Call for applications
Director of the Atmospheric Data and Services Division AERIS
The AERIS Centre for Atmospheric Data and Services is looking for a Director.
Context
AERIS is one of the four national centres of the Earth System Research Infrastructure (RI), designed to provide coordinated management and centralised access to data concerning each of the major compartments of our environment (solid Earth, ocean, continental surfaces and atmosphere). By providing a better understanding of the structure and functioning of the Earth system, work using this data has a major socio-economic impact in areas such as natural hazards, climate change, mineral resources and water resources. In this context, the centres also serve the international community (satellite missions, international observation networks, development partnerships). The information provided by these centres is also fundamental to the implementation of public policies.
The data and services clusters are intended to form part of the national and European landscape, working closely with existing infrastructures or those under construction. Bringing together the four national clusters under a single structure will strengthen the position of the French community in the European landscape.
AERIS aims to facilitate and improve the use of atmospheric data, whether from satellite, aircraft or balloon observations, ground-based measurements or laboratory experiments, for the benefit of national and international user communities, first and foremost scientists. This objective should enable users to have a single access point to data, to develop services and to combine different data for the emergence of new products.
The missions of AERIS are as follows:
- maintain and develop a unified, interoperable portal for access to AERIS data and services;
- collect, archive and distribute data and products ;
- implement value-added processing and tools to facilitate consultation and use of the proposed data (visualisation, extraction, reformatting, reading software, etc.);
- implement cutting-edge scientific processing to produce sophisticated, high-level products that make the most of observation channels or the synergy between observations, so as to generate time series over time and with the capacity for reprocessing;
- offer dedicated support for specific field campaigns, including the real-time supply of products to help plan operations and manage dedicated data;
- a multi-level quality approach: product and production quality assurance, quality control and validation, and data referencing by DOI (Digital Object Identifier).
To carry out this mission, AERIS relies on four Data and Services Centres (CDS ESPRI, ICARE, SATMOS and SEDOO), as well as a Management Team.
The cluster is governed as follows:
A Steering Committee, comprising the following organisations: CEA, CNES, CNRS, École Polytechnique, IGN, IRD, Météo-France, Hauts-de-France region, Sorbonne University, Université de Lille, Université Paul Sabatier.
A Scientific Advisory Board.
A Management Team comprising :
- a director ;
- a space project manager ;
- a floor project manager ;
- a part-time scientific officer who is also the chair of the Scientific Committee;
- a full-time technical director responsible for coordination and joint technical projects between the various CDSs.
An Executive Board comprising, in addition to the Management Team, the heads of the four CDSs.
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Call for applications DIRAERIS
The director's role
The Director of AERIS leads and coordinates the Management Team;
He/she chairs and steers meetings of the Executive Board;
He/she is the contact for the Steering Committee and the Trustees for the implementation of the resources allocated and distributed between the CDSs; he/she relies on the members of the Management Team and the CDS managers to carry out the tasks entrusted to him/her;
He/she proposes the cluster's development strategy to the Executive Committee, based on the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Board;
He/she prepares the files necessary for the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Board or the decisions of the Scientific Advisory Board and the Management Committee; he/she implements the objectives and tasks of the division which result from this;
He/she defines the annual work plan, highlighting the priorities, the various possible options and the associated provisional timetables. This work plan, drawn up with the help of the Executive Board, is consistent with the financial and human resources that the division has or considers it needs;
He/she analyses and validates the content of the various projects carried out and checks their conformity with the needs expressed and the provisional timetable;
He/she reports to the Executive Committee on the implementation of the annual work plan;
He/she contacts the entire user community to ascertain its needs in terms of archiving, production and distribution of the centre's data;
He/she promotes the cluster to the scientific community and, more generally, enhances the cluster's skills (for example, through involvement in European projects);
He/she participates in the operation and strategy of the IR Système Terre and associated inter-centre activities.
He/she is de facto Deputy Director of the UMS Coordination Pôles de données et de services pour le Système Terre (CPST) of the IR Système Terre.
Profile of the AERIS Director
The incumbent must have a precise vision of national and European issues, enabling him/her to understand the needs of the scientific community and to position AERIS strategically. He/she must be able to work as part of a team and have recognised management skills. He/she must also be able to interact in a network with the CDS managers.
He/she should have a solid background in Earth observation sciences and a very good knowledge of the organisation and functioning of the national scientific community, as well as of the European environment. Particular attention will be paid to their knowledge of the challenges of space, airborne and ground-based data. A good knowledge of specific atmospheric issues (atmospheric chemistry, clouds, aerosols, radiation, water cycle, greenhouse gases, air quality) will be an advantage.
The position requires leadership skills, the ability to listen, pay attention and understand the interests of the various stakeholders (scientists, CDS managers, European players).
The position is based in Paris and is expected to start on 1 September 2019, and in January 2020 at the latest.
Applications should be sent to pierre.tabary@cnes.fr (CNES) and jean-francois.doussin@cnrs-dir.fr (CNRS-INSU). You can contact them as well as the current director of AERIS (nicole.papineau@ipsl.fr) for all information requests.