ECMWF Software Testing Coordinator

Alberto Troccoli

November 20, 2019 at 9:49 am #10442

For more details and to apply: https://www.ecmwf.int/sites/default/files/vacancies/_VNVN19-45_en.pdf

Summary of the role
ECMWF is preparing to migrate our computing infrastructure to our new data centre in Bologna, Italy.
The production of operational forecasts involves a complex hierarchy of bespoke, inter-dependent software applications developed in-house. These perform functions such as the acquisition, preprocessing, monitoring and quality control of meteorological observations, the  introduction of meteorological analyses and forecasts at multiple forecast lead times, forecast post-processing and the generation of user products, dissemination of data to forecast users and customers across the globe, provision of web-based forecast products, verification of forecasts and products, storage and retrieval of meteorological observations and fields in our archive (both as part of the forecast process and by individual users), and the orchestration of complex scientific workflows (for both time-critical production and large-scale scientific research). During the migration, it is essential that this software stack is ported to the new computing platforms in the new data centre efficiently and correctly, to ensure operational production can switch to the new data centre according to the tight schedule.
The Software Testing Coordinator will be responsible for ensuring that the ECMWF software migration continues to meet the requirements for our operational delivery of forecasts. This will involve understanding ECMWF’s software stack, its dependencies and its usage to produce operational weather forecasts. She/he will work with the software package owners, developers and users, and project managers, across multiple teams, to understand and record inter-dependencies and requirements, and to develop and coordinate testing strategies amongst the teams.

Main duties and key responsibilities
• Leading the planning and coordination of the software testing activities as part of the data centre migration, to ensure ongoing successful operational delivery of the forecasts
• Designing and documenting test plans, scenarios, scripts or procedures that encompass the requirements for each application, and for the overall operational workflow
• Planning the testing schedules or strategies in accordance with migration project scope and delivery dates
• Working with project teams through the planning, migration and testing stages to ensure adherence to requirements
• Reporting on overall testing status and progress to project management
• Assisting software development teams with their own application-testing workload