projects or activities that involve large numbers of diverse stakeholders.



Experience in managing out-sourced developments and third-party contractors and ensure successful delivery.



Proven track record of developing processes and procedures to deliver high standards of efficiency through leading change and continuous improvement programmes in a fast-paced environment.



Understanding of advanced IT infrastructure, such as high-performance computing, cloud services and large data archive systems is highly desirable.



Experience in legal aspects of software developments, like IPR rules and license will be an advantage.
Knowledge and skills (including language)

Excellent ability to analyse complex, diverse, and sometimes conflicting user requirements and to deploy adequate strategic responses.

Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and interviews will be conducted in English.

A good knowledge of one of the Centre’s other working languages (French of German) would be an advantage.

7.    Other information

The successful candidate will be recruited at the A4 grade, according to the scales of the Co‑ordinated Organisations and the annual salary will be EUR 107,790.12 net of tax. ECMWF also offers a generous benefits package. This position is assigned to the employment category STF-C as defined in the Staff Regulations.

Full details of salary scales and allowances are available on the ECMWF website at www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs, including the Centre’s Staff Regulations regarding the terms and conditions of employment.

Starting date: As soon as possible

Length of contract: Four years, with the possibility of a further contract.

Location:  The position will be based at ECMWF’s duty station in Bonn, Germany, which is currently expected to open in the second half of 2021.

Successful applicants and members of their family forming part of their households will be exempt from immigration restrictions.

8.    How to apply

Please apply by completing the online application form available at www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs.
To contact the ECMWF Recruitment Team, please email jobs at ecmwf.int.

Please refer to the ECMWF Privacy Statement.  For details of how we will handle your personal data for this purpose, see: https://www.ecmwf.int/en/privacy.

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.



Staff are usually recruited from among nationals of the following Member States and Co‑operating States:

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Hungary, Germany, Greece, 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.

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



Mrs Julie Palmer
Recruitment Officer
HR Section, Administration Department
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts
Reading, UK | Bologna, Italy
e: julie.palmer at ecmwf.int<mailto:julie.palmer at ecmwf.int> | t: +44 118 949 9161
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