Research Scientist (RealESM)

Job description

Fixed term contract, up to 3.5 years

Closing date: 23:59 on 30th November 2026

Interview date: 8th December 2026

By reference to the applicable SOC code for this role, sponsorship may be possible under the Skilled Worker Route. Applicants wishing to consider the SWR must ensure that they are able to meet the points requirement before applying. There is further information about this on the UK Visas and Immigration Website UK Visas and Immigration Website.

We are seeking a motivated research scientist to work as part of a team striving to improve both our representation of climate and extreme events over Europe, and the information provided about how extreme events may evolve in the coming decades.

The post holder will be based in the National Centre for Atmospheric Science (NCAS) in the Department of Meteorology at the University of Reading. The Department of Meteorology is world-renowned for its pioneering research on weather, climate and earth observations with 100% of our research graded as world-leading or internationally excellent in REF2021. NCAS is a NERC research centre distributed across UK Universities. At Reading, it includes world-leading expertise on climate variability and change.

The main duties of the role are to:

• Identify weather conditions leading up to high-impact extremes, and how they change with warming
• Perform a broad assessment of the atmospheric drivers of precipitation and air quality extremes, and probability distributions of temperature and precipitation, in project simulations
• Assess the degree to which qualitative conclusions about causes and consequences of specific extreme events depend on model resolution and complexity
• Contribute to the development of physical climate storylines, in collaboration with project partners and stakeholders, to be used to communicate how combinations of anthropogenic forcing and internal variability affect the development and intensity of extreme events.
• Use storylines to identify potential high-impact events as they develop in simulations, so that large ensembles of these events can be produced

You will have :

• Strong scientific analytic ability and high capacity for problem solving
• Strong data-analytical skills and understanding of statistical methods
• Good programming and communication skills
• Experience of analysing output from climate models and similar datasets
• or shortly expect to receive, a PhD or equivalent research experience in physical or mathematical sciences

We welcome applications from both external and internal candidates. As part of the University’s ongoing commitment to professional development, this role can be considered on a seconded basis for existing staff members. Internal candidates should discuss this with their line manager prior to applying.

Contact details for advert
Laura Wilcox, Professor of aerosol-climate interactions, l.j.wilcox@reading.ac.uk

Ben Harvey, Associate professor, b.j.harvey@reading.ac.uk

The University is committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce, supports the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter and the Race Equality Charter, and champions LGBT+ equality. We are a Disability Confident Employer (Level 2). Applications for job-share, part-time and flexible working arrangements are welcomed and will be considered in line with business needs

£37,369 to £46,970 per annum, Grade 6,