Research Software Engineer

Convergent Research • Boulder, CO, CO

1d • $100,000 - $175,000

About The Position

[C]Worthy is a team of scientists, developers, and leaders developing C-Star, an open-source modeling platform that supports automated, reproducible ocean modeling workflows and reliable simulations of ocean circulation and biogeochemistry. C-Star supports applications including ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, and the organization is working with partners to build a broad user base across academia, industry, and climate-solutions organizations.

The Research Software Engineer will contribute to C-Star, a scientific modeling toolkit spanning algorithms, data-processing pipelines, workflow management, schemas, and software lifecycle management. The role calls for strong Python development skills, experience with scientific modeling applications, and an ability to learn quickly and work beyond existing areas of expertise. The team is incorporating AI into its tools and development workflows, and seeks someone who can use AI-assisted tooling while applying sound coding practices and improving an existing codebase.

The primary impact of the position is the software the engineer designs and builds. Scientific publications may be possible but are not a core focus. [C]Worthy is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado; working in-office three days per week is preferred. Relocation expenses or a fully remote arrangement may be considered for exceptional candidates.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s, master’s, or doctoral degree, or equivalent work experience, in a technical field such as oceanography, atmospheric science, physical science, applied mathematics, or computer science.
• Understanding of computationally intensive scientific modeling workflows, their challenges, and typical user needs.
• Excellent problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to understand scientific and software systems and address abstract problems at their intersection.
• At least 3 years of experience writing clean, maintainable, object-oriented software in Python.
• Experience with AI-assisted coding tools, or a strong interest in AI-assisted development and demonstrated ability to learn and apply new technologies quickly.
• Experience working in small, interdisciplinary, fast-moving teams with shared projects and tasks; ability to focus on objectives, iterate toward solutions, and adapt to changing requirements.
• Strong written and oral communication skills, including the ability to translate scientific requirements into software specifications and explain technical results to non-specialist audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Ocean modeling experience; similar Earth system modeling experience will also be considered.
• Experience working with multidimensional scientific datasets in Python, such as NetCDF or Zarr formats and Pangeo libraries, particularly Xarray, NumPy, SciPy, and Dask.
• Experience with HPC or supercomputer environments, including SLURM, MPI, and distributed file systems.
• Expertise in terabyte- or petabyte-scale data engineering.
• Knowledge of workflow management tools, including DAGs, state machines, and tracking databases.
• Experience building software intended to support reproducible results, including data versioning, schema versioning, logging, and audit trails.
• Experience or interest in natural-language interfaces for complex scientific problems, such as AI primitives and skills for running ocean models or interrogating results.
• Familiarity with Fortran.
• Experience with GPU-accelerated computation, such as CUDA, CuPy, JAX, or PyTorch, and running or optimizing numerical or modeling code on GPUs.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, test, and maintain C-Star software components with a multidisciplinary, scientifically oriented team.
• Develop working software prototypes quickly to address emerging needs and user feedback.
• Execute projects independently, maintaining focus on high-level goals while diagnosing and solving problems as they arise.
• Support fellow developers through code reviews, design discussions, and testing.
• Support internal and external users through issue review, troubleshooting, tutorials, requirements gathering, and documentation.
• Contribute to a culture of cooperation, learning, and adaptation.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level