Announcement of HIRLAM-B Management positions

On 1 January 2011 the research collaboration of the HIRLAM consortium will enter a new phase with the start of the HIRLAM-B Programme. The participating institutes in HIRLAM-B are the national weather services of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Sweden, with Météo-France as cooperating member. The focal points of research in HIRLAM-B will be the continued development of a convection-permitting model Harmonie within the IFS modelling environment, and of a limited area short-range ensemble forecasting system GLAMEPS. In HIRLAM-B, the code cooperation between the HIRLAM and ALADIN consortia which has started in 2006 will be continued.

The coordination of the HIRLAM-B Programme is carried out by the HIRLAM management group (HMG), consisting of the programme manager who has overall responsibility, and a number of project leaders covering various scientific and technical areas. The HMG is supported by a scientific secretary.

The HMG as a whole plans the scientific and technical activities which are to take place in HIRLAM-B, along the lines of the HIRLAM Strategy 2011-2020. The project leaders are responsible for the day-to-day management of the activities of the full-time core group staff and part-time regular staff which are assigned to work in their respective areas, according to work plans which are formulated and negotiated with the participating institutes on a yearly basis. Both the planning and the actual Programme activities are managed in close cooperation with leading scientists of the ALADIN consortium.

The following positions are now open for applications:

• Project leader for Data Assimilation and Use of Observations (50% of full time), responsible for the development of data assimilation algorithms for upper air and surface, and for extending and optimizing the use of observations in the analysis system.
• Project leader for Model dynamics (50% of full time), responsible for the development of the dynamics components of the forecast model.
• Project leader for Physical parameterisation (50% of full time), responsible for the development of the physics parametrizations used for the upper air and surface.
• Project leader for Probabilistic forecasting (50% of full time), responsible for the development of the short-range ensemble forecasting system.
• Project leader for System (75% of full time), responsible for, and having the overall authority of, the system management of Harmonie, HIRLAM and GLAMEPS. He or she is responsible for the maintenance of Reference system versions of these systems, and for ensuring that these Reference systems are technically robust, computationally efficient, and suitable for operational use on present and future computer architectures.
• Project leader for Applications (75% of full time), responsible for the development and deployment of suitable quality assurance and verification systems, and for operationally oriented collaboration activities in e.g. observation pre-processing, short-range probabilistic forecasting and the definition of user requirements. He or she additionally has responsibility for reporting on the operational collaboration activities to the HIRLAM Council and Advisory Committee.
• Scientific secretary (25% of full time), providing general support to the programme manager, with a specific responsibility for the maintenance of the HIRLAM web site and the preparation of HIRLAM publications.

The work as Project leader requires strong and inspired scientific leadership. The candidates should have well-documented expertise in their respective areas as well as a good knowledge of the respective codes in the HIRLAM or Harmonie/IFS modelling systems.

The Project leaders are expected to participate in both the science and code developments in their areas in order to lead the scientists, and also to accurately monitor and report the developments to the rest of the Programme Management and the HIRLAM governing bodies. A close interaction with ALADIN management and staff is mandatory in order to achieve fruitful research cooperation and a joint planning of activities.

Additionally, in view of the increasingly shared interests with ECMWF, both on scientific developments and on issues related to the future development of the IFS modelling environment, the Project Leaders are expected to interact regularly with relevant ECMWF staff.

Candidates should be employed by or through one of the HIRLAM institutes, and their application should have the support of this host institute. The remuneration level of the successful candidates will correspond to that of a group leader or section head in the host institute as decided by its General Director.

Yours Sincerely,

Dr. F.J.J. Brouwer

Chairman of the HIRLAM Council

The application procedure is currently closed. New positions will be published when they are available.