Jobs Announcements

Nov 18, 2009

ECMWF

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is an international organisation supported by 31 European States.

ECMWF’s principal objectives are the development of numerical methods for medium-range weather forecasting; the preparation, on a regular basis, of medium-range and long-range weather forecasts for distribution to the meteorological services of the Member States; scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts; collection and storage of appropriate meteorological data.

ECMWF’s computer facility includes supercomputers, archiving systems and networks. ECMWF’s current high-performance computing facility comprises two IBM compute clusters, each with 274 x 32-CPU nodes based on POWER6 technology, and two storage clusters serving 1.2 petabytes of disk storage. This system will be replaced by POWER7‑based technology in 2011.

The data-handling system currently manages over 10 petabytes of data, archived on about 14,000 magnetic tape cartridges residing in a complex of automated tape libraries with over 100 tape drives. Locally-developed utilities for archival and retrieval data use HPSS (the High Performance Storage System) as their underlying data management tool.

A detailed description is available at:

www.ecmwf.int/services/computing/overview

Shinfield Park, UK

The person selected will be the Head of the Systems Software Section. In this capacity, the successful candidate will manage a team of 7 analysts/consultants and will co-ordinate the work of the Section, covering the following two technical areas:

• High-performance computing (HPC)
• Data-handling system (DHS)

The successful candidate will participate in the strategic planning for the future development of ECMWF’s high-performance computing facilities and data-handling system and in the procurement processes for such facilities. He or she will collaborate with the Computer Operations Section on the provision of HPC and DHS services for operational and research activities and on the respective contingency planning.

The person selected will work in the Computer Division and will report to the Head of that Division.

Starting date: As soon as possible.

Length of contract: Maximum of four years for initial contract, with the possibility of renewal.

A university degree in science or engineering, preferably in Computer Science, is required, as is a minimum of 10 years’ in-depth experience covering high-performance computing.

Familiarity with HPC technologies, including distributed/parallel file systems, and a very broad comprehension of principles and practices in computer science are expected. A good knowledge of the principles involved in both the management of very large archives of data and high-performance access to such archives would be a distinct advantage, as would practical experience in software development.

Applicants should be experienced in leading teams and should possess a theoretical understanding of project management as well as practical experience of it. Experience of dealing with sales personnel, technical staff and managers from vendors of high-end IT products such as high-performance computer systems is expected.

Applicants should possess good analytical and interpersonal skills. Excellent communication skills, both oral and written, are essential.

Staff are normally recruited from among the nationals of the following Member and Co‑operating States: Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom.

The working languages of ECMWF are: English, French and German; fluency in English is essential.

Applications: Application forms in word format can be downloaded from here (162kb) and completed on-line. If you download, you may (if near to the closing date) e-mail the completed form only back to ECMWF at jobs(at)ecmwf.int. Please note, however, that you must still send your full application form together with all the attachments to ECMWF by post. Under no circumstances should you e-mail your attachments.

Closing date: Completed applications for this post must reach the Personnel Section of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts not later than 6 January 2010.

A4: £5,266.88 to £6,981.28 basic salary per month net of tax.

In principle, a staff member will be engaged at the lowest step of the grade of the post for which he or she is selected.

A deduction is made from the basic salary for the Pension Scheme and for Partial Invalidity (currently 8.8% for the Pension Scheme and 0.2% for Partial Invalidity). A further 1.46% of basic salary and related allowances is currently deducted for the ECMWF Supplementary Health Insurance Scheme.

Where applicable: household allowance of 6% of basic salary; children’s allowance of £207.56 per child per month; expatriation allowance of 14% or 18% of basic salary for expatriates; education allowance for children of expatriates is added.