High-performance computing

European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Reading, United Kingdom

 

Description

 

The  ECMWF is an international organisation supported by 34 States. ECMWF's principal objectives are the development of numerical methods for medium range, monthly and seasonal weather forecasting; the preparation, on a regular basis, of these weather forecasts for distribution to the meteorological services of the Member States; scientific and technical research directed to the improvement of these forecasts; and the collection and storage of appropriate meteorological data. Satellite and in situ observations provide the information for up-to-date global analyses and reanalyses of the atmosphere, ocean and surface. ECMWF's main computing facility includes supercomputers, archiving and data handling systems. ECMWF is connected to the meteorological telecommunication system and to its Member States via efficient networks linking 44 countries. The post is in the HPC Group in the Systems Software Section of ECMWF's Computer Division. The HPC Group supports the high-performance computing facility. The successful applicant will work as part of a small team that ensures that the systems continue to provide the high levels of service expected of them. The main duties of the post include:

 

- configuring, tuning and upgrading the operating system, parallel filesystems, batch scheduler and system monitoring as well as other standard utilities on the HPC system;

- configuring the user environment and integrating the HPC system with ECMWF's computing environment and workflows;

- resolving issues relating to the entire stack of HPC systems software and to tools developed and maintained by the HPC Group;

- regular participation in 24-hour on-call rotas to resolve urgent operational problems, with a requirement to be contactable at all times and able to be on-site, if necessary, within one to two hours, when on duty;

- ensuring that the HPC facilities are used efficiently, and providing ECMWF's support groups and users with the tools to enable this;

- from time to time, contributing to the research and evaluation of successor systems to ECMWF's current HPC facilities.

 

Requirements

 

A university education, or equivalent, is required. A background in massively parallel processing computer systems, large-scale Linux clusters or other machines of similar architecture would be a distinct advantage. Significant professional experience in UNIX or Linux systems administration, a good knowledge of UNIX shells, Perl or Python, software configuration management and operating system security are expected. Familiarity with programming using C, Fortran, MPI and/or OpenMP is desirable. The successful candidate should be proactive, methodical and have very good analytical skills, able to demonstrate an ability to concurrently progress multiple tasks to completion and solve problems under pressure. Good written and oral communication skills are essential, as is the ability to work responsibly and reliably as a member of a small team. The working languages of ECMWF are English, French and German. Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and a good knowledge of one of the other working languages would be desirable. Interviews will be conducted in English. Staff are normally recruited from among the nationals of the following Member States and Co operating States: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and United Kingdom.

 

More information and applications

 

The successful candidate will be recruited at the A3 grade and the annual basic salary will be £64,532 net of tax. Full details of salary scales and allowances are available on the ECMWF website at: www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/conditions_en.html

 

Starting date: 1 July 2013, or as soon as possible thereafter. Maximum of four years for initial contract, with the possibility of renewal.

 

Application forms can be downloaded from ECMWF's website:

www.ecmwf.int/newsevents/employment/en/

Reference: AP13-04

 

Completed applications for this post must reach the Personnel Section of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts not later than 15 March 2013.