Physical Scientist - HAFS Developer

Lynker Corporation•College Park, MD

About The Position

Lynker is seeking a Physical Scientist - HAFS Developer to support a long term NOAA contract, carrying out research and development work related to future operational hurricane forecast systems. The successful Physical Scientist - HAFS Developer will involve the development, testing, and evaluation of the Hurricane Analysis and Forecast System (HAFS), which is the Unified Forecast System’s (UFS) hurricane application, providing reliable, robust, and skillful model forecasts for tropical cyclones (TCs). This role is a future opportunity, and contingent on contract award.

Requirements

A Master’s Degree or higher in atmospheric sciences or meteorology, oceanic, mathematics, or related physical science
2+ years of experience in the area of hurricane and tropical cyclone (TC) modeling.
Advanced knowledge of tropical meteorology and experience in developing hurricane numerical weather prediction (NWP) systems for operational implementation.
Excellent knowledge and skills of modern programming languages and object-oriented languages, such as FORTRAN90 and Python.
Skills and knowledge of the High Performing Computing environment.
Proficient with modern software development practices and version control software.
Demonstrated skill in communicating effectively with scientists of diverse backgrounds on technical details of the work plan and present results accurately and clearly in both oral and written form.
Ability to work independently on complex problems in a team and fast-paced environment and demonstrated skill in performing tasks requiring organization and attention to detail.
Ability to support team initiatives, demonstrate respect for team members, and seek team consensus

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with operational NWP and/or an operational forecasting environment.
Experience with UFS applications and knowledge of earth system modeling.
Experience in high-resolution model development in various infrastructures (ESMF, FMS, CCPP, JEDI, etc.).
Familiarity with advanced TC data assimilation systems/algorithms.
Experience/knowledge of hurricane model evaluation and verification.
Familiarity with agile software development practices.

Responsibilities

Perform job duties in a high-quality, independent, and collaborative way, assisting in managing projects and developing and applying innovative methods for the primary work areas.
Work with NOAA scientists and external collaborators to develop and evaluate the current and future operational hurricane forecast systems.
Design, develop and evaluate HAFS ensemble analysis and forecast for downstream applications.
Work with advanced UFS infrastructure and multi-scale modeling framework, improving hurricane specific physics, data assimilation, dynamics, and high-resolution telescoping and moving nest techniques.
Implement and advance hurricane-specific physics schemes within the UFS framework.
Develop and advance inner-core storm initialization and data assimilation techniques for hurricane forecasting.
Develop and improve UFS-based dynamics and moving-nesting for high-resolution hurricane modeling.
Develop and advance UFS-based earth system (atmosphere, land, ocean, wave, storm surge, etc.) coupled modeling system for hurricane forecasting.
Develop advanced scripts for flexible end-to-end system integration and automation, and allow for additional functionalities.
Design, setup, and conduct pre-implementation tests for experimental and operational hurricane model upgrades.
Explore, develop, test and evaluate the HAFS based ensemble forecast system.

Benefits

Comprehensive healthcare for the employee at no monthly cost
Healthcare benefit covers medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision
Personal Time Off (PTO) Policy plus paid holidays
Highly competitive compensation plan regularly calibrated against industry and location benchmarks
401(k) retirement plan with company-matching
Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – we're all company owners!
Flexible spending accounts
Employee assistance program (EAP)
Short- and long-term disability insurance
Life and accident insurance
Tuition assistance/Training/Workforce improvement reimbursement per year
Spot bonuses for exceptional performance
Annual Employee Recognition Awards with bonuses
Employee Referral Program
Free centralized, self-directed Learning Management System to learn at your own pace
Personalized career growth plans for every employee