Software Engineer for Weather Systems (remote)

Company Description

About Element 84 

Element 84 is a woman-owned small business that works with public, private, and non-profit sector clients to develop geospatial data processing pipelines & build software that helps answer big questions about our health, our infrastructure, and our changing planet. We solve challenging problems across a wide range of industries, but our superpower is cloud-based geospatial data processing, remote sensing, and Earth science systems. Our headquarters is located in Alexandria, VA and we have a satellite office in Philadelphia, PA. Element 84 also supports a large remote workforce from a variety of other states.

A Few Other Things You Should Know

1. Element 84's values are: We Invest in Each Other, We are Reliable, and Our Work Benefits our World.

2. Element 84 works on meaningful projects that are challenging—from a technical, people, and team perspective. We make an impact on large projects through our leadership and expertise, both formal and informal.

3. Element 84 values life outside of work. We offer parental leave for everyone and support each other through family challenges like medical problems, adoptions, and new babies.

4. Element 84 has had a flexible work schedule since our founding in 2010.

5. Element 84 is committed to building an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace. We expect the entire team to share that same commitment. 

About You

You are curious about the world, are constantly learning, driven to lead (formally or informally), and have a strong work ethic. You're interested in solving impactful problems in science, medicine, and other projects that have a societal good. You can work independently or with a team, prioritize your projects, and be effective without micromanagement.

You'll care about writing. Our team is remote and written communication is essential. In addition to caring about a well-crafted email and a succinct conference abstract, you understand that good writing is good design and engineering.

Job Description

Our team provides acceleration of community-developed scientific and technological enhancements into the operational applications for Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) and improved Research to Operations (R2O) for the Unified Forecast System (UFS). As a member of the team, you will ensure adherence to operational agreements and policies (including response times), compliance to program and customer standards and requirements (including Section 508 compliance), leveraging of industry best practices for automation, and implementation of issue detection and alerts.

As a mid-level software engineer, you are responsible for building and delivering high-quality solutions to an operational environment. You are a problem solver first and an engineer second. Your project manager and tech lead trust you to take point on getting features done and your peers seek out your expertise. You have a background in meteorology and apply your technical expertise in building tools supporting meteorological solutions. In this role, you learn how to make the team, not just yourself, more effective. Your expertise expands beyond a single specialization area and you become an expert in others.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Work on a small agile team to deliver Unified Forecast System (UFS) weather model and associated applications through code management.
• Engage the UFS community to improve forecast skills to the nation.
• Develop and manage advanced scripts for flexible end-to-end system testing and integration.
• Design, setup, and conduct pre-implementation tests for experimental model runs.
• Participate in all aspects of the software development lifecycle from user story generation, through design, development, automated testing, and operational support.
• Develop new feature ideas to meet the ever-evolving needs of our end-users.
• Continually help the team grow by sharing new ideas and industry best practices.
• Suggest improvements to processes and tools to help the team be more efficient.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications:

• In-depth knowledge of the Unified Forecast System (UFS) weather model, short-range weather (SRW) application, LandDA applications, and UFS model components, specifically FV3, CCPP, MOM6, ESMF and NUOPC, UPP, and Spack-Stack, ufs-bundle, and JEDI skylab. 
• Knowledge of workflow development to enable UFS capabilities. 
• Ability to optimize and benchmark Fortran source code for UFD models and applications. 
• Knowledge of the implementation of data assimilation frameworks such as UFS-JEDI. 
• HPC experience in both on-premise and cloud computing technologies. 
• Knowledge of end-to-end model testing frameworks for UFS applications. 
• Experience using programming languages such as Fortran and Python in an Agile environment. 
• Simulation and Modeling experience in an HPC environment (cloud and on-prem).
• Ability to communicate technical information to management and the scientific community, verbally and in writing.
• Experience with git.
• Knowledge of algorithms and data structures.
• Strong analytical and reasoning skills with an ability to visualize processes and outcomes.
• Proficiency in troubleshooting software issues and debugging a large codebase.
• Outstanding all-around communication skills and ability to work collaboratively.
• Capable of triaging multiple priorities and setting expectations.
• Experience with Cloud technologies: AWS, Azure, and/or GCP
• Ability to work proficiently in a remote environment on a small Agile team.
• This position requires that applicants be a US Person (US citizen or legal permanent resident) and authorized to work in the United States without sponsorship now or in the future.  All candidates must be able to pass a Federal National Agency Check with Inquires (NACI) screening.

Preferred Qualifications: 

• Knowledge of Agile or Lean-based development principles (e.g. Sprints, Scrums, Backlogs).
• Knowledge of Cloud Services in a Commercial Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) or Platform as Service (PAAS) environment.
• Numerical Weather Prediction experience.

Required Education & Experience:

• 8 years of relevant experience with a BS degree in Meteorology, Computer Science, or an IT-related field preferred.

Additional Information

Paying attention to who we are as a company–people, family members, friends, and colleagues–is our primary focus at Element 84. There are lots of ways to run a company and for us, it's wanting to come to work, being around people we enjoy, taking on big things with people you trust, and sharing our achievements as a team.

• You’ll get credit when things go right and we’ll have your back when things go wrong.
• We only take on work that is challenging and right for us. There are projects we will turn down and the team has a say.
• We may be a small company, but we have big company benefits meant to support the idea that we're here for the long term and that happiness comes from much more than where you work. 
• We have an extraordinary retention rate because we hire extraordinary people. We hope that’s you.

The salary range for this position is between $98,000 - $137,000.

Depending upon experience, we are considering both mid-level and senior-level candidates for this role. Actual compensation and job title offered to candidate will be finalized at offer. It may be above or below the posted range due to skill level, experience, industry-specific knowledge, education/certifications, or geographic location. Base salary represents just one component of the Element 84 total compensation package. Employees will also receive a number of benefits as listed below. Other compensation for this position may include bonus eligibility (dependent on employee performance and company profits).

Benefits

• Competitive medical, dental, and vision benefits
• Life Insurance, Short & Long Term disability insurance
• Voluntary Accident, Critical Illness & Hospital Insurance
• 401(k) and Roth 401(k) retirement plans with a fixed 3% of salary employer contributions (paid regardless of employee participation)
• Health savings account with a company contribution
• Flexible spending accounts (medical, dependent care, and transportation)
• Company-paid parental leave after one year of employment
• Flexible work schedules
• Paid employee assistance program
• 9 paid holidays
• 4 weeks + 1 day Paid Time Off per calendar year (pro-rated first year)
• Cell phone stipend

Element 84 is an equal opportunity employer, with a company culture that values diversity.

We embrace inclusivity and believe that diversity of thought, perspective, and experience helps us reach higher and think bigger. Element 84 is committed to hiring the best person for the team and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status, national origin, age, veteran status, disability, or any other protected class.

Applications for this position will be accepted until the end of the day on Monday, January 20th.