ECMWF Team Leader and Scientist vacancies
ECMWF, Reading, UK or Bonn, Germany
Closing dates: 7 and 15 September 2026
ECMWF are recruiting for the following three Core-funded positions:
- Team Leader – Ensemble Modelling, Research Department
- Scientist – Ensemble Modelling, Research Department
- Team Leader – Workflow Design and Integration (Grade A3), Forecast Department
1. Team Leader – Ensemble Modelling
Ensemble prediction is central ECMWF’s operational forecasts and products. Reliable probabilistic forecasts enable users in Member and Co-operating States and beyond to understand forecast uncertainty and make better-informed decisions.
ECMWF are seeking a Team Leader (Grade A3) for the newly formed Ensemble Modelling Team, that will lead ECMWF’s work on ensemble prediction across medium-range, sub-seasonal, seasonal and longer-range applications.
This role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of ECMWF’s ensemble prediction capabilities. You will guide the design and development of physics-based, AI-based and hybrid ensemble systems, determine how different approaches can best contribute to reliable probabilistic forecasts, and help ensure that scientific advances are translated into robust operational forecasting systems that respond to evolving user needs.
As Team Leader, you will provide scientific and managerial leadership for a team of around a dozen experienced scientists. Reporting to and supporting the Head of Earth System Modelling, you will help set priorities, plan and manage the team’s programme of work. You will also foster effective collaboration across ECMWF and with Member and Co-operating states.
Closing date: 7 September 2026
2. Scientist – Ensemble Modelling
ECMWF are also seeking a Scientist (Grade A2) for the new Ensemble Modelling Team to work on ECMWF’s operational ensemble prediction systems across medium-range to seasonal timescales. The role will contribute to improving and maintaining ensemble configurations used in operations, leveraging physics-based, AI-based and hybrid approaches.
You will work on ECMWF’s operational IFS ensemble forecasts, with a particular focus on the representation of model uncertainty through the stochastically perturbed parametrisations scheme. You will also contribute to ECMWF’s operational AIFS ensemble forecasting capability and to hybrid ensemble configurations, including nudged ensembles.
You will also work on the representation of initial-condition uncertainty for the operational ensemble systems, using singular vectors and initial conditions from the ensemble data assimilation system.
More broadly, the role will involve numerical experimentation, testing and implementation of ensemble system upgrades, supporting robust operational configurations, and preparing training datasets.
About the Ensemble Modelling Team
The Ensemble Modelling Team will be part of the Earth System Modelling Section in ECMWF’s Research Department. It will consolidate and advance ECMWF’s operational ensemble prediction systems across medium-range, sub-seasonal, seasonal and longer-range applications.
The team will be responsible for ensemble configuration design, initialisation, representation of model and initial-condition uncertainty, calibration and reliability. Its work will span physics-based, AI-based and hybrid systems, sharing methods across timescales where relevant and tailoring approaches to different prediction ranges where needed.
The team will also maintain, support and further advance ECMWF’s operational ensemble systems, using numerical experimentation to guide improvements and address issues that may arise in operations. It will work with colleagues across data assimilation, atmospheric, ocean and land modelling, machine learning, evaluation, forecast production and user services to support the delivery of world-leading ensemble predictions.
Closing date: 7 September 2026
3. Team Leader – Workflow Design and Integration, Forecast Department
ECMWF are seeking a Team Leader (A3) for the Workflow Design and Integration Team, which sits at the heart of ECMWF’s operational forecasting systems. The team plays a crucial role in delivering ECMWF’s operational weather, environmental and climate services by ensuring that scientific and technical advances are integrated safely and efficiently into production.
This is a key operational, technical and leadership role at the intersection of science, software engineering, high-performance computing, machine learning and 24/7 operational delivery. You will provide technical and people leadership for the team responsible for ensuring that ECMWF’s prediction systems and services run reliably in production, while improving and modernising their workflows and integrating changes safely into operations.
The role spans the operational implementation of upgrades to ECMWF’s Integrated Forecasting System and Artificial Intelligence Forecasting System, Copernicus and Destination Earth production workflows, and the adaptation of operational suites to new and upgraded computing environments.
As Team Leader, you will set direction and priorities, develop the team and work closely with colleagues across ECMWF’s Forecasts and Services, Research and Computing Departments. The role requires hands-on technical credibility and practical leadership to manage dependencies, identify operational risks early and enable ECMWF to innovate quickly while protecting the reliability, traceability and quality of its operational systems and services.
About the Workflow Design and Integration Team
The Workflow Design and Integration Team, currently encompassing 10 staff, is part of the Production Section in ECMWF’s Forecasts and Services Department. It co-designs, integrates, tests and supports the workflows that allow ECMWF’s prediction systems and environmental and climate services to run reliably in operational production.
The team plays an important role as operational forecasting moves towards a more diverse mix of physics-based and data-driven systems, new computing environments and more complex data flows. These developments require disciplined workflow design, reliable orchestration, clear release processes and close coordination across ECMWF.
The team ensures that input data, model execution, post-processing, archiving, monitoring and dissemination steps are aligned and robust. It oversees workflows used to produce operational weather forecasts from medium-range to seasonal timescales, as well as machine-learning-enabled forecasts, Copernicus climate reanalyses and atmospheric composition services and Destination Earth Digital Twins. It also monitors the performance of operational suites, provides second-line support when problems are escalated by ECMWF’s operators, and contributes to change, configuration, release and incident-management processes.
Working jointly with colleagues in research, development and operations, the team modernises workflow design and integrates scientific and technical developments safely into production. It co-owns and evolves the end-to-end Research-to-Operations process, helping to reduce technical barriers and ensure appropriate optimisation, reliability, testing, documentation and operational readiness. An important direction of travel is closer alignment of the workflows, configuration and tooling used in research and operations: co-designed so that advances flow into production with less friction and lower risk.
Closing date: 15 September 2026