The climate needs bright minds. The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) addresses crucial scientific questions in the fields of global change, climate impacts and sustainable development. It is one of the world's leading research institutions in its field and offers natural and social scientists from around the world an inspiring environment for excellent interdisciplinary research.
PIK is offering a position as
Scientific data manager (m/f/d)
(Position number: 29-2023 ISIMIP-data)
in the Inter-Sectoral Impact Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP, www.isimip.org). ISIMIP is a leading global climate impact modeling initiative. We work together with the diverse communities researching climate impacts, covering for example agriculture, water, or biodiversity. At PIK we coordinate the model simulations and curate the input and output data of the impact models. We aim to fill the position at the earliest possible date.
The position is initially funded for two years through the Horizion Europe projects NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE, and an extension is being planned. Remuneration is in accordance with the German public tariff scheme (TV-L Brandenburg), salary group E 13. This is a full-time position with a weekly working time of 40 hours per week and 30 days of paid holidays.
As the senior data scientist in the ISIMIP data team (3 members), you would be in charge of coordinating and prioritizing the team responsibilities, and communicate and synchronize with the scientific lead of ISIMIP and the contributing ISIMIP scientists, as well as with the NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE project partners. You would also dive into the climate forcing and climate impact data, and help to ensure data quality and consistency of incoming and outgoing data sets facilitating high quality data flows between the NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE consortium members. This includes pre- and postprocessing of climate and impact data in close communication with ISIMIP modelers and project participants, and the curation of the public data portal and project-specific repositories. You would support the ISIMIP digital ecosystem, namely the website (www.isimip.org), the ISIMIP toolset (https://github.com/ISI-MIP/isimip-publisher, https://github.com/ISI-MIP/isimip-files-api, https://github.com/ISI-MIP/isimip-qc), the data portal (https://github.com/ISI-MIP/isimip-data), the web-based ISIMIP protocol (https://github.com/ISI-MIP/isimip-protocol-3), and the connection to the outreach portal ISIpedia (www.isipedia.org), to fulfill the related project-specific obligations of PIK in NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE. Your ideas regarding e.g. learning from existing data for the quality control of new incoming ones, linking information about model evaluation studies to associated data sets that are in development within NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE, or which are already available in our portal, etc. are highly welcome and could set your own focus and possibilities for publications.
The position requires good skills in project management and team communication to bring together and resolve the diverse demands from both science and data quality and curation, including the many requests from the project consortia and the research community.
Key tasks
- Coordinate and manage the data flows between consortium members of above projects, the ISIMIP modeling teams and the ISIMIP data management team,
- Interact with the consortium members (NEVERMORE, SPARCCLE) and modeling teams taking part in ISIMIP (e.g. model documentation, licensing),
- Curate and communicate changes and caveats of the ISIMIP data portfolio, and data generated within the NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE projects,
- Pre- and post-processing of climate impact simulation data generated in NEVERMORE and SPARCCLE and submitted to ISIMIP by participating modeling teams,
- Process and provide ISIMIP simulation data and formats as requested by project partners,
- Attend project meetings and write or contribute to project reports and deliverables,
- Develop further data management tools and processes to improve the data flows within the projects, as well the ISIMIP data submission and publication work flow (e.g. automatic quality checks, versioning, guided access for external users),
Requirements:
- The position requires a master degree in a field related to quantitative or natural sciences, not necessarily in climate or climate impact science,
- Sound communication skills and a gift for efficient work organisation,
- Strong programming skills (e.g. Python, Linux Bash scripting, CDO,
- Expertise in processing large-scale data sets, especially NetCDF Files is a plus,
- Proficiency in oral and written English,
We expect:
- the ability to work independently and on your own initiative,
- a methodical and systematic approach,
- structured and goal-oriented thinking,
- capacity to familiarise yourself quickly with new topics and methods,
- creativity and openness to new approaches,
- reliability and a high level of motivation,
- capacity for teamwork and organisational talent.
We offer:
- flexible work times and mobile working (up to 40% of your hours),
- a stimulating working environment in an internationally recognised research institute on Potsdam's beautiful, historic Telegrafenberg campus, a short commuting distance from Berlin,
- a collective pay scheme and associated benefits as well as a subsidized travel card.
PIK values equality and diversity. We encourage applications without photo. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment regardless of ethnic and social origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, care responsibilities, or age. PIK seeks to increase the share of women in scientific positions and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply. In cases of equal qualification and within the given legal scope, women will be given preference. PIK also encourages applications by parents returning from parental leave.
Please apply directly using our application form.
The application process remains open until the position is filled.
Application documents (combined in a single PDF document) should comprise a letter of motivation, a full CV and relevant certificates including grades).
If you hold an international higher education qualification, please also submit the Statement of Comparability from the Central Office for Foreign Education (ZAB) with your application. In the case that you do not yet have a ZAB Statement of Comparability for your qualification, please be aware that you may need to request this if your application is successful. You can find further information on this website: https://www.kmk.org/zab/central-office-for-foreign-education.html
For further information or to discuss the position please contact Matthias Mengel, Telephone: +49 (0)331-288-2460 or via Email: matthias.mengel@pik-potsdam.de.
