Sea Ice Data Scientist

The UK’s Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling (CPOM) is looking to hire a Sea Ice Data Scientist to help assess the impacts of climate change on Earth’s polar regions.

Post based at Northumbria University, Newcastle City Campus.

The closing date for applications to this post is Monday 17th June 2024.

WHAT IS CPOM?

CPOM has provided satellite observations and model simulations of the polar regions for 25 years. We monitor the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, and sea ice in the Arctic and Southern Oceans. We combine these observations with model simulations to explain how Earth’s ice, oceans and climate interact and evolve. Through this work, we provide the UK with strategic core capability and our products are used by climate and environmental scientists all over the world. 

CPOM scientists work across 10 UK universities, and we collaborate with organisations across the UK and around the world, including NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). CPOM is led by Northumbria, working in partnership with the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) on behalf of the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). We maintain long-term collaborative relationships with a range of external organisations, including the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO), the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), the UK Met Office (UKMO), ESA, and NASA. We collaborate closely with ESA, for example, on current satellite missions and future design concepts, including CryoSat-2, Sentinel-3, and CRISTAL.

ABOUT THE ROLE

Applications are invited for a two-year position (with a review of possible extension to five years) in data science of sea ice. We invest in and develop our staff members to achieve their potential, so we would work with the postholder to help realise their career goals and aims for progression.

Your work will use data collected by satellite instruments and process it into estimates of sea ice thickness. These are crucial for assessing the impacts of climate change on Earth’s polar regions and beyond. Sea ice has declined in the Arctic for the past decades, and in the Antarctic we have recently seen recent rapid reductions. Providing robust and up-to-date estimates of sea ice thickness is crucial for understanding where and why sea ice is declining, and for inputs into, and comparisons with, model simulations. The work will also contribute towards the design of new satellite missions.

Your role will be to use CPOM state-of-the-art altimetry software system to produce operational estimates of Arctic and Antarctic sea ice thickness. This will include updating the existing sea ice altimetry processing chain and maintaining the supply of primary and other  datasets to ensure that Arctic and Antarctic sea ice thickness estimates are produced routinely and without interruption and are disseminated through the dedicated CPOM data portal. In addition, you will work closely with researchers and technical staff across CPOM to implement new technical advances into the CPOM software system. You will maintain up to date documentation of processes and produce regular reports on your progress towards achieving CPOM’s national capability objectives.

The successful candidate will be primarily supervised by Dr Rosemary Willatt, and work with a large, dynamic group of cryosphere researchers within CPOM and the wider Department of Geography and Environmental Science at Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK. This work is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council’s programme of national capability science.

Although based at the heart of the CPOM team at Northumbria, you will also work with scientists across our partner universities and other institutions. There will be the opportunity to travel locally and internationally as part of your role. 

This role is offered full time, but we would also consider alternative working patterns. The University has implemented a range of flexible working arrangements, and we are happy to explore candidate requirements as part of the recruitment process.  We will always do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

ABOUT YOU

The successful candidate will have a degree in computer science, data science, physics or mathematics, or in a related, numerate discipline such as geophysics or meteorology. Experience in software engineering and data science are essential.

Further information about the requirements of the role is available in the person specification.

The targeted starting date for this post is mid-2024 depending on the successful applicant's availability. For an informal discussion, please contact Prof Andrew Shepherd, Head of Department for Physical Geography and Environmental Sciences, at andrew.shepherd@northumbria.ac.uk.

TO APPLY

To apply for this vacancy please click 'Apply Now', and submit a covering letter, CV, and a brief (~500 word) description of a coding activity you have completed - ideally related to the job description. 

Please note that if you do not have permission to work in the UK, Northumbria University may not be able to obtain a Certificate of Sponsorship for you to take up this position.

ABOUT NORTHUMBRIA

At Northumbria, we embrace tomorrow. We pursue new thinking, forge new partnerships, create, and exchange new knowledge, and find new solutions. Our inspirational academics, partners and students work together to tackle tomorrow’s challenges head on. We are ready for the future whatever it may hold.

Awarded the title of University of the Year in the 2022 Times Higher Education Awards, Northumbria University is a research-intensive modern university with a global reputation for academic excellence. 

Northumbria recorded the biggest rise of any UK university for research power in the Research Excellence Framework for the second time in 2021 and is now ranked top 25 for this measure. 

One of the largest universities in the UK with over 37,000 students from 137 countries, filled with world-leading research, award-winning partnerships, and students at the heart of an outstanding experience, Northumbria is a new kind of excellent university. Discover more about us.  

Northumbria University is a great place to work.  We empower our exceptional people to achieve shared ambitions and promote a positive work life balance. We offer a wide range of benefits including excellent pension schemes, flexible working, a generous holiday entitlement, continued commitment to your learning and development and more. 

Our Northumbria Values are guiding principles that define who we are, what we do and what is important to us. Our Values are: Academic Excellence; Innovation; Inclusivity; Collaboration; and Ambition.

Our Behaviours describe how we do things and how we work together at Northumbria, reflecting our culture and our decision-making. Our Behaviours are: We listen and learn, we support one another to success, we respect everyone and their contributions, we trust in ourselves and each other and we are bold.

Our Behaviours were co-created by colleagues from a range of roles across the University, who worked collaboratively to consider what it feels like to work for Northumbria, and where we need to continue to transform together to achieve what’s important to us. 

Please visit Our Values and Behaviours page to find out more.

We are an on-campus organisation where colleagues work regular patterns of hours and on campus, with some flexibility on the timing of their hours and the location of their work in discussion with their manager.  Our campus locations include City Campus Newcastle and Coach Lane Campus Newcastle.

Northumbria University is committed to creating an inclusive culture where we take pride in, and value, the diversity of our staff.  We encourage and welcome applications from all members of the community.  The University holds a bronze Athena Swan award in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality, we are a Disability Confident Leader, a member of the Race Equality Charter and are participating in the Stonewall Diversity Champion Programme.  

The University has implemented a range of flexible working arrangements, and we are happy to explore candidate requirements as part of the recruitment process.  

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