Research Engineer, Climate Modeling

We seek a Research Engineer for a new three-year project to develop an AI-powered physics-informed hybrid climate model trained on historical data that is capable of multidecadal forecasts that are more accurate than the current state of the art. We’re looking for someone passionate about improving the quality, efficiency and accessibility of climate models with AI and modern software engineering.  

This position is supported by a grant with a current period of performance ending September 22, 2029. Continuation of the position beyond that date depends on renewal, extension, or identification of additional funding. Ai2 will make reasonable efforts to notify the employee if funding for the position is expected to end.

Who We Are: 

Ai2’s Climate Modeling team is an international pioneer in using machine learning (ML) methodologies to improve on current physics-based climate models.  Our fast, accurate autoregressive open-source emulator, ACE, stably reproduces the climate and weather extremes of an existing climate model or a reanalysis. We have coupled ACE to a ML ocean model, trained it to  realistically account  for changing CO2 concentrations, and downscaled (super-resolved) ACE outputs from their 100 km native scale to to km-scale detail. Our tight-knit team of scientists and software engineers works closely with leading physics-based climate modeling centers to obtain unique training and testing data and get expert feedback on our progress. We collaborate with other leading research groups doing related AI work.

Your Next Challenge:

Physically-based climate models discretize equations representing individual time-evolving processes like clouds, rain, wind, land and sea-ice, and ocean currents on a computational grid.  Some processes (e.g. clouds) are less reliably encoded than others (e.g. winds).  Hence such climate models have biases in representing present-day climate and produce an undesirably large range of projections of future climate change for a given human-caused change in CO2 or other climate forcings.  Current AI-based climate models reduce present-day climate bias, but don’t generalize well to future climate change.

We are starting a 3-year project funded by google.org  to develop an open source ‘AI-first’ climate model that can demonstrably project future climates more accurately than current physically-based climate models when trained on historical observations by judicious design of the AI to incorporate physical principles that reliably apply in any climate, seen or unseen.   The model should be lightweight and easy for an ML-savvy climate scientist to train and deploy. Our starting point is the Google Research NeuralGCM model, a hybrid ML model that uses a conventional discretization of winds encoded in JAX and learns a column-local representation of all other atmospheric and land processes from historical data. Compared to other AI climate models, NeuralGCM uses ML in a conceptually simpler way and shows somewhat better future-climate generalization skill.   It is an open-weight model but its training pipeline  and documentation need to be adapted for a broader user community.

You will join a small team to develop the desired NeuralGCM+ model and foster its uptake by the climate modeling community.  This includes coupling it to an ML-based ocean model and designing approaches to demonstrably improve its skill in unseen climates.  This position has a three year term; there is potential for longer-term funding if  the NeuralGCM+ project demonstrates exceptional progress.

You'll get to work on:

• Adapting the training pipeline and data needs of NeuralGCM to run efficiently on Google Cloud resources and on NVIDIA GPUs.  Note that NeuralGCM is written in JAX and implemented on TPUs.
• Documenting this training pipeline and distributing code on a GitHub repo.
• Implementing and testing a strategy for coupling NeuralGCM with the chosen ML ocean model.  
• Open-source code development as part of a tightly connected team, including daily meetings, code review, design documents and external collaborators. 
• Develop and present tutorials on NeuralGCM+ to interested user groups.

What You’ll Need:

• 2-4 years of experience building and deploying a relevant ML application in a practical or academic research setting and be fluent in Python and collaborative coding practices.
• A B.Sc. in computer or computational science, atmospheric science or a related geophysical science, or applied mathematics/statistics.
• Experience in developing ML training code for use in a cloud computing environment.
• Demonstrated excellent communications skills.

It's A Bonus If You:

• Have a Ph. D. in computer or computational science, atmospheric science or a related geophysical science, or applied mathematics/statistics, with at least one peer-reviewed first-authored publication or accepted conference paper making extensive use of ML in a physical science setting.
• Have formal training and/or practical experience with physically-based atmospheric, oceanic, or related model development.
• Have experience writing machine learning code in JAX.

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by a team member to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.

• Must be able to remain in a stationary position for long periods of time. 
• The ability to communicate information and ideas so others will understand. Must be able to exchange accurate information in these situations. 
• The ability to observe details at close range.
• Can work under deadlines.

A Little More About Ai2:

Ai2 is a Seattle based non-profit AI research institute founded in 2014 by the late Paul Allen. Our mission is building breakthrough AI to solve the world’s biggest problems. We develop foundational AI research and innovation to deliver real-world impact through large-scale open models, data, robotics, conservation, and beyond.

In addition to Ai2’s core mission, we also aim to contribute to humanity through our treatment of each member of the Ai2 Team. Some highlights are:

• We are a learning organization – because everything Ai2 does is ground-breaking, we are learning every day. Similarly, through weekly Ai2 Academy lectures, a wide variety of world-class AI experts as guest speakers, and our commitment to your personal on-going education, Ai2 is a place where you will have opportunities to continue learning alongside your coworkers. 
• We value diversity - We seek to hire, support, and promote people from all genders, ethnicities, and all levels of experience regardless of age. We particularly encourage applications from women, non-binary individuals, people of color, members of the LGBTQA+ community, and people with disabilities of any kind. 
• We value inclusion - We understand the value that people's individual experiences and perspectives can bring to an organization, and we are building a culture in which all voices are heard, respected and considered.
• We emphasize a healthy work/life balance – we believe our team members are happiest and most productive when their work/life balance is optimized. While we value powerful research results which drive our mission forward, we also value dinner with family, weekend time, and vacation time. We offer generous paid vacation and sick leave as well as family leave.
• We are collaborative and transparent – we consider ourselves a team, all moving with a common purpose. We are quick to cheer our successes, and even quicker to share and jointly problem solve our failures.
• We are in Seattle – and our office is on the water! We have mountains, we have lakes, we have four seasons, we bike to work, we have a vibrant theater scene, and we have so much else. We even have kayaks for you to paddle right outside our front door. We welcome interest from applicants from outside of the United States.
• We are friendly– chances are you will like every one of the 200+ (and growing) people who work here. We do. 

Ai2 is proud to be an Equal Opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based upon race, religion, color, national origin, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender status, sexual stereotypes, age, status as a protected veteran, status as an individual with a disability, or other applicable legally protected characteristics. You may view the related Know Your Rights compliance poster and the Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision by clicking on their corresponding links. 

This employer participates in E-Verify and will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. If E-Verify cannot confirm that you are authorized to work, this employer is required to give you written instructions and an opportunity to contact the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or Social Security Administration (SSA) so you can begin to resolve the issue before the employer can take any action against you, including terminating your employment. Employers can only use E-Verify once you have accepted a job offer and completed the Form I-9.

We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations to employees and applicants with disabilities to the full extent required by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). If you feel you need a reasonable accommodation pursuant to the ADA, you are encouraged to contact us at [email protected].

Benefits:

• Team members and their families are covered by medical, dental, vision, and an employee assistance program.
• Team members are able to enroll in our health savings account plan, our healthcare reimbursement arrangement plan, and our health care and dependent care flexible spending account plans.
• Team members are able to enroll in our company’s 401k plan.
• Team members will receive $125 per month to assist with commuting or internet expenses and will also receive $200 per month for fitness and wellbeing expenses.
• Team members will also receive up to ten sick days per year, up to seven personal days per year, up to 20 vacation days per year and twelve paid holidays throughout the calendar year.
• Team members will be able to receive annual bonuses and can participate in the long-term incentive plan.

Note: This job description in no way states or implies that these are the only duties to be performed by the team members(s) of this position. Team members will be required to follow any other job-related instructions and to perform any other job-related duties requested by any person authorized to give instructions or assignments. All duties and responsibilities are essential functions and requirements and are subject to possible modification to reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities. To perform this job successfully, the team member(s) will possess the skills, aptitudes, and abilities to perform each duty proficiently. Some requirements may exclude individuals who pose a direct threat or significant risk to the health or safety of themselves or others. The requirements listed in this document are the minimum levels of knowledge, skills, or abilities. This document does not create an employment contract, implied or otherwise, other than an at will relationship.