Reference: 351_26_ES_CES_R2
Job title: PostDoctoral Researcher for climate services – Climate predictions (R2)
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
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We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Context And Mission
The aim of the Earth System Services Group (ESS) within the Earth Sciences Department is to research the impact of weather, atmospheric chemistry and climate upon socio-economic sectors such as renewable energy, agriculture, water resources, urban development and climate risk management and demonstrate the ongoing value of earth system services to society and the economy.
We are seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join our team and contribute to the development of next-generation climate services, with a primary focus on renewable energy while also supporting applications in agriculture and water management.
The successful candidate will play a key role in the flagship Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S2_412b) contract led by BSC, one of Europe’s leading initiatives for the development and delivery of operational climate services. In addition, they will contribute to other European and national research projects spanning sub-seasonal, seasonal, and decadal timescales. The research will involve working with state-of-the-art climate prediction systems to develop climate indicators and sector-specific information products at both global and regional scales, supporting evidence-based decision-making across multiple socio-economic sectors.
The position is closely aligned with the World Meteorological Organisation’s Global Framework for Climate Services (GFCS), contributing to the advancement of climate predictions into actionable information that supports climate adaptation and resilience. The successful candidate will collaborate with leading international scientists and stakeholders across Europe, participating in the development of innovative climate science and operational climate services with real-world impact.
This position offers an outstanding opportunity to join one of Europe’s leading and most dynamic research groups in climate services, working at the interface between frontier climate science and societal applications. The successful candidate will benefit from expert mentoring, advanced training, an international and multidisciplinary research environment, and the wide range of professional development opportunities and staff benefits offered by BSC-CNS.
We welcome applications from highly motivated researchers with a strong background in climate science, experience in climate prediction or climate services, and a keen interest in translating scientific advances into operational solutions that benefit society.
Key Duties
Perform user-oriented research. Post-processing of climate predictions for the development of climate services’ products.
Contribute to the development of automated workflows that include data loading, post-processing, evaluation, visualisation and saving, aligned with coding standards and testing practices, and deployable on HPC systems
Disseminate the results in peer-reviewed scientific papers and international conferences
Teamwork: Interaction with scientists in the group and the department to favour synergies
Participate in projects proposal preparation
Actively participate in the management of work packages in EU projects (participate in teleconferences workshops, meetings and writing deliverables)
Active involvement in the engagement with users within the climate services
Requirements
Education
Degree in Physics, Enviromental Sciences, Mathematics (or similar)
PhD in atmospheric sciences, applied statistics or related field
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
Experience handling, analysing and validating large climate model datasets
Experience with climatic statistical analyses
Experience working with sub-seasonal, seasonal or decadal climate predictions.
Scientific programming in a suitable language (e.g. R, Python) and familiarity with working in a UNIX environment.
Written and verbal communication skills in English, especially for scientific publications.
Ability to work in a professional environment within a multidisciplinary and international team
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
Experience working with climate information to support the energy sector (e.g. climate indicators for renewable energy production).
Candidates with research expertise in all aspects of climate science (climate dynamics, climate diagnostics, climate modelling), climate impacts on society (atmospheric environment, biodiversity, economy and finance, energy, health, infrastructure, marine environment, water resources, etc.) or climate risk are welcome to apply. Candidates with experience in energy/agriculture/water management companies and consultancy companies will be also welcome
Knowledge on the following topics: statistical downscaling, multi-model combination techniques, bias adjustments techniques or tropical/extratropical teleconnections will be positively evaluated.
Competences
Problem-solving, pro-active, result-oriented work attitude
Capability to work in an international team
Organizational capacity for dealing with parallel tasks
Good communication skills