Scientific Programmer

Entarian•College Park, MD

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Entarian is seeking a full-time Scientific Programmer to support the CPC International Desks in College Park, MD. This role involves system upgrades, code migration, training, operational workflow support, and the implementation of model and forecasting enhancements. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC) aims to deliver real-time products and information for predicting and describing climate variations, promoting effective climate risk management and a climate-resilient society. ERT provides scientific support services to CPC, including acquiring, processing, and disseminating climate data, and conducting research to improve prediction techniques and understanding of climate variability and extremes.

Requirements

Master’s degree in Atmospheric Science, Meteorology, Hydrology/Hydroclimate, Computer Science, or a related discipline (or equivalent relevant experience).
Experience with cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services (e.g., S3, EC2, Lambda).
Strong programming skills in Shell (Bash) utilities, Python and/or R for data analysis and modeling.
Experience with data manipulation, statistical analysis, and machine learning.
Ability to work with large and complex datasets, including climate and weather observation data (e.g., NetCDF, raster data).
Understanding of data engineering concepts (data pipelines, processes, APIs).
Knowledge of containerization and reproducible workflows (e.g., Docker, Git).
Experience with AI/deep learning (PyTorch, TensorFlow).
Ability to develop, validate and deploy models for forecasting or risk analysis.
Understanding of climate science and impact-based forecasting.
Strong analytical thinking, problem-solving, and interdisciplinary collaboration skills.
Ability to translate complex analytical results into actionable insights for policy and decision-making.
Basic knowledge of GIS tools (e.g., QGIS, ArcGIS, GeoPandas, raster/terra).
Familiarity with spatial and spatiotemporal modeling techniques.
Must be a US Citizen or Permanent Resident and able to pass a background investigation to obtain a security badge to access applicable government information and systems.

Nice To Haves

PhD preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead and/or support the migration of CPC International Desk workflows from legacy GEMPAK-based development to Python-based development (CPCI v7.0).
Lead and/or support regionalized NCEP GFS and GEFS postprocessing and transitioning to operations in support of the WMO Severe Weather Forecast Project (SWFP).
Refactor, validate, and document code to ensure operational readiness, maintainability, and reproducibility.
Coordinate testing and delivery milestones supporting planned code delivery.
Support implementation and transition activities for NMME v3 for the International Desk, including updates needed for ingest, post-processing, and product generation.
Assist with operational readiness activities.
Maintain and improve operational workflows supporting International Desk production, including job scheduling, monitoring, troubleshooting, and continuity support across platforms.
Provide hands-on support for operational cron jobs and related automation on the CPC compute farm and WCOSS platform.
Provide training support for International Desk visitors and staff on International Desk website tools, publishing workflows, post-processing of model data, generation of operational products, and practical operational procedures.
Develop and maintain training materials and quick-reference guides to support repeatable onboarding and knowledge transfer.
Provide data handling and support for climate forecasting studies, including accessing, transforming, and organizing model and observational datasets used by the International Desk.
Support evaluation/verification workflows where needed to improve product utility and performance.
Carry out other contingent tasks to support mission needs, operational continuity, and evolving CPC priorities.

Benefits

Medical, Rx, Dental, and Vision Insurance
401(k) retirement plan with company-matching
11 Paid Federal Government Holidays
Paid Time Off (PTO)
Basic Life & Supplemental Life
Health Savings Account, Flexible Spending and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts
Short-Term & Long-Term Disability
Employee assistance program (EAP)
Tuition Reimbursement, Personal Development & Learning Opportunities
Skills Development & Certifications
Professional Membership Reimbursement
Employee Referral Program
Competitive compensation plan
Discretionary variable incentive bonuses based on factors such as individual performance, business unit performance, and/or the company’s performance