Senior Scientific Program Manager / Weather Modeling Team - National Weather Service (NWS)

IBSS is hiring a Senior Scientific Program Manager for the Weather Modeling Team at the National Weather Service in Silver Spring, MD (Hybrid). The role involves providing technical project management support for various modeling programs, coordinating with scientists and engineers, and contributing to program and project management activities. Key responsibilities include developing strategic plans, liaising with project investigators, and preparing technical documents and reports.
Job Title: Senior Scientific Program Manager / Weather Modeling Team - National Weather Service (NWS)

Location: Silver Spring, MD (Hybrid)

Clearance Required: Public Trust Eligible

Salary Range: $120K-$140K

Application Deadline: June 30, 2025

To apply, please follow these steps:
• Visit https://ibsscorp.com/careers/ .
• Select the position you are interested in.
• Review the job details, then click Apply Now.
• Complete and submit your application.

Description:

IBSS is seeking a Senior Scientific/Weather Modeling Program Manager to provide technical project management support to the National Weather Service (NWS) Office of Science and Technology (OSTI) Modeling Program Office. The candidate shall support technical coordination of activities in support of various activities within the modeling program office including, but not limited to, the National Air Quality Forecast Capability (NAQFC) and the NOAA Unified Forecast System - Research To Operations (UFS-R2O) project. The candidate shall interact with a collaborative team of program managers, scientists, and engineers from NWS, Office of Atmospheric Research (OAR) labs, other line offices, and Academia and shall work with the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC) team to plan and accelerate the transition of numerical weather prediction innovations into the operational forecast systems. The candidate will also perform activities related to program and project management and is expected to contribute to program office services related to science and technology integration of weather modeling from short-range to seasonal timeframes.

Key Responsibilities:
• In coordination with the leadership team, develop strategic and annual plans including development priorities, resource requirements, and schedules for supported projects and programs.
• Work with the Project Investigators (PIs) from NWS centers, NOAA labs, National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) and Academia to help address issues, coordinate related activities, and act as the liaison between the leadership team and PIs. Work with the UFS Community and the Earth Prediction Innovation Center (EPIC) Program team to ensure alignment between the projects.
• Provide technical liaison activities with the Environmental Modeling Center (EMC).
• Provide technical coordination, monitoring of schedule and scientific aspects of program performance, reporting of program performance, monitoring of technical data, and maintaining and improving tools for monitoring of product timeliness.
• Prepare technical documents and reports to include supporting annual and quarterly reports, briefings, reporting, white papers and general information materials.
• Organize and maintain technical documents utilizing electronic records management best practices.
• Coordinate, track, and manage programmatic and technical project activities related to the Air Quality Program and other projects, as needed, such as scope, schedule, progress, and project maturity level.
• Support program outreach with Air Quality forecasters, constituents, and external user community questions and answers based on subject matter scientific knowledge of meteorology, chemistry and atmospheric dispersion.
• Support program outreach activities, such as meetings associated with modeling programs, including the Unified Forecast System (UFS), with forecasters and stakeholders. Prepare and distribute communication with forecasters and stakeholders, prepare answers to questions from the user community, prepare summary of user feedback by relying on subject matter scientific and technical knowledge of numerical weather prediction.
• Establish project dependencies and assumptions and track issues and risks to better develop mitigation plans and resolution.
• Assist NWS program managers in coordination of transition, implementation and maintenance of prediction capabilities including preparation of slides for operational readiness briefings.
• Schedule and facilitate virtual, in-person or hybrid discussions for internal and external meetings.
• Organize annual workshops.
• Resolve issues and maintain and improve program performance.

Required Skills /Education/ Certifications & Qualifications:
• Masters (MS/MA) or Ph.D. degree in physical sciences, environmental sciences or similar related fields.
• 15+ years of relevant experience related to scientific/technical projects related to weather forecasting, numerical weather modeling or similar experience, with at least 10 years of Program/Project Management scientific experience.
• Experience with development of strategic plans and programmatic assessments within government or military environments.
• Demonstrated experience working with senior level executives and possessing effective oral and written communication skills.

Specific Job Responsibilities:

Air Quality:
• Co-lead planning and execution of annual Air quality forecasters' workshops
• Serve as NOAA POC for a nationwide network of state and local AQ Forecasters
• Work with state and local AQ Forecasters and internal web developers to enhance the quality of the AQM webpage.
• Monitor and maintain a comprehensive AQ-forecast data archive on the cloud-based NOAA Open Data Dissemination (NODD) platform.

Short-range NWP
• Assist with the transition of the Warn-on-Forecast cloud-based, on-demand prediction system from NOAA/OAR to NOAA/NWS and with demonstration of real-time capabilities
• Monitor progress of the development and implementation of the Rapid Refresh Forecast System (RRFS) and the 3D-RTMA

UFS Physics and Dynamics
• Monitor UFS model physics development and progress
• Attend monthly UFS Steering Committee meetings
• Monitor progress on development and implementation of EMC coupled models
• Attend monthly HFIP seminars
• Monitor progress on the UFS-R2O MRW/S2S project

Desired Skills:
• Experience with programmatic services related to NOAA line offices and/or numerical weather prediction and modeling would be a strong plus.
• Experience with Google suite products and tools. Smartsheet experience is a plus.

About IBSS Corp.

Since 1992, IBSS, a woman-owned small business, has provided transformational consulting services to the Federal defense, civilian, and commercial sectors. Our services include cybersecurity and enterprise information technology, environmental science and engineering (including oceans, coasts, climate, and weather), and professional management services.

Our approach is to serve our employees by investing in their growth and development. As a result, our employees bring greater capabilities and provide exceptional service to our clients. In addition to creating career development opportunities for our employees, IBSS is passionate about giving back to the community and serving the environment. We strive to leave something better behind for the next generation.

We measure our success by the positive impact we have on our employees, clients, partners, and the communities we serve. Our tagline, Powered by Excellence, is a recognition of the employees that make up IBSS and ensures we deliver results with quality, applying industry best practices and certifications.

IBSS offers a competitive benefits package that includes medical, dental, vision, and prescription drug coverage with a company-paid deductible, paid time off, federal holidays, a matching 401K plan, tuition/professional development reimbursement, and Flex-Spending (FSA)/Dependent Care Account (DCA) options.

IBSS is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran status, or genetic information. Click https://www.eeoc.gov/poster to see that the EEO is the law. Please direct any inquiries to the HR Department email at HR@ibsscorp.com.

If you require reasonable accommodation in completing this application, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, or otherwise participating in the employee selection process, please direct your inquiries to the Talent Acquisition department at Recruiting@ibsscorp.com