Senior Climate Risk Data Specialist

Australia is regularly affected by severe weather events, which are growing in frequency and severity and carry rising economic and social cost. In response, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth are investing in improved Climate Risk services to strengthen Australia's resilience to extreme weather and reduce the cost of natural disasters – an exciting direction that is changing how we deliver services to Australian communities.

Within the Bureau's Environmental Prediction Services Program, EPS Climate is a multi-disciplinary team delivering operational and specialist climate and hydro-climate services for Australia and the south-west Pacific, and climate and natural disaster risk information to the Commonwealth, States and Territories. Its work supports decisions across government and industry to improve resilience to future climate and helps the Bureau meet its commitments under the Water Act 2007.

We are seeking a Senior Climate Risk Data Specialist to support the Bureau's national hazard intelligence capability, together with climate and water application support services. The position reports to the Team Lead, Climate and Hydrology Analysis and Specialist Services, with day-to-day functional direction provided by the Technical Lead, Climate Intelligence and Data.

The role leads defined functions within the Bureau's hazard intelligence capability: undertaking hazard event and impact analysis to deliver high-quality intelligence on high-impact weather risks, stewarding national hazards and impacts datasets, and driving the consistent use of hazard event data across climate and risk services by coordinating contributions from across the program. It exercises independent judgement, influences consistent data practices across teams, and ensures outputs align with Bureau data and service standards.

The position also supports the climate and water data analysis applications, and hazard events database, applying software engineering, scientific programming and data science skills to maintain and enhance operational systems. Because hazard intelligence governance and application support compete for the same time, the role applies an explicit operating principle rather than balancing the two case by case: during defined system transition or surge periods, application support may take precedence, subject to a protected minimum allocation for hazard data governance and stewardship; at other times, hazard intelligence governance and analysis are the primary focus. Surge support flows in both directions – drawn from other teams during major system transitions and provided to other teams during heavy scheduled reporting or major events.

To be successful in this role, you will demonstrate a strong understanding of the real-world impacts of weather and climate, and lead hazard event reporting and documentation that produces high-quality analytical outputs from hazard, climate and water datasets. You will contribute to the development of climate and hydrology data architecture – including data models, analytical pipelines and APIs – under the technical direction of the Technical Lead, with experience in quality assurance of hazard and risk datasets, building scalable analytical tools, and transitioning workflows to cloud-native environments. Strong technical, collaboration and science communication skills are essential, including the ability to deliver accurate, well-documented outputs within operational timeframes. You will hold postgraduate qualifications in climatology, hydrology, meteorology, data science or a related field, or comparable technical experience appropriate to the duties.

The role is being advertised at the APS Executive Level 1, requiring the successful applicant to contribute to setting strategic direction and leadership and liaising with internal partners and external customers. During extreme weather and climate events, this position may be expected to undertake extended working hours as directed.

The responsibilities of the role include but are not limited to:

1. Leading defined functions within the Bureau's national hazard intelligence capability, including stewardship of national hazards and impacts datasets and quality assurance of the data repositories.
2. Coordinating, curating, and assuring the quality of hazard event documentation and expert analysis contributed by other teams.
3. Leading hazard event reporting and documentation and producing high-quality analytical outputs from hazard data combined with climate and hydrology datasets.
4. Providing technical oversight and application support for the systems underpinning hazard intelligence, including climate analysis applications and the hazard events database, and contributing under the Technical Lead's direction to data architecture, analytical pipelines, APIs, scalable tools, and the transition of legacy workflows to cloud-native environments.
5. Managing the competing demands of hazard intelligence and application support within the operating principle for the role, and escalating priorities that cannot be met within capacity to the Technical Lead so that trade-offs are made explicitly rather than allowing agreed work to erode unnoticed.
6. Supporting national high-impact weather scenarios and operational services to pre-agreed surge protocols – providing hazard-intelligence surge support to other teams during heavy scheduled reporting or major events and drawing on application-support surge from other teams during major system transitions.
7. Providing technical and subject-matter expert support for communication to internal business partners and external stakeholders and customers.
8. Making decisions using good judgement, expertise and knowledge under limited guidance and in alignment with regulations, best-practice principles and the Bureau's operating instructions and procedures.
9. Maintaining awareness of critical weather and climate events and being prepared to shift work priorities to protect the community.
10. Upholding the APS Values and Code of Conduct and understanding the Bureau's diversity and inclusion statement of commitment and the Bureau way.
11. Complying with all Bureau work, health and safety policies and procedures, and taking reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of employees, contractors and visitors who may be affected by your conduct.

The Bureau of Meteorology is one of the few organisations that touches the lives of all Australians and all Australia, every day. The Bureau works across Australia and remote islands, providing services from the Antarctic to beyond the equator, and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. We are Australia's national weather, climate and water agency, in the Agriculture, Water and Environment portfolio of the Australian Government, operating under the authority of the Meteorology Act 1955 and the Water Act 2007. We provide data, information, knowledge, insight and wisdom to help Australians prepare and respond to the realities of their natural environment, including droughts, floods, fires, storms, tsunami and tropical cyclones. Our products and services include observations, forecasts, analysis and advice covering Australia's atmosphere, water, oceans and space environments. We undertake focused scientific research in support of our operations and services. Through regular forecasts, warnings, monitoring and advice, we provide one of Australia's most fundamental and widely used public services. We have strong relationships with our customers, partners and stakeholders in Australia, including the Australian Community and the emergency services sectors, all-levels of Government, and focus sectors including aviation, agriculture, energy and resources, national security and water.