Overview/ Job Responsibilities

Entarian is seeking a full-time Scientific Programmer to support the CPC International Desks in College Park, MD, with system upgrades, code migration, training, operational workflow support, and implementation of model and forecasting enhancements.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) mission is to deliver real-time products and information that predict and describe climate variations on timescales from weeks to years, thereby promoting effective management of climate risk and a climate-resilient society. ERT provides scientific support services to CPC by operationally acquiring, processing, and disseminating climate data, information, and analyses, and by conducting research and development to improve prediction techniques and understanding of climate variability and extremes.

Duties of the Scientific Programmer include, but are not limited to:

CPCI v7.0 Python Upgrade / Code Migration

• Lead and/or support the migration of CPC International Desk workflows from legacy GEMPAK-based development to Python-based development (CPCI v7.0)
• Lead and/or support regionalized NCEP GFS and GEFS postprocessing and transitioning to operations in support of the WMO Severe Weather Forecast Project (SWFP)
• Refactor, validate, and document code to ensure operational readiness, maintainability, and reproducibility.
• Coordinate testing and delivery milestones supporting planned code delivery

NMME Version 3 Upgrade Support

• Support implementation and transition activities for NMME v3 for the International Desk, including updates needed for ingest, post-processing, and product generation
• Assist with operational readiness activities

Operational Workflow Support and Reliability

• Maintain and improve operational workflows supporting International Desk production, including job scheduling, monitoring, troubleshooting, and continuity support across platforms
• Provide hands-on support for operational cron jobs and related automation on the CPC compute farm and WCOSS platform

Training and Knowledge Transfer

• Provide training support for International Desk visitors and staff on:
  • International Desk website tools and publishing workflows
  • Post-processing of model data and generation of operational products
  • Practical operational procedures (cron jobs, platform usage, troubleshooting patterns)
• Develop and maintain training materials and quick-reference guides to support repeatable onboarding and knowledge transfer

Data Support for Forecasting Studies

• Provide data handling and support for climate forecasting studies, including accessing, transforming, and organizing model and observational datasets used by the International Desk
• Support evaluation/verification workflows where needed to improve product utility and performance

Contingent and Emerging Requirements

• Carry out other contingent tasks to support mission needs, operational continuity, and evolving CPC priorities

This position supports work at NOAA's College Park, MD facility with a minimum of 2-3 days/week on site required.

The salary range for this role is $85,000 - 115,000/year.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master's degree in Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Hydrology/Hydroclimate, Computer Science, or a related discipline (or equivalent relevant experience). PhD preferred.
• Experience with cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services (e.g., S3, EC2, Lambda)
• Strong programming skills in Shell (Bash) utilities, Python and/or R for data analysis and modeling
• Experience with data manipulation, statistical analysis, and machine learning
• Ability to work with large and complex datasets, including climate and weather observation data (e.g., NetCDF, raster data)
• Understanding of data engineering concepts (data pipelines, processes, APIs)
• Knowledge of containerization and reproducible workflows (e.g., Docker, Git)
• Experience with AI/deep learning (PyTorch, TensorFlow)
• Ability to develop, validate and deploy models for forecasting or risk analysis
• Understanding of climate science and impact-based forecasting
• Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and interdisciplinary collaboration skills
• Ability to translate complex analytical results into actionable insights for policy and decision-making
• Basic knowledge of GIS tools (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS, GeoPandas, raster/terra)
• Familiarity with spatial and spatiotemporal modeling techniques
• Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident and able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to access applicable government information and systems.

Compensation
We consider several factors when extending an offer of employment, including the location, scope, and associated responsibilities of the specific position, as well as a candidate's work experience, education/training, and key skills.

Benefits
All full-time employees are eligible to participate in our flexible benefits package, which includes:

• Medical, Rx, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company-matching
• 11 Paid Federal Government Holidays
• Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Basic Life & Supplemental Life
• Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
• Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
• Employee assistance program (EAP)
• Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
• Skills Development & Certifications
• Professional Membership Reimbursement
• Employee Referral Program
• Competitive compensation plan
• Discretionary variable incentive bonuses based on factors such as individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company's performance