About the position / About the job

A permanent position as a Senior Data Science Engineer within Geoscience is available at the University of Oslo (UiO), Department of Geosciences. The candidate will be part of a team of six at the department's local IT service, which covers the full range from IT support and operations to advanced research support for our scientific staff, students and researchers. This position will be part of the advanced research support, associated with the Section of Geography and Hydrology (GeoHyd), but work will also be carried out in close collaboration with the other sections of the Department, especially the section of Meteorology and Oceanography (MetOs).

Research and teaching activities at GeoHyd and METOS cover a range of topics in hydrology, glaciology, geomorphology, meteorology, oceanography and geomatics, with strong focus on the cryosphere. Examples are floods and droughts, snow, glaciers and ice sheets, permafrost, geohazards, climate change, the oceans as well as the carbon cycle. The sections engage in both field observations, remote sensing (drones and satellites) and numerical modelling, and many successful research projects are based on a combination of two or more of the above. For this reason, developing and applying state-of-the-art methods for the interplay of data and models is of critical importance for the GeoHyd and MetOs sections.

The GeoHyd and MetOs sections rely on the computing capacities of the Department of Geosciences, and additional computing and storage resources are accessed through the national Norwegian Infrastructure provided by Uninett-Sigma2. External project financing comes from the Norwegian and European Research Councils, the EU Framework Programs and the European Space Agency. The position will primarily serve the research community of the GeoHyd and MetOs sections but will also be a resource for the department more generally and contribute to the broader research software engineering community at University of Oslo and beyond.

Job description

We seek a highly motivated Data Science engineer, with a proven track record in data assimilation and/or machine learning. 

The successful candidate will:

• Contribute to the design, planning, documentation, implementation, and execution of computational research work related to data assimilation and/or machine learning
• Assist with maintenance and updates of research software and data sets
• Follow state-of-the-art research developments in data science
• Provide support in the planning of research projects and writing of research proposals
• Keep close contact with and offer advanced support for researchers and students working with a variety of data sets and modelling tools
•  Contribute to competence development with respect to data assimilation and/ormachine learning, and train others in the different research groups 

Qualification requirements

You must have 

• At least a master’s degree in computer science, geophysics/meteorology, physics, or a related field
• documented strong experience with data assimilation and/or machine learning within geoscience, in particular topics relevant for earth surface processes and climate science
• documented strong experience in scientific programming within Linux/Windowsenvironments using programming languages such as Python, Matlab, Julia, Fortran and/or C++
• Strong communication skills - a person to bridge the gap between scientific data analysis, computing and research. 
• A team player with strong mentorship capabilities - the candidate will contribute to competence development within the sections in terms of data assimilationand machine learning, for example by organizing seminars and workshops

Desired qualifications 

• A candidate with a research background and a PhD degree.
• Insight into the foundations of data assimilation and/or machine learning
• Track record in developing and implementing data assimilation and/or machinelearning based algorithms for scientific problems within cryospheric and climate science
• Experience with computational support work for researchers and/or students
• Experience with high performance computing (HPC) and parallel programming
•  Experience with packaging and publishing software, as well as version control (e.g. Github)
• Experience related to the scientific work at the GeoHyd section (e.g. snow, glaciers, permafrost, hydrology, remote sensing, eddy covariance)

We offer / We can offer you / Why should you choose us?

• Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development.
• Committed colleagues in a good working environment. A pleasant and stimulating work environment
• Good welfare schemes.
• Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
• A workplace with good development and career opportunities. 
• Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes.
• Salary in position as job Senior Engineer, position code 1181 in salary range NOK from 650 000 - 850 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund.

Read more about the benefits of working in the public sector at Employer Portal.

Inclusive worklife and diversity at UiO

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. Furthermore, we want employees with diverse professional expertise, life experience and perspectives.

If there are qualified applicants with disabilities, employment gaps or immigrant background, we will invite at least one applicant from each of these categories to an interview.

For management positions with less than 40% women: Women are especially encouraged to apply.

We hope that you will apply for the position. 

Application

Your application should include:

• Cover letter.
• CV (complete overview of education and work experience)
• Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records and letters for recommendation.
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (names, relation to candidate and telephone number)

Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for the position".

When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. 

General information

The best qualified candidates will invited for interviews.

Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we can't, you will hear from us.

Questions about the position

• Sebastian Westermann, Professor at GeoHYD (Professor at GeoHYD), sebastian.westermann@geo.uio.no
• Kjetil Bakke (Head of IT-section), Kjetil.bakke@geo.uio.no
• For technical questions regarding the recruitment system, please contact HR Adviser Ørjan Pretorius, orjan.pretorius@mn.uio.no