Research Software Engineer

Convergent Research • Boulder, CO

7d

About The Position

[C]Worthy is a team of scientists, developers, and leaders working to accelerate and de-risk ocean-based climate solutions. The organization is building C-Star, an open-source modeling platform that systematizes ocean modeling through automated, reproducible workflows for reliable, high-fidelity simulations of ocean circulation and biogeochemistry. C-Star supports applications including ocean-based carbon dioxide removal, and [C]Worthy is working with external partners to build a broad user base across academia, industry, and the climate-solutions ecosystem.

The Research Software Engineer will contribute to C-Star, an open-source scientific modeling toolkit spanning scientific algorithms, data-processing pipelines, workflow management, schemas, and software lifecycle management. The role requires a strong foundation in Python software development and scientific modeling, along with the ability to learn quickly and work beyond existing areas of expertise. The successful candidate will use AI-assisted tools while applying sound coding practices and helping improve an existing codebase. The primary impact of the position is the software developed; scientific publications may be possible but are not a core focus.

[C]Worthy is headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. Working in the office three days per week is preferred. Relocation expenses or a fully remote position 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.
• At least 3 years of experience writing clean, maintainable, object-oriented software in Python.
• Excellent problem-solving and critical-thinking skills, including the ability to understand scientific and software systems and address abstract problems at their intersection.
• 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 translating scientific requirements into software specifications and communicating technical results to non-specialist audiences.

Nice To Haves

• Ocean modeling experience; similar Earth system modeling experience may also be considered.
• 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 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, such as DAGs, state machines, and tracking databases.
• Experience building software to support reproducible results, including data and 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.
• Create working software prototypes to address emerging needs and user feedback.
• Independently execute projects, maintain focus on high-level goals, and diagnose and solve problems as they arise.
• Assist 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