The Water Forecasting Service team is seeking a talented software engineer to develop and maintain modelling systems for water forecasting services. Australian streamflows are among the most variable in the world. These streamflows are relied upon by a range of water managers and users, including irrigators, urban and rural water supply authorities, environmental managers and hydroelectricity generators. Predictions of future short range, seasonal streamflows and long-term water availability forecasts can potentially allow these water managers and users to better plan and manage water use, allocation, environmental flows and trading decisions and to assist with development of water policies.

WFS has been established to develop short range, seasonal and long term water availability and streamflow forecasting services. Currently, the team is delivering a 7-day streamflow forecasting service (http://www.bom.gov.au/water/7daystreamflow), seasonal streamflow forecasting service (http://www.bom.gov.au/water/ssf) and Hydrologic Reference Stations (HRS) service (http://www.bom.gov.au/water/hrs). In addition, the team is developing forecasting systems for streamflow, sediment and pollutant fluxes to the Great Barrier Reef (http://ereefs.org.au/ereefs). To deliver these services, WFS uses an extensive suite of software tools and applications, integrating external tools as well as programs developed within the Bureau of Meteorology.

The System Developer will conduct important roles in the Water Forecasting Services section. The person will be responsible for designing, developing and bringing into operations modelling systems and tools. This will require a very high level of expertise in scientific programming and experience in deploying scientific programs for operational services.

We are seeking an experienced and motivated professional who will enjoy working in a dynamic team environment to deliver practical environmental services benefiting Australia.

The occupant will lead technical activities to develop and maintain forecasting systems and tools, including WFS's primary modelling applications WAFARi and SWIFT, which run on virtual servers, HPC systems and supercomputers. Most of the systems were built up by integrating Fortran/C/C++ modelling kernels with Python programs and using Python packages for scientific computing. The role also includes an important focus on maintaining, developing and extending systems for effectively processing and transforming large environmental datasets.

The occupant of this position will join a team of developers, engineers and hydrologists responsible for the development and maintenance of water forecasting systems and the regular delivery of water forecasting products.