We are in search of a highly motivated Cloud Platform Engineer (A2) to work on platform engineering and observability for application deployments in the Destination Earth Data Bridges.
ECMWF is one of the Entrusted Entities delivering Destination Earth (DestinE), the initiative of the EU to create a digital twin of the planet. The third phase of DestinE covers the period June 2026 to May 2028. Phase 3 will ensure the Climate change Adaptation and Extreme events Digital Twins and the Digital Twin Engine reach a stable production-grade operational stage, enabling operations with robust quality control as well as continuous evolution, calibration and consolidation. Phase 3 will ensure the ML model of the Earth system piloted in phase 2 is transitioned towards a production-ready status. For more about DestinE, p,ease see https://destine.ecmwf.int and https://destination-earth.eu.
At ECMWF you will find a passionate community, collectively aiming to bring novel technology and science to the cutting-edge of numerical weather prediction and, more recently, to high-resolution climate modelling. In this role, you will develop the practices and knowledge gained from ECMWF's own operations and support the deployment and observation of existing and new applications into multiple Data Bridge environments. You will be expected to bring creative insights which enable the operation of software in heterogeneous environments to a high degree of quality and reliability.
The role sits in the Platform Engineering Team, within the Application Delivery Section of our Computing Department. The Section provides platforms and services that enable ECMWF teams to consume computing resources at different levels (PaaS, SaaS) and to consistently deploy applications with different levels of support to a high degree of quality and reliability. The Section achieves this through innovation in the areas of computer systems administration automation, application deployment and operation, reliability engineering, identity and access management, container orchestration, observability (monitoring, logging and tracing), and PaaS/SaaS application development.
This contract is funded by Destination Earth and will collaborate closely with other activities at ECMWF Member States and with our partners at ESA and EUMETSAT.
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Deliver and support a container orchestration infrastructure in multiple DestinE Data Bridges
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Automation of the deployment of open source, commercial and proprietary software to Destination Earth containers, VMs or bare metal
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Developing observability capabilities for Destination Earth services and for the underlying systems
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Implement systems to monitor the performance of the Data Bridges PaaS/IaaS and interface with the providers and hosting data centres to ensure system-level capability and performance
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Contribute to the design and implementation of observability and event collection and analysis
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Advocating for reliability engineering within Destination Earth and its partners
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Participating in regular 24-hour on-call rotas for any critical systems and services in the relevant areas (subject to training and contract length)
The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a world leader in Numerical Weather Predictions providing high-quality data for weather forecasts and environmental monitoring. As an intergovernmental organisation, we collaborate internationally to serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions, data and training activities that are critical to contribute to safe and thriving societies.
The success of our activities depends on the funding and partnerships of the 35 Member and Co-operating States who provide the support and direction of our work. Our talented staff together with the international scientific community, and our powerful supercomputing capabilities, are the core of a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions. We also hold one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world.
ECMWF has also 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 and the Strengthening Early Earning in Africa (SEWA) 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.
Our vision: The strength of a common goal
Our mission: Deliver global numerical weather predictions focusing on the medium-range and monitoring of the Earth system to and with our Member States
ECMWF is a multi-site organisation, with its headquarters in Reading, UK, a data centre in Bologna, Italy, and a large presence in Bonn, Germany, as a central location for our EU-related activities. ECMWF is internationally recognised as the voice of expertise in numerical weather predictions for forecasts and climate science. For more details, see www.ecmwf.int.
ECMWF is one of the entities entrusted with implementing the European Commission's DestinE initiative, alongside ESA and EUMETSAT, and works closely with over 100 partner institutions across Europe. DestinE delivers high-resolution, configurable digital twins of the Earth system that simulate past, present and plausible future environmental conditions and enable “what-if” scenario exploration.
ECMWF is responsible for the delivery of these digital twins and of the Digital Twin engine, the software infrastructure needed to power the digital twins on the European HPC Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC) and ECMWF’s supercomputers and to handle and enable access to their data via the DestinE infrastructure, as well as for a range of Artificial Intelligence/ Machine Learning (AI/ML) activities. These include developments towards an ML Earth system model and a range of AI solutions that increase system interactivity and usability of digital twin data.
The third phase of DestinE (June 2026 June 2028) marks the transition of the Climate Change Adaptation and Weather-induced Extremes Digital Twins, together with the Digital Twin Engine, into sustained operations. During this phase, the focus will be on consolidating, operating, and further evolving these key elements, as well as on maturing the AI Earth-system model components and AI-based solutions developed in phase 2.
The Climate DT is implemented by a partnership led by CSC, currently involving 12 leading climate institutions, supercomputing centres, national meteorological services, academia and industrial partners, through a contract procured by ECMWF.
For more about DestinE and the Climate DT, please seehttps://destine.ecmwf.intandhttps://destination-earth.eu.
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Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with a cooperative nature
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Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with a proactive continuous improvement approach
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Self-motivated, and able to work with minimal supervision
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Dedication and enthusiasm to work in a geographically distributed team
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Ability to work efficiently, and complete diverse tasks in a timely manner
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Avanced university degree (EQF level 6) or equivalent industry experience
Candidates are explicitly welcomed from a range of technical backgrounds and ECMWF does not require full coverage of these skills. If you feel that you have the relevant profile and motivation to join us but don't meet precisely all the skills below, we still encourage you to apply.
Demonstrable knowledge and skills in some of the following:
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Programming (any language) or scripting (Python, Ruby, Pearl, Go)
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Cloud Native and Containers (Kubernetes, Helm, Docker)
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Cloud IaaS (OpenStack or similar)
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Software Engineering- Kubernetes application patterns (operators) and Cloud Native architectures (distributed applications, microservices)
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Automation toolchain (Terraform, Ansible ot similar)
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Linux system administration
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Observability, monitoring, logging and analytics, tracing applications
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DevOps: CI/CD, Software Engineering, Automation pipelines
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The server, storage and networking components of Cloud applications
A working knowledge in some of the following is desirable:
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Splunk, Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, ELK or similar
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Application Performance Monitoring
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NOSQL (MongoDB), SQL (PostgreSQL or MySQL)
Please provide clear examples of your knowledge and experience in the space provided in the application form.
Candidates must be able to work effectively in English, applications should be completed in English and interviews will be conducted in English.
Grade remuneration: The successful candidates will be recruited according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations. Details of salary scales and allowances are available on the ECMWF website at www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs.
Starting date: as soon as possible.
Candidates are expected to relocate to the duty station, either to Bologna, Italy, or to Reading, UK. As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organisation model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking, including away from the duty station (within the area of our member states and co-operating states).
Interviews by videoconference (MS Team) are expected to take place within a month of the vacancy closing date.
Successful applicants and members of their family forming part of their households will be exempt from immigration restrictions.
Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button below.
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 nationals of European Union member states. 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.
ECMWF Member States 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.
