Scientific Software Engineer

The Bureau of Meteorology's mission is to provide trusted, reliable, and responsive weather, water, 
climate and ocean services for Australia –all day, every day. The Research to Operations (R2O) 
Program sits within the Science and Innovation Group, which comprises a diverse workforce 
utilising Earth System science in providing innovative systems and services for all Australians. 
R2O is focused on improving the development and delivery of operational prediction systems, 
driven by research outcomes, that are better aligned to customer needs.

This position is in the Water Models team within the R2O Program, where the occupant will be a 
member of a team of software developers and hydrological modellers. The R2O Water Team’s 
primary work is developing, building, and supporting operational forecasting and analysis systems 
that allow the Bureau to inform Australians on current and future water availability, flood risk, and 
many other products and services. Doing this requires working closely with scientists to translate 
new advancements in modelling methods and approaches into well-designed, efficient, and robust 
operational software and systems. This includes managing parallel execution in the Bureau’s highend supercomputing environment or cloud computing services, as well as integrating models into 
enterprise systems for data workflows, storage, and spatial and other analysis.
The position will suit those with a passion for developing high-quality software and experience 
doing so in team projects, with an enthusiasm to further develop your capabilities in a scientific 
environment. Our software development languages include Python and C++, integrating good 
design principles with specialised scientific libraries for processing and data analysis such 
as pandas and xarray. 

Our team strives to use best practices for software development, including Gitlab-based issue 
tracking, continuous integration and DevOps, thorough testing and verification, code review, 
iterative planning,and working closely with users and customers. The role will include a mix of 
project work and continual improvement to the design and functionality of our modelling systems 
based on feedback from their use in production.

The responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

1. Complying with all Bureau work, health and safety policies and procedures, and taking reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of employees, contractors and visitors who may be affected by your conduct.
2. Software development of applications to be built by the Water Models Team, given broad direction from senior developers. This includes taking responsibility for leading development of sub-systems or features of an overall application. 
3. Development and automation of test cases, continuous integration, and providing documentation for supporting the applications.
4. Managing software releases, using Git version control, tagging, and writing appropriate release documentation. 
5. Work with project leads to develop technical plans and design documents, both at a high level and for specific development work packages.  
6. Contribute to support and maintenance activities that ensure the current products and services delivered by the Water Models Team are available and performing as expected. 
7. Comply with delivery governance policies and change management policies.
8. Ensure that the plans, policies, and practices of the various elements of the Bureau's Social Justice Strategy are applied.

The Bureau of Meteorology is one of the few organisations that touches the lives of all Australians and all Australia, every day. The Bureau works across Australia and remote islands, providing services from the Antarctic to beyond the equator, and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. We are Australia's national weather, climate and water agency, in the Agriculture, Water and Environment portfolio of the Australian Government, operating under the authority of the Meteorology Act 1955 and the Water Act 2007. We provide data, information, knowledge, insight and wisdom to help Australians prepare and respond to the realities of their natural environment, including droughts, floods, fires, storms, tsunami and tropical cyclones. Our products and services include observations, forecasts, analysis and advice covering Australia's atmosphere, water, oceans and space environments. We undertake focused scientific research in support of our operations and services. Through regular forecasts, warnings, monitoring and advice, we provide one of Australia's most fundamental and widely used public services. We have strong relationships with our customers, partners and stakeholders in Australia, including the Australian Community and the emergency services sectors, all-levels of Government, and focus sectors including aviation, agriculture, energy and resources, national security and water.