HPC Application Analyst for Destination Earth

Contract type: STF-PS

Contract Duration: To 31 May 2026, with the possibility of further extension subject to funding

Your role  

ECMWF has an exciting opportunity for an HPC Application Analyst to help shape and deliver DestinE developments in collaboration with partners throughout Europe. 

The role offers a unique opportunity in the area of High-Performance Computing (HPC) and will be responsible with enabling and monitoring the efficient execution and operation of the Weather-Induced Extremes and Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twins developed in DestinE on EuroHPC supercomputers such as LUMI, Leonardo and MareNostrum 5. The role is based in an existing team in ECMWF’s Computing Department and is expected to strongly collaborate with other teams across the Centre.

As well as working closely with ECMWF colleagues, the successful candidate will also support the relationships with ECMWF’s DestinE partners ESA and EUMETSAT, interact with external contractors as required, and help with communications & outreach activities with dedicated partners of the consortia contributing to the DestinE implementation, stakeholders and the user communities, and contribute to regular progress reports to the European Commission.

Whilst this position is based in Bonn, Germany, there will be strong collaboration with staff based at the other sites, so it is anticipated that visits to ECMWF’s other duty stations will be required.

This contract is funded by Destination Earth.

About ECMWF 

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a world-leader in weather and environmental forecasting. As an international organisation we serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions and data that is critical for understanding and solving the climate crisis. We function as a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions, holding one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world. The success of our activities builds on the talent of our scientists and experts, strong partnerships with 35 Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies and machine learning across our operations. ECMWF is a multi-site organisation, with a main office in Reading, UK, a data centre/supercomputer in Bologna, Italy, and a large presence in Bonn, Germany. 

ECMWF has developed a strong partnership with the European Union and has been entrusted with the implementation and operation of the Destination Earth Initiative and the Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the Copernicus Programme. Other areas of work include High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools that enable ECMWF to extend provision of data and products covering weather, climate, air quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

See  www.ecmwf.int for more info about what we do. 

The Destination Earth (DestinE) Initiative 

ECMWF is one of the three entities entrusted to implement the Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative of the European Commission, alongside ESA and EUMETSAT as partners. DestinE aims to deploy several highly accurate thematic digital replicas of the Earth, called Digital Twins. The Digital Twins will help monitor and predict environmental change and human impact, in order to develop and test scenarios that would support sustainable development and corresponding European policies for the Green Deal.  ECMWF is responsible for the delivery of these digital twins and of the Digital Twin engine, the software infrastructure needed to power them of some of Europe’s largest supercomputers, those of the European HPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC). 

The second phase of DestinE covers the period June 2024 – May 2026, and future phases are foreseen (subject to funding). Phase 2 will focus on early operations with consolidation, maintenance, and continuous evolution of the DestinE system components developed in the first phase.

For more information on Destination Earth, please see: https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/destination-earth-destine and https://www.ecmwf.int/en/about/what-we-do/environmental-services/destination-earth

Your responsibilities 

• Identify and address performance bottlenecks in the IFS model running across different EuroHPC systems.
• Develop infrastructure to continuously monitor and visually represent via a dashboard the throughput of the IFS model as part of the operational Digital Twins suites.
• Contribute to the existing tools and libraries used for performance profiling and statistics in the IFS model and develop new ones if necessary.
• Port the IFS model to new EuroHPC systems as they become available.
• Assist in identifying and resolving performance regressions of the operational Digital Twins and support their migration as a result of system software updates.
• Contribute to testing new hardware and software stacks and communicate issues to developers, vendors and system support as required.

What we're looking for

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive and constructive approach
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, and the ability to work effectively with specialists across diverse teams
• Dedication, passion, and enthusiasm to succeed both individually and across teams
• Flexibility, with the ability to adapt to changing priorities
• Highly organised with the capacity to work on a diverse range of tasks to tight deadline
• Candidates must be able to work and communicate effectively in English

Education

• An university degree (EQF Level 6 or above) in a physical, computational or mathematical science or related subject, or equivalent professional experience

Experience, Knowledge and Skills

• Recent experience in high-performance scientific computing; running, debugging, profiling and performance tuning of large scientific codes using Fortran, C/C++, MPI, OpenMP on massively parallel computer systems, is required.
• Experience with porting scientific applications/algorithms on GPGPUs using programming models such as (CUDA, OpenACC, OpenMP, HIP, SYCL, OpenCL etc).
• Proven knowledge of parallel computer architectures (including accelerators such as GPGPUs).
• Experience with using UNIX/Linux tools to automate tasks and analyse results, including shell and at least one scripting language, ideally Python or Perl, is required.
• A track record in identifying, investigating and resolving technical problems.

The above knowledge, skills and experience would be an advantage. However, we encourage you to apply even if you feel you do not meet all these criteria.

Other information 

Grade remuneration:  The successful candidates will be recruited at Grade A2, according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations and the annual basic salary will be EUR 86,824 NET annual basic salary (ECMWF salaries are exempt of national income tax). In addition to basic salary, ECMWF also offers an attractive package of benefits and entitlements. This position is assigned to the employment category STF-PS  as defined in the ECMWF Staff Regulations. To find out more about working with us and for full details of salary scales and allowances, please visit www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs/working-ecmwf. 

Starting date:  As soon as possible

Length of contract:  The contract duration is expected to be two years up to 31 May 2026.  There may be the possibility of further contract extensions in the future, depending on requirements and funding availability.

Location: Bonn, Germany

Remote work: As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organisation model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking. We allow for remote work 10 days/month away from the office, including up to 80 days/year away from the duty station country (within the area of our member states and co-operating states).

Interviews by videoconference (MS Teams) are expected to take place approximately one month after the closing date. If you require any special accommodations in order to participate fully in our recruitment process, please let us know. 

To contact the ECMWF Recruitment Team, please email jobs@ecmwf.int.

Who can apply 

Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button above. 

At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment as key for our success. We are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of the countries that are part of our community, in an environment that nurtures equality and inclusion. 

Applications are invited from nationals from ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States, as well as from all EU Member States. 

ECMWF Member and Co-operating States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom. 

In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy.  

Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases.