Director of International Project Office for the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment

Company description

HE Space is a successful international space company, specialised in providing managed services and human resources to the international space sector for over 40 years. We hire space experts all over Europe across the whole spectrum of space-related activities, from engineering to science, software development, operations, marketing, finance and administration. Our employees contribute towards a wide range of groundbreaking space programmes including Galileo and Copernicus, ExoMars, Iris2, ESA BASS, ESA GSPT, LISA Pathfinder, Euclid, the Ariane and Vega launchers as well as the International Space Station. HE Space has joined forces with CS Group and Sopra Steria to lead the engineering and digital space market in Europe and to provide highly skilled consulting. We are passionate about people and invest in you to support the development of the European space industry. 

The World Climate Research Programme (WCRP) invite applications for the position of Director of the International Project Office for Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX-IPOC), to be hosted jointly by the European Space Agency (ESA) and University of Cape Town (UCT). The WCRP is sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the International Science Council (ISC), and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The WCRP goals are to determine the extent to which climate can be predicted and the extent of human influence on climate.

Regional downscaling and CORDEX

The WCRP views regional downscaling as both an important research topic and an opportunity to engage a broader community of climate scientists in its activities. CORDEX has served as a catalyst to achieve this goal since its inception in 2009 (WMO bulletin Addressing climate information needs at the regional level: the CORDEX framework).

The CORDEX vision is to advance and coordinate the science and application of regional climate downscaling through global partnerships. Its goals are:

1. To better understand relevant regional/local climate phenomena, their variability and changes, through downscaling.
2. To evaluate and improve regional climate downscaling models and techniques
3. To produce coordinated sets of regional downscaled projections worldwide
4. To foster communication and knowledge exchange with users of regional climate information

Regional Climate Models (RCM) and Empirical Statistical Downscaling (ESD), applied over a limited area and driven by GCMs can provide information on much smaller scales supporting more detailed impact and adaptation assessment and planning, which is vital in many vulnerable regions of the world. Close engagement with the impact and adaptation communities and capacity building across the 14 CORDEX domains across the globe are important pillars of the CORDEX initiative.

The International Project Office for CORDEX

The International Project Office for CORDEX (IPOC) has been hosted by the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) in Norrköping, Sweden from 2015 until 2025. The new IPOC will be hosted by the European Space Agency and University of Cape Town who are now seeking an experienced Director to lead the IPOC going forwards and who will be based at ESA’s UK site in Harwell, UK, together with the Programme Manager. A science/communication officer will be based at UCT, and the team will be completed with the administration support officers that will be based at both institutions.

Employment structure

The IPOC will be hosted by the European Space Agency; however, the team is contracted and managed for ESA by HE Space Operations Ltd. HE Space is offering a competitive salary for this position for suitably qualified candidates.

Job description

The Director leads the international project office ensuring that it operates efficiently to actively serve the needs of CORDEX and its global community, in alignment with and under the guidance of the CORDEX Science Advisory Team (SAT). The Director is responsible for:

• The recruitment and management of the IPO staff, budget and operations.

• Coordinating the management and administration of CORDEX plans and other project related documentation.
• Preparing reports and presentations for and of meetings and project-related events to support the CORDEX co-chairs in representing CORDEX within WCRP and beyond, including at any relevant meetings and conferences.
• Preparing the annual internal IPO budget (contract limit of liability funding from ESA) and the WCRP CORDEX budget (for the approval of the SAT).
• Supporting the SAT by organizing the SAT meetings, the agenda and minutes in close collaboration with the CORDEX Co-chairs
• Participating in, and coordinating with Co-chairs or CORDEX SAT members, meetings relevant to CORDEX such as CORDEX SAT meetings, WCRP JSC and other leadership meetings.
• Supporting and facilitating international coordination between the CORDEX domains, institutes and individuals.
• Building relationships, in close collaboration with the SAT, with the impacts and adaptation, and end user communities to ensure their needs are addressed by CORDEX activities.
• Facilitating and coordinating collaboration with parent core project, RIfS, relevant WCRP and other international programmes.
• Promoting capacity development particularly in developing regions and among early career scientists.
• Mobilising financial and in-kind resources from various sources to cover CORDEX activities and additional IPOC staff.
• Overseeing active dissemination and communication of the work of CORDEX, in coordination with the SAT
• Participating in the representation of CORDEX at relevant national and international meetings.
• Ensuring the IPO fulfils its terms of reference under the overall guidance of CORDEX governing bodies and in consultation with the WCRP Secretariat.
• Seeking resources to maintain adequate funding for the IPO by writing, and supporting, grant proposals.
• Fulfilling other appropriate duties as required or requested by  the CORDEX SAT.