Your role

We are looking to fill a new position as Scientist (A2) to support the operationalisation of the Climate Change Adaptation Digital Twin (Climate DT) in the Destination Earth (DestinE) initiative of the European Commission. In this role you will play a key role in the evaluation and continuous improvement of the two Climate DT configurations based on the ECMWF Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), IFS-FESOM and IFS-NEMO, working with the partnership implementing the Climate DT, led by CSC-IT Center for Science Ltd in close collaboration with ECMWF. You will contribute to, and coordinate with the Climate DT partnership, on the evaluation, quality control, uncertainty quantification, and documentation of the Climate DT simulations.

You will also act as contact point for external contractors providing climate-related forcing datasets used for the IFS-based configurations. Finally, you will collaborate with modelling teams at ECMWF and across the Climate DT partnership on evaluation, to inform further improvements to the representation of atmosphere, land, ocean at km-scales across weather to climate timescales, supporting future upgrades of DestinE’s DTs and ECMWF operational prediction systems.

About ECMWF

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.

About DestinE | Destination Earth

ECMWF is one of the entities entrusted with implementing the European Commission's DestinE initiative, alongside the European Space Agency (ESA) and the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (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, see  and .

Your responsibilities

• Coordinate with the Climate DT consortium and contribute to evaluation, quality control, and uncertainty quantification of Climate DT simulations, ensuring alignment with C3S and CMIP community standards.
• Contribute to and maintain the documentation of Climate DT configurations, forcings, and simulations, in collaboration with the Climate DT consortium.
• Ensure regular monitoring of operational and experimental Climate DT simulations building on evaluation packages developed by the partnership implementing the Climate DT (AQUA, OBSALL) as well as ECMWF evaluation software.
• Provide feedback on IFS quality at climate timescales to model developers at ECMWF and in the Climate DT consortium and contribute to the evaluation of upgraded model versions.
• Contribute to the evaluation and comparison of physics-based and ML-based climate simulations (e.g. the climate emulator developed in DestinE).
• Oversee the choice of forcings used in Climate DT simulations, ensuring alignment with ECMWF operations, CMIP community standards, Copernicus historical forcings, and manage new contractual activities aiming at developing bespoke scenario forcings for DestinE.
• Foster communication with related projects on evaluation aspects (e.g. EERIE, TERRA DT, and other Horizon Europe projects).
• Participate in project meetings and review project deliverables.

What we are looking for

• Proven analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive approach to improving models and tools.
• Proven interpersonal and communication skills to enable productive working across the organisation and its partners.  
• Able to work independently with minimal supervision while actively contributing to and supporting a collaborative team environment.
• Ability to maintain effective communication and documentation of scientific results.
• Proven capacity to work on a diverse range of tasks to tight deadlines.

Your profile

• Advanced university degree (EQ7 level or above) in a physical, mathematical or environmental science, or equivalent professional experience.
• Experience in the evaluation of climate simulations using coupled Earth system models, including at km-scale resolutions.
• Experience running and analysing coupled Earth-system model simulations on leading high-performance computing (HPC) systems, including handling and analysing large data volumes
• Experience applying and developing diagnostic and evaluation tools, with strong proficiency in Python for large-scale data analysis.
• Experience working in collaborative, multi-partner project environments, including coordination with external partners or contractors and contribution to shared documentation and evaluation workflows.
• Experience evaluating and comparing different modelling approaches, including physics-based and machine-learning-based climate simulations, is an advantage.
• Candidates must be able to work effectively in English.

If you feel that you have the relevant profile and motivation to join us but don't meet precisely all of the skills above, we still encourage you to apply.

Other information

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 .

Starting date:  as soon as possible.

Candidates are expected to relocate to the duty station (Bonn, Germany). 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 shortly after the vacancy closing date.

Successful applicants and members of their family forming part of their households will be exempt from immigration restrictions.

Who can apply

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.