Senior Climate Risk Data Specialist

• Executive Level 1, Ongoing
• $121,755 – $132,713 + 15.4% super
• Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Melbourne, Perth, Sydney

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.