PostDoctoral Researcher for climate services - Climate predictions (R2)

Reference: 351_26_ES_CES_R2

Job title: PostDoctoral Researcher for climate services - Climate predictions (R2)

About BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

Look at the BSC experience: BSC-CNS YouTube Channel Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!

We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.

If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.

Context And Mission

The aim of the Earth System Services Group (ESS) within the Earth Sciences Department is to research the impact of weather, atmospheric chemistry and climate upon socio-economic sectors such as renewable energy, agriculture, water resources, urban development and climate risk management and demonstrate the ongoing value of earth system services to society and the economy.

We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team and contribute to the development of next-generation climate services, with a primary focus on renewable energy while also supporting applications in agriculture and water management.

The successful candidate will play a key role in the flagship Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S2_412b) contract led by BSC, one of Europe's leading initiatives for the development and delivery of operational climate services. In addition, they will contribute to other European and national research projects spanning sub-seasonal, seasonal, and decadal timescales. The research will involve working with state-of-the-art climate prediction systems to develop climate indicators and sector-specific information products at both global and regional scales, supporting evidence-based decision-making across multiple socio-economic sectors.

The position is closely aligned with the World Meteorological Organisation's Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), contributing to the advancement of climate predictions into actionable information that supports climate adaptation and resilience. The successful candidate will collaborate with leading international scientists and stakeholders across Europe, participating in the development of innovative climate science and operational climate services with real-world impact.

This position offers an outstanding opportunity to join one of Europe's leading and most dynamic research groups in climate services, working at the interface between frontier climate science and societal applications. The successful candidate will benefit from expert mentoring, advanced training, an international and multidisciplinary research environment, and the wide range of professional development opportunities and staff benefits offered by BSC-CNS.

We welcome applications from highly motivated researchers with a strong background in climate science, experience in climate prediction or climate services, and a keen interest in translating scientific advances into operational solutions that benefit society.

Key Duties

• Perform user-oriented research. Post-processing of climate predictions for the development of climate services' products.

• Contribute to the development of automated workflows that include data loading, post-processing, evaluation, visualisation and saving, aligned with coding standards and testing practices, and deployable on HPC systems

• Disseminate the results in peer-reviewed scientific papers and international conferences

• Teamwork: Interaction with scientists in the group and the department to favour synergies

• Participate in projects proposal preparation

• Actively participate in the management of work packages in EU projects (participate in teleconferences workshops, meetings and writing deliverables)

• Active involvement in the engagement with users within the climate services

Requirements

• Education

  • Degree in Physics, Enviromental Sciences, Mathematics (or similar)
  • PhD in atmospheric sciences, applied statistics or related field

• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Experience handling, analysing and validating large climate model datasets
  • Experience with climatic statistical analyses
  • Experience working with sub-seasonal, seasonal or decadal climate predictions.
  • Scientific programming in a suitable language (e.g. R, Python) and familiarity with working in a UNIX environment.
  • Written and verbal communication skills in English, especially for scientific publications.
  • Ability to work in a professional environment within a multidisciplinary and international team

• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Experience working with climate information to support the energy sector (e.g. climate indicators for renewable energy production).
  • Candidates with research expertise in all aspects of climate science (climate dynamics, climate diagnostics, climate modelling), climate impacts on society (atmospheric environment, biodiversity, economy and finance, energy, health, infrastructure, marine environment, water resources, etc.) or climate risk are welcome to apply. Candidates with experience in energy/agriculture/water management companies and consultancy companies will be also welcome
  • Knowledge on the following topics: statistical downscaling, multi-model combination techniques, bias adjustments techniques or tropical/extratropical teleconnections will be positively evaluated.

• Competences

  • Problem-solving, pro-active, result-oriented work attitude
  • Capability to work in an international team
  • Organizational capacity for dealing with parallel tasks
  • Good communication skills

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Earth Sciences Department

• We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures

• Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration

• Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement

• Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona

• Starting date: ASAP

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:

• A full CV in English including contact details

• A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English, clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.

Development of the recruitment process

The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:

• Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points
• Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.

The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.

In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.

The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.

At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es. For more information, please follow this link.

Deadline

The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.

OTM-R principles for selection processes

BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc. BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law. For more information follow this link