Job Description

The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) seeks to fill a full-time Research Scientist position designed to conduct collaborative research with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) located at the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) in Boulder, CO. The individual in this position will work in the NOAA/OAR/GSL Earth Prediction Advancement Division (EPAD) Physics Branch.

Position Summary:

The individual in this position will lead the development of next-generation ensemble (or probabilistic) numerical weather prediction systems. They will serve as a scientific lead to inform how these systems are designed, how they can be leveraged to provide effective decision-support guidance to end users, and priorities for future developments. Major duties will include implementing and refining existing ensemble generation and evaluation methods; developing novel methods for generating and evaluating the outputs of ensemble numerical weather prediction forecasts; and designing, conducting, and evaluating the outputs of hypothesis-driven experiments to test innovations for improving probabilistic forecast skill and spread. The person in this role is expected to provide leadership in the Physics branch for the development of high-resolution, regional and global, ensemble weather prediction systems that are skillful, reliable, physically realistic, and useful to a wide range of stakeholders. This position will report to the CIRA Associate Director.

Full Consideration Date:

Monday, August 17, 2026, 11:59pm (MT).

Essential Job Duties:

• Serve as a scientific lead for high-resolution (convective-allowing) ensemble weather prediction system development to inform the design of future operational ensemble weather prediction and decision-support systems, including leading the formulation, execution, and tracking of priorities for ensemble prediction, verification, and visualization.
• Lead the implementation and refinement of current-generation ensemble prediction methods within prototype high-resolution ensemble weather prediction systems.
• Contribute to the development of novel high-resolution ensemble weather prediction methods, including but not limited to mixed physics-based and data-driven ensembles.
• Design, conduct, and evaluate hypothesis-driven experiments to test innovations for improving probabilistic skill and generating appropriate dispersion within prototype high-resolution ensemble weather prediction systems.
• Lead the verification of high-resolution ensemble weather prediction systems using state-of-the-art verification methods and potentially developing novel verification methods.
• Prepare briefing materials and presentations for branch management, internal meetings, conferences, and workshops, and regularly publish scientific content.

Conditions of Employment:

• This position allows for a hybrid working modality that, with satisfactory performance, allows for up to 2 days per week of telework.
• This full-time position requires a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI), tier 1 federal background check and a NOAA Common Access Card (CAC) ID badge for systems access. Therefore, only US citizens and lawful permanent residents with a physical USCIS "Green Card" are eligible.

Supervision:

The individual in this position will supervise 1-3 employees.

Required Qualifications:

NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all required qualifications when describing your work experience. A resume that fails to specifically address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered by the search committee.

• Ph.D. in Atmospheric Science or related field, and
• At least seven (7) years of experience in developing, executing, and/or verifying and evaluating the forecasts from numerical weather prediction systems.
• At least three years of experience in Fortran and/or C++, Python, high-performance computing, and Linux computing environments.
• At least three years of experience formulating and acting upon (and/or directing others in acting upon) scientific priorities as it relates to numerical weather prediction.
• Experience communicating scientific results, such as through conference presentations, seminars, technical reports, and/or publications.
• This position requires a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI), tier 1 federal background check and a NOAA Common Access Card (CAC) ID badge for systems access. Therefore, only US citizens and lawful permanent residents with a physical USCIS "Green Card" are eligible.

Preferred Qualifications:

NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all applicable preferred qualifications when describing your work experience. A resume that fails to specifically address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered after review by the search committee.

• Knowledge of state-of-the-art ensemble weather prediction systems and their strengths and weaknesses as it relates to physical consistency and balancing probabilistic skill with appropriate forecast dispersion.
• Knowledge of state-of-the-art methods for verifying ensemble/probabilistic weather prediction forecasts, including community and/or proprietary verification software containing these capabilities.
• Knowledge of state-of-the-art regional (particularly thunderstorm-resolving) and/or global numerical weather prediction models.
• Familiarity with data-driven (i.e., artificial-intelligence-based) weather prediction models, preferably those trained to provide probabilistic forecasts.
• Experience using and contributing to community modeling systems.
• Experience with NOAA's Unified Forecast System (UFS), the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, and/or the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS).

Application Instructions:

Applications must be submitted via online portal. We will not accept materials sent via email or other mode. NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all required qualifications and applicable preferred qualifications when describing your work experience. A resume that fails to address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered after review by the search committee. Likewise, an online application with a generic cover letter or missing a cover letter may not be further considered after review by the search committee. References will be requested for finalists and will not be contacted without prior notification of candidates.

Salary Range
$115,000 - $125,000 commensurate with experience and qualifications.

Required Application Documents

To apply, please upload the following applicant documents. Ensure your materials fully address the required and preferred job qualifications of the position. Please note, applicants may redact information from their application materials that identifies their age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.
Cover Letter, Resume/CV
Employee Benefits

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