Research Software Engineer - Scientific Data Encoding and Decoding

Your role

the company is recruiting a motivated Research Software Engineer (A2) to contribute to the development, maintenance and evolution of our core data encoding and decoding capabilities. You will be part of a dynamic team of scientific software engineers who contribute to key activities at the company.

At the company, you will join a passionate community working to bring novel technology and science to the cutting edge of numerical weather prediction. In this role, you will focus on software, algorithms and workflows for handling meteorological, climate and geoscientific data formats. There will be a strong emphasis on the WMO formats GRIB and BUFR, as well as other widely used scientific formats such as NetCDF.

This work will include leading the development of key the company libraries and tools, notably the open‑source package ec Codes, and contributing to software packages that handle meteorological data. You will help ensure that the company and its Member and Co‑operating States continue to benefit from robust, efficient and sustainable software for handling operational and research data across a range of meteorological and environmental workflows.

You will contribute to both the reliability of production‑quality software and the longer‑term evolution of the company’s data‑handling capabilities, helping to meet the needs of internal users, external partners, and the wider meteorological community. You will work closely with colleagues across software engineering, data governance and scientific development teams, and also with technical representatives of other organisations such as our Member States’ meteorological services.

The role sits in the Foundational Software Services team in the Development Section in the Forecasts and Services Department. The team is responsible for fundamental software packages developed at the company that handle data encoding, decoding, processing, and visualisation. These open‑source packages are available both within and outside the company and provide the foundation for numerous research and production pipelines. They also provide core functionality for the new ‘earthkit’ software stack, much of which is also developed within this team.

Earthkit modernises and harmonises data handling, enabling efficient data access, analysis, and visualisation, and directly supporting many workflows, including the company’s machine learning developments. The team is additionally responsible for workflow software and the CI/CD systems used throughout the company’s software development lifecycle.

• Develop, maintain and enhance the company software libraries and tools for encoding and decoding meteorological and environmental data.
• Support and improve workflows involving relevant data formats with attention to correctness, performance and usability.
• Work with scientists, analysts and software developers from the company and its Member States to understand requirements and translate them into robust technical solutions.
• Use and contribute to software engineering best practices, including version control, code review, automated testing, continuous integration and release processes.
• Prepare technical documentation and guidance for users and developers.
• Investigate and resolve relevant issues reported by users and collaborators.
• Where relevant, contribute to community engagement, user support and collaboration with external partners and standards bodies.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (the company) is a world leader in Numerical Weather Predictions providing high‑quality data for weather forecasts and environmental monitoring. As an intergovernmental organisation we collaborate internationally to serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions, data and training activities that are critical to contribute to safe and thriving societies.

The success of our activities depends on the funding and partnerships of our 35 Member and Co‑operating States who provide the support and direction of our work. Our talented staff together with the international scientific community, and our powerful…