Physical Scientist

Axiom Consultants•College Park, MD

4d•Hybrid

About The Position

Axiom is seeking a Physical Scientist for a hybrid role in College Park, Maryland. The position focuses on integrating the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) dynamical core into the UFS Weather Model and developing the infrastructure, testing, and performance capabilities needed to support coupled model configurations across scientific high-performance computing platforms. The scientist will work with model components and stakeholders, maintain automated software workflows, investigate performance and portability, and contribute to technical documentation, troubleshooting, and mentoring. The role also involves evaluating and applying generative AI tools to model development, monitoring developments in HPC hardware and software, and serving as a technical point of contact for external components and application teams. Candidates must be U.S. citizens or Green Card holders and should bring relevant scientific or software expertise and experience with modeling or scientific computing.

Requirements

Must be a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder; candidates should indicate this in their cover letter.
Background in meteorology/NWP, physical sciences, mathematics, computer science, software engineering, scientific computing, or a closely related field, with demonstrated numerical modeling or related scientific computing experience.
Experience with or a strong foundational understanding of Earth system or other dynamical modeling.
Proficiency in Fortran, including F95+ and object-oriented concepts, and Python, including object-oriented programming and automation.
Proficiency in Bash shell scripting and scientific software development in Linux or similar environments.
Working knowledge of modern software engineering practices, including modular design, unit testing, and standalone component testing frameworks.
Experience developing, configuring, and executing parallel Earth system or similar models on HPC systems.
Working knowledge of HPC job schedulers such as SLURM or PBS.
Experience with CMake-based build systems and CTest.
Proficiency with Git-based version control and code management, including branching and forking strategies, pull or merge requests, and issue and project tracking.
Experience using AI tools to advance code and documentation development, or willingness to learn.
Good verbal and written communication skills in English.
Ability to work effectively and professionally on a diverse, customer-focused team with physical scientists, software engineers, and inter-agency partners.
Ability to independently identify, prioritize, and implement bug fixes and new features.
Ability to provide technical mentorship and maintain user-facing developer documentation.

Nice To Haves

Experience with MPAS or other dynamical cores.
Practical experience with coupled Earth system model frameworks such as ESMF, NUOPC, mediators, and component interactions.
Experience developing and running individual atmosphere, ocean, wave, or ice components.
GPU or other heterogeneous computing experience or familiarity.
C++ experience.
Experience in Agile/Scrum development environments.
Experience developing, debugging, and maintaining continuous integration and other automated workflows.
Familiarity with package managers such as Spack and containerization technologies such as Apptainer/Singularity, Docker, or Podman.
Development experience with CMake-based build systems and CTest is strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Develop infrastructure and integrate MPAS as a new dynamical core within the UFS Weather Model, including necessary component updates.
Develop, expand, and support NUOPC caps, coupling infrastructure, coupled field exchanges, component interactions, and mediator configurations.
Create capabilities and modular frameworks for standalone testing of individual coupled-model components.
Ensure portability of compiled code, build configurations, and unit and regression testing workflows across scientific HPC platforms, including heterogeneous computing environments such as GPUs.
Profile parallel code at scale, identify performance bottlenecks, and investigate scalability algorithms for refactoring, compression, or replacement with third-party implementations.
Build, maintain, debug, and refactor automated Continuous Integration workflows and use Git-based code management and agile development practices.
Identify and apply generative AI tools, including large language models, to improve code and technical documentation development.
Track trends in scientific HPC hardware, compilers, and software architectures to support the UFS model's use of emerging technologies.
Serve as subject matter expert and technical point of contact for CICE and CDEPS, monitoring external repository developments that affect the UFS Weather Model.
Manage relationships with UFS Weather Model stakeholders and application teams, review contributions, and coordinate their integration.
Maintain code documentation, troubleshoot build failures and runtime errors, demonstrate advanced debugging tools, and provide technical mentoring.