Research Engineer on atmospheric composition forecasts and reanalyses (RE2)

Reference: 446_26_ES_AC_RE2 Job title: Research Engineer on atmospheric composition forecasts and reanalyses (RE2)

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.

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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

We are looking for an experienced and enthusiastic research engineer to join the Atmospheric Composition (AC) group within the Earth Sciences department at the BSC-CNS. The AC group is currently composed of about 50 people among researchers, engineers and students of different nationalities. It aims at better understanding and predicting the spatio-temporal variations of atmospheric pollutants along with their effects upon air quality, weather and climate. This is addressed through the continuous development and application of numerical models over multiple scales, from weather to climate and from global to urban scales.

The AC group develops and maintains its own forecast model MONARCH, which is a coupled meteorological-chemistry model that can be run at global and regional scales to simulate gaseous chemistry and aerosols plus their feedbacks on radiation. MONARCH is also coupled to a data assimilation scheme for gases and aerosols that is used to initialize forecasts or produce reanalyses of the atmospheric composition. The AC group operates several operational forecasting systems in the framework of the World Meteorological Organization Sand and Dust Storm Advisory System (SDS-WAS, https://dust.aemet.es), the Copernicus atmospheric monitoring services (CAMS, https://atmosphere.copernicus.eu), the Spanish air quality forecasting system CALIOPE (https://caliope.bsc.es), and the International Cooperative for Aerosols Predictions (ICAP).

The successful candidate will join the Data Assimilation Forecasting and Application team of the AC group and will play a key coordinating role in the production and continuous improvement of the team's operational forecasting and reanalysis systems. The activities will be carried out mainly in the framework of the Copernicus CAMS2_40bis international project, with contributions to the CAMS2_82bis project and to the activities of the Barcelona Dust Regional Center (BDRC).

The candidate will work in a highly collaborative environment, with tight links with researchers and engineers in the AC group. The candidate will have the opportunity to follow multiple training activities, including those aimed at improving coding and data analysis, project writing abilities, or project management. All this will be implemented via the formal courses organized by the Education and Training team and Human Resources, and the participation in the regular seminars organized by the department.

Key Duties

• Manage the team's technical activities within CAMS2_40bis and its contributions to CAMS2_82bis and the BDRC, including planning, follow-up of tasks and milestones, and reporting.

• Coordinate the preparation and timely delivery of project deliverables, and represent the team in international project meetings.

• Coordinate the upgrades of the production systems: define and evaluate target model configurations, organize the e-suite experiments, and ensure successful operational deployments.

• Coordinate the production of atmospheric composition reanalyses, from planning and set-up to monitoring, validation and dissemination.

• Oversee the overall quality assurance of the forecast and reanalysis products, including routine evaluation against in-situ and satellite observations.

• Improve the organization and coordination of the researchers and engineers contributing to developments and production, promoting common workflows, documentation and best practices.

• Manage the HPC resources related to production, including allocation requests, usage planning and monitoring.

Requirements

• Education

  • A university degree (Master's) in atmospheric sciences, physics, computer science, engineering, mathematics or related disciplines. A PhD in a related field will be valued.

• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • At least 2 years of professional experience in operational atmospheric composition forecasting.
  • Demonstrated experience coordinating technical activities and the work of several contributors: planning, tracking tasks and milestones, and delivering to deadline.
  • Experience in international collaborative projects, including preparation, reporting and timely delivery of project deliverables, and representing a team in project meetings.
  • Experience working on HPC systems.
  • Working knowledge of Python and/or Fortran, shell scripting and Unix/Linux environments, and of collaborative code development with version control (e.g. Git).

• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Experience with observational data processing and model evaluation workflows (in-situ and satellite observations).
  • Experience running numerical models (e.g. atmospheric composition, air quality or weather models).
  • Knowledge of quality assurance procedures for operational services (e.g. Copernicus, WMO).
  • Experience managing HPC allocations and computational resources.
  • Experience delivering training, onboarding or mentoring for team members and external users.

• Competences

  • Strong organizational and coordination skills, with the ability to align several contributors around shared priorities, workflows and documentation practices.
  • Very good interpersonal skills.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including reporting to and negotiating with international project partners.
  • Ability to take initiative, prioritize and work under set deadlines.
  • Ability to work both independently and within a team.

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: 16/10/2026

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