Atmospheric and Environmental Research (AER), a Verisk business, has been helping businesses and governments better anticipate and manage climate and weather-related risks for more than 40 years. Large government agencies like NOAA, NASA and the Departments of Defense and Energy rely on AER’s scientists to help solve weather and climate related problems of vital national importance in energy, environment and national security. Large insurance, energy and investment firms count on AER to help them decrease weather-related losses and increase profitability by integrating state-of-the-art climate science and weather information into their planning and decision processes.  To learn more about AER please visit us at: www.aer.com. We are proud to be a part of the Verisk family of companies!

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Verisk is a leading data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, Verisk draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations integrated into customer workflows. We’ve been delivering predictive analytics and decision support solutions to our customers for nearly 50 years, helping them protect people, property, and financial assets. At Verisk, you’ll be part of an organization that’s committed to serving the long-term interests of our stakeholders, including the communities where we operate.

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AER is looking for an ambitious early-career Scientific Programmer / Data Analyst to assist in Space Weather related model evaluation and development. Our work at AFRL encompasses several different projects related to understanding and characterizing the near-space environment (ionosphere, plasmasphere, magnetosphere, radiation belt dynamics, etc.) as well as solar physics (e.g., impacts from X-ray flares and particle injections from coronal mass ejections and understanding of variations in Space Weather due to the solar cycle). The successful applicant will be working within our model development team and with our AFRL customer on a day-to-day basis to run models to generate large data sets, evaluate model data and parameters, validate models against satellite and ground measurements, and work in an iterative development cycle to improve existing model software or design new applications. The ultimate goal of the work is specification of the physical processes that affect space assets (commercial and DOD satellites), personnel (astronauts and DOD/commercial pilots exposed to cosmic ray and trapped particle radiation at high altitudes), and ground/communications systems (e.g., currents induced in electrical grids from magnetospheric activity or degradation in satellite signals from ionospheric disturbances). Background experience in any of these areas is a definite plus, but not required for the position; the successful applicant will be provided with overview of the science as needed based on the depth of each task at hand.

• BS or MS in Physical Sciences or Mathematics with software development experience, or BS or MS in Computer Science with science focus/minor
• Strong technical and communication skills
• Strong problem solving skills
• Desire to work in a team within a fast-paced R&D environment incorporating regular customer interaction
• Background in scientific data analysis and visualization
• Demonstrated experience in software development of complex scientific or engineering applications
• 2+ years programming experience with C/C++ and/or Python in a Linux/Unix development environment
• US citizenship
• Ability to obtain a DOD secret level clearance

Desired skills:

• Background in Space Environment or Space Weather
• Experience with formal software development best practices
• Experience developing object-oriented software
• Experience with unit, integration, and acceptance testing
• Experience developing with source control tools such as SVN, Gitlab
• Experience with build tools such as Make, CMake, Maven, Jenkins, Artifactory
• Experience with modern structured data formats such as HDF, netCDF
• Experience with XML construction and/or parsing
• Experience with relational database creation, design, queries, and management
• Additional language skills: any of Java, Perl, Fortran, Matlab are a plus

Verisk Analytics is an equal opportunity employer.

All members of the Verisk Analytics family of companies are equal opportunity employers. We consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, citizenship, sex, gender identity and/or expression, sexual orientation, veteran's status, age or disability.

http://www.verisk.com/careers.html

About our Location:

AER headquarters is in Lexington, MA, but this position is for our remote office in Albuquerque, NM where our Space Weather Division's model development team is embedded with researchers at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) on Kirtland AFB. Albuquerque is the largest city in New Mexico (just over half a million residents) and is known for its cultural heritage including historical significance as a major stop along Route 66 as well as for its mild climate with plenty of sunshine for outdoor activities. Arts and cultural events are held regularly on the University of New Mexico campus, the Expo Center, and Downtown/Old Town Albuquerque, and every October the city hosts the week-long International Balloon Fiesta.