Job Description

Description of Unit:

The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) seeks to fill a full-time Cloud Developer position designed to conduct collaborative research with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) located at the Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) in Boulder, CO. The individual in this position will work in the NOAA/OAR/GSL Weather Informatics and Decision Support (WIDS) Division’s Fire Weather Testbed (FWT).  This position will be responsible for setting up and maintaining cloud applications and solutions to support FWT experiments, including installing experimental software packages and data sources.

The Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere (CIRA) at Colorado State University (CSU) is a multi-million-dollar research organization located on CSU's Foothills Campus in Fort Collins, Colorado. CIRA is a cooperative institute (CI) that is also a research department within CSU's College of Engineering, in partnership with the Department of Atmospheric Science. Its vision is to conduct interdisciplinary research in the atmospheric sciences by entraining skills beyond the meteorological disciplines, exploiting advances in engineering and computer science, facilitating transitional activity between pure and applied research, leveraging both national and international resources and partnerships, and assisting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), CSU, the State of Colorado, and the Nation through the application of our research to areas of societal benefit. 

NOAA's Global Systems Laboratory (GSL) is a federal science and research laboratory under NOAA’s Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research. GSL provides the National Weather Service (NWS) and the nation with environmental observation, prediction, computer, visualization, and information systems. These systems deliver data, forecasts, and predictions of weather, including severe weather events, within the next few minutes to weeks away.  GSL is a leader in the applied research, directed development, and technology transfer of environmental data, models, products, and services that enhance environmental understanding with the outcome of supporting commerce, protecting life and property, and promoting a scientifically literate public.

Housed at GSL, the FWT is a NOAA testbed dedicated to serving the wildfire communities through pursuing improvements to fire weather forecasting and decision support services. These improvements will be achieved by connecting stakeholders and their information needs to the scientific research and development communities. The FWT is a physical and virtual environment designed to bring the wildfire community together, with an end goal of a safer society and healthier environment achieved through scientific and technological advances. Numerous experiments will be conducted in the FWT and will include a broad spectrum of science fields including atmospheric, geophysical, hydrologic, and environmental sciences as well as social and behavioral sciences.

Position Summary:

This is a full time position, funded for two years, and an option to renew contingent upon satisfactory performance and available funding .  The individual in this position will help design, develop, test, and refine applications in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud architecture for the FWT. The FWT is a team that conducts experiments testing the readiness of prototype fire weather tools and software for operational implementation.  In addition to setting up and maintaining the cloud environments, this individual will work with outside organizations to install their tools and software for testing and, where necessary, assist in implementing and developing the FWT cloud platform.  This includes working with various operating systems, meteorological and environmental data sources, and third-party software packages.  The individual in this position will ensure the availability of installed software during FWT experiments. This position reports to the Sr Software Engineer.

Essential Job Duties:

• Technical Leadership & Cloud Architecture: Develop, implement, and maintain the FWT’s cloud architecture. Take the lead on software requests from the FWT team, suggesting architectural design changes to improve cloud implementations.
• Data Retrieval & UI/UX Integration: Build full-stack mechanisms to retrieve, parse, and seamlessly integrate meteorological and environmental datasets into intuitive UI/UX platforms for scientific research and model verification.
• System Deployment & Security: Collaborate with systems engineers, cloud specialists, and security experts across OAR and GSL to deploy scalable solutions that strictly meet NOAA security boundary requirements.
• Application Adaptation: Install, configure, and adapt third-party software applications to be cloud-native or run efficiently in a cloud environment, managing associated data feeds and access controls.
• Scientific Collaboration: Work closely with research scientists and external developers to develop technical requirements for deployments, translating scientific needs into functional web interfaces and R&D tools.
• Mentorship & Administration: Provide knowledge, guidance, and training to the team on AWS Cloud Services. Assist with the management of FWT cloud systems and complete annual reports documenting project status and milestones.

Conditions of Employment:

• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States by the start of the position because CIRA will not sponsor any type of visa for this position now nor in the future.
• This position requires onsite presence three (3) days/week with the option to telework two (2) days/week (contingent upon satisfactory performance), because it requires significant collaboration with on-site teams.
• This full-time position in Boulder, CO, requires a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI), tier 1 federal background check and a NOAA Common Access Card (CAC) ID badge for systems access. Therefore, only US citizens and lawful permanent residents with a physical USCIS “Green Card” are eligible.

Supervision:

• The individual in this position will not supervise employees.

Required Qualifications:

NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all required qualifications when describing your work experience.  A resume that fails to specifically address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered after review by the search committee.

• Education & Experience: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field PLUS 5 or more years of relevant work experience;
  –OR– Master’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field PLUS 2 or more years of relevant experience;
  –OR– Ph.D. in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.
• AWS Cloud Operations: Demonstrated experience developing and managing applications in cloud-based environments. Experience with AWS services including SQS, EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, and boto3/Java AWS SDK.  Please address your experience with each service in your application.
• Backend Engineering: Proven experience with backend programming, specifically Python, to retrieve, process, and serve data.
• Frontend Development: Proficiency in frontend technologies, specifically JavaScript and React, to build modern web applications.
• Development Standards: Experience with issue tracking software and distributed version control systems (e.g., Git).
• Citizenship Status: Must be a citizen of the United States or Lawful Permanent Resident with a physical USCIS “Green Card.”
• Background Check: Ability to pass a National Agency Check with Inquiries (NACI) federal background check and receive a NOAA Common Access Card (CAC) ID badge.

Preferred Qualifications:

NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all applicable preferred qualifications when describing your work experience.  A resume that fails to specifically address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered after review by the search committee.

• DevOps & Automation: Experience configuring Continuous Integration (CI) pipelines and utilizing Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Terraform or AWS CloudFormation.
• Containerization & Orchestration: Experience with containerized systems (Docker) and orchestration platforms like Kubernetes or Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
• Scientific Data Handling: Experience retrieving, parsing, and working with specialized meteorological and geospatial datasets and formats (including GRIB2, NetCDF, JSON, GeoTIFF, and Zarr).
• Geospatial Data Experience: Experience using ArcGIS for spatial analysis and/or web integrations.
• NWS Systems Architecture: Familiarity with National Weather Service forecasting platforms, data structures, systems architecture, and collaborative IT frameworks (e.g., AWIPS-II, VLab, EDEX, LDM).

Application Instructions:

Applications must be submitted via online portal. We will not accept materials sent via email or other mode. NOTE: In the body of your resume, please specifically address all required qualifications and applicable preferred qualifications when describing your work experience.  A resume that fails to address the qualifications of this position may not be further considered after review by the search committee. Likewise, an online application with a generic cover letter or missing a cover letter may not be further considered after review by the search committee.  References will be requested for finalists and will not be contacted without prior notification of candidates. The full consideration date is Thursday, August 27, 2026, 11:59pm (MT).

Salary Range

$110,000 - $120,000 commensurate with qualifications and experience.

Required Application Documents

To apply, please upload the following applicant documents. Ensure your materials fully address the required and preferred job qualifications of the position. Please note, applicants may redact information from their application materials that identifies their age, date of birth, or dates of attendance at or graduation from an educational institution.

Cover Letter, Resume/CV

Employee Benefits

Colorado State University is not just a workplace; it’s a thriving community that’s transforming lives and improving the human condition through world-class teaching, research, and service. With a robust benefits package, collaborative atmosphere, and focus on work-life balance, CSU is where you can thrive, grow, and make a lasting impact.

• Review our detailed benefits information here.

• Explore the additional perks of working at CSU here.

• For the total value of CSU benefits in addition to wages, use our compensation calculator.

• Lastly, click here for more information about why Fort Collins is consistently ranked in the top cities to live in!

Background Check Policy Statement

Colorado State University strives to provide a safe study, work, and living environment for its faculty, staff, volunteers and students. To support this environment and comply with applicable laws and regulations, CSU conducts background checks for the finalist before a final offer. The type of background check conducted varies by position and can include, but is not limited to, criminal history, sex offender registry, motor vehicle history, financial history, and/or education verification. Background checks will also be conducted when required by law or contract and when, in the discretion of the University, it is reasonable and prudent to do so.

EEO

Colorado State University (CSU) provides equal employment opportunities to all applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws.