Job Description

About the Department
The North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies (NCICS) is a UNC inter-institutional research institute whose primary focus is to promote the discovery of new knowledge about global, regional, and local climate variability and its impacts; and to provide information that is critical for determining trends and validating climate forecasts at all these spatial scales. A primary activity of NCICS is the operation of the NOAA Cooperative Institute for Satellite Earth Systems Science (CISESS) formed through a consortium of academic, non-profit, and community organizations with leadership from the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) and North Carolina State University (NCSU) on behalf of the University of North Carolina (UNC) System. CISESS provides foci for collaborative research and associated activities in support of NOAA mission goals related to meteorological satellite and climate data and information research and development.
Essential Job Duties
The NC Institute for Climate Studies is in need of a Climate Data Analyst to provide scientific and programmatic support in the development, implementation, and quality control assessment of in situ and remotely sensed products and applications on a variety of scales using an extensive array of computing resources and software. The Climate Data Analyst will be responsible for:

Research Activities:
Independently develop, design, support, and/or execute moderately complex research activities for a single or multiple research projects.
Provide scientific programming expertise to develop high quality large-scale research datasets through the creation, modification, and adaptation of real-time application software for utilization in analysis/calibration of environmental data including inputs, analysis, outputs, and quality control assessment of end products.
Independently perform climate data collection and analysis.
Participate in environmentally related studies and analysis involving large scale environmental data sets and support research efforts in this regard.
Contribute to the scientific analysis of climate data sets for the purposes of improving data quality and advancing the interpretation of in situ and remotely sensed observations.
Plan, develop, and implement evaluation and analytical tools and applications to ensure integrity of data sets and other end products.
Participate in formulating research methods approaches, suggesting options for quality improvement and solutions.
Facilitate research to operation transitions between data set development activities and the operational use of these data sets in activities such as monitoring and research.
Develop innovative approaches to satellite and in situ data analyses using AI/ML frameworks.
Develop climate data analysis products, both graphical and textual, and associated written material based on the data analysis.

Collaboration:
Work cooperatively with Institute staff, partners, team members, and/or external stakeholders in support of task and project objectives.
Present research results and/or participate in the preparation of publications of research results for peer-reviewed journals.
Make timely presentations at appropriate scientific venues as requested or needed.
Fully participate in unit (NCICS, NCEI, etc.) activities and meetings.
Other Responsibilities
Other related duties as assigned.
Qualifications
Minimum Education and Experience
Master’s degree in relevant Earth sciences (e.g., atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, etc), mathematics, engineering, computer science, or a related field, OR a bachelor’s degree with five or more years of relevant experience.
Experience with UNIX/Linux systems including high performance computing environments.
Demonstrated computer programming proficiency utilizing modern programming and analysis languages (e.g., Python, R, Matlab, Fortran, IDL, etc).
Experience with high performance computing and working within cloud-based environments.
Experience with machine learning and AI applications with environmental data.
Experience with observational and/or model environmental datasets.
Experience with the development and use of uncertainty quantification measures.
Other Required Qualifications
Evidence of scholarly productivity such as journal publications.
Demonstrated experience in performing self-directed scientific data analysis and applications programming.
Excellent oral and written communication skills.
Solid interpersonal skills.
Make positive team contributions.
Ability to multitask and meet deadlines.
Must be able to work independently and creatively.
Have the aptitude and willingness to meet the requirements of all team functions.
Preferred Qualifications
Master’s degree in a relevant Earth science (e.g., atmospheric sciences, environmental sciences, etc), mathematics, computer sciences, engineering, or related field.
Four or more years of experience working with in situ and remotely sensed environmental observations and/or model datasets including interpretation and analysis.
Experience in a team environment addressing scientific or technical challenges.
Two or more peer-reviewed publications in environmental sciences or a related area.
Experience in an academic research setting.
Demonstrated experience in applying AI/ML approaches to remotely sensed and in situ data analysis.
Experience working in a federal facility environment.