Location: National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds
Salary: £36,333 to £43,155 per annum
Contract length: Fixed Term (for 12 months due to fixed external funding)
Contract type: Full Time/Part Time
Closing date: Midnight on Thursday 1 June 2023

Would you like to advance the strategy and direction of our African storm forecasting system FASTA, and support the delivery of the project’s strategic objectives? Are you interested in pro-actively seeking funding to expand the delivery to African users? Would you like to be part of an experienced team and have the opportunity to contribute to capacity-building with African partner organisations?

Through the application of innovative meteorological research to harness satellite data, FASTA is developing solutions to deliver nowcasts of high-impact storms to Tropical Africa. FASTA aims to provide the capabilities needed for African national weather services to enhance their delivery of weather forecasts and ensure access to high-quality weather information for African populations. Ultimately, better preparedness and informed decision-making using nowcasting information will improve climate resilience and save lives and livelihoods.

As FASTA Development and Co-Production Scientist, you will contribute to the development and uptake of the FASTA nowcasting system (already being used by African weather services and publicly available in Kenya). In particular, you will support transdisciplinary development of the project, engaging with scientists, forecasters, users and customers to co-produce nowcasting systems and enable better decision making. 

FASTA incorporates the use of geostationary satellite data, the production of nowcast products in near-real-time and dissemination of information through a mobile application and API. You will be working as part of a team including experienced colleagues who have been part of the app development from the start, but are now only able to commit smaller fractions of their time to the work. 

In addition to the advertised post, the team will comprise: (1) a Research & Development Scientist, responsible for developing the nowcasting algorithms; (2) a research scientist, formerly working 100% in this role, but now 20%; (3) a more senior research scientist who has led the successful testing of new forecast algorithms, and is now contributing 20%; (4) a mobile application developer (60%); (5) a computational modelling specialist who is working on the real-time data handling (20%); (6) a project manager (60%). Within this team, we need you to oversee a transdisciplinary approach. You will bring together the underpinning science and the needs of users and clients, to enable an effective co-production and co-evaluation of solutions.

This role offers the opportunity to work with the Director and other team members to define the strategy and direction of FASTA, and support the delivery of that strategy.   You may need to deputise for the Director in relation to FASTA, where necessary. You will be required to take leadership of the interactions with external partners and clients.

Find out more and make your application.

To explore the post further or for any queries you may have, please contact: 

Professor Doug Parker, Science Co-ordinator for NCAS at Leeds

Email: doug.parker@ncas.ac.uk