Operational Surge/Wave Modeling Development and Support

Overview

Lynker is seeking a Support Scientist for Operational Wave and Storm Surge Modeling Development to accelerate and enhance operational marine modeling capabilities within the National Weather Service (NWS). With roughly 40% of the U.S. population residing in coastal communities and coastal flooding, storm surge, and rip currents remaining leading causes of weather-related hazards, this role advances foundational guidance for Impact-Based Decision Support Services (IDSS) to protect life and property. Working alongside a team, the specialist will support the development, testing, and implementation of physics-based, probabilistic, and machine learning surge/wave frameworks, integrate atmospheric forcing, and assist in transitioning cutting-edge capabilities into NWS operations. Additionally, the specialist will contribute to building and updating intuitive web interfaces to visualize pre-operational model output, ensuring rapid feedback and accessible data delivery for key stakeholders.

Responsibilities

The candidate will perform job duties in an independent, collaborative, and initiative-driven way, applying innovative methods across the primary work areas:

• Operational Modeling & System Integration: Work with the team to support the development, optimization, maintenance, and integration of wave and storm surge modeling capabilities within NWS operational architectures, ensuring strict alignment with operational standards.

• Coastal Processes & Hazard Prediction: Contribute to advancing numerical, statistical, and probabilistic formulations for key coastal phenomena, including total water level guidance based on storm surge and wave runup, rip current guidance, and real-time model merging/weighting.

• Atmospheric Forcing & Diagnostics: Work with meteorological input datasets (e.g., National Blend of Models -NBM) and derive key secondary diagnostics (e.g., generating synthetic pressure fields from wind fields using established formulations).

• Interagency & Sector Collaboration: Partner across multidisciplinary federal and private sectors (e.g., USGS, NOS, academic institutions, and private industry) to evaluate external models and accelerate the transition of research to operations .

• Model Experimentation & Validation: Assist in designing and executing numerical model experiments, applying advanced Python-based verification, performance metrics, and observational data-fusion techniques across regional and nearshore domains.

• System Support & Web Interfaces: Maintain, visualize, and disseminate marine modeling output by leveraging front-end web technologies to display pre-operational and operational model guidance for internal and public use.

Qualifications

The support scientist should have the following:

• An M.S. (or equivalent experience) in meteorology, physical oceanography, coastal engineering or a related field, with 7+ years in weather forecasting, physical oceanography, or coastal ocean science.

• Knowledge of spectral wave models (like WAVEWATCH III), in particular for real-time applications.

• Demonstrated experience with operational storm surge models (e.g., SLOSH, P-ETSS, P-Surge, SCHISM, and/or ADCIRC)

• Strong background in ensemble modeling, probabilistic output analysis, and real-time model merging and weighting techniques.

• Understanding of meteorological inputs and atmospheric forcing (e.g., NBM), with experience generating secondary fields (e.g., deriving synthetic pressure fields from wind fields using published formulations).

• Experience running numerical models on High Performing Computer (HPC) platforms using PBS and Slurm for job submittals, and MPI or OpenMP for multi-processing.

• Advanced skills and knowledge of modern programming languages and object-oriented languages, such as Fortran 90, C/C++ and Python.

• Experience working in a UNIX environment with advanced shell scripting languages and familiar with running complex jobs.

• Demonstrated proficiency using GitHub to manage software repositories, code versions, and projects.

• Ability to maintain, visualize, and disseminate marine modeling output and web-based products.

Preferred Qualifications & Skills:

• Demonstrated experience in real-time operational system integration, model blending, and software development within regional and nearshore domains.

• Direct experience operating within NOAA/NWS operational environments, specifically WCOSS and NCO standards (directory structures, production job controls, and script standards).

• Familiarity with applying artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) techniques to enhance wave parameterizations, model efficiency, or forecast accuracy.

• Strong team-player mindset with a proven ability to collaborate across interagency and private sectors.

• About Lynker

• Lynker is a growing, employee owned business, specializing in professional, scientific and technical services. Our continually expanding team combines scientific expertise with mature, results-driven processes and tools to achieve technically sound, cost effective solutions in hydrology/water sciences, geospatial analysis, information technology, resource management, conservation, and management and business process improvement.

• We focus on putting the right people in the right place to be effective. And having the right people is critical for success. Our streamlined organization enables and empowers our talented professionals to tackle our customers' scientific and technical priorities – creatively and effectively.

Lynker offers a team-oriented work environment, and the opportunity to work in a culture of exceptionally skilled professionals who embrace sound science and creative solutions. Lynker's benefits include the following:

• Comprehensive healthcare for the employee at no monthly cost

• Healthcare benefit covers medical, prescription drug, dental, and vision

• Personal Time Off (PTO) Policy plus paid holidays

• Highly competitive compensation plan regularly calibrated against industry and location benchmarks

• 401(k) retirement plan with company-matching

• Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) – we're all company owners!

• Flexible spending accounts

• Employee assistance program (EAP)

• Short- and long-term disability insurance

• Life and accident insurance

• Tuition assistance/Training/Workforce improvement reimbursement per year

• Spot bonuses for exceptional performance

• Annual Employee Recognition Awards with bonuses

• Employee Referral Program

• Free centralized, self-directed Learning Management System to learn at your own pace

• Personalized career growth plans for every employee

• Lynker is an E-Verify employer.

• Lynker is an equal opportunity employer and makes all employment decisions based on merit, qualifications, and business needs. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status under federal, state, or local laws.