Combine boundary-layer meteorology, numerical weather prediction, and production-grade software development to operationalize the forecasts that drive WireWeather's grid-aware line ratings.
Description
As a Meteorology Software Developer at Pitch, you will leverage your background in atmospheric science (especially boundary-layer meteorology and nowcasting) to develop, refine, and operationalize weather models that produce high-resolution stochastic wind and temperature forecasts along power lines. Those forecasts feed our Dynamic Line Rating (DLR), Ambient-Adjusted Rating (AAR), and Contingency Line Rating (CLR) products, as well as our wildfire and outage-risk tools.
The role is split roughly evenly between meteorology and development. You'll integrate physics-based models (WRF, WindNinja, or similar CFD frameworks), national and international NWP outputs (HRRR, GFS, ECMWF, RAP), AI-based forecast systems, and real-time observations from WireWarrior sensors and public networks. You'll also build the Python pipelines, and APIs that turn that work into a product utilities can rely on.
Responsibilities
- Develop and refine atmospheric models focused on boundary layer physics, wind flow, temperature profiles, and terrain effects, with a particular emphasis on conductor-height wind that drives DLR uplift.
- Adapt and integrate numerical weather prediction (NWP) and physics-based models (WRF, WindNinja, or similar) for localized forecasting along power lines, and integrate AI/ML-based forecast systems where they outperform classical NWP.
- Assimilate boundary-layer observations from WireWarrior sensors, ASOS/METAR, mesonets, and other real-time sources to improve predictive accuracy.
- Collaborate with data science and ML teams to merge physics-based models with machine learning approaches, enhancing forecast reliability and spatiotemporal resolution.
- Evaluate forecast skill against ground truth data. Quantify bias, RMSE, CRPS, and other verification statistics by region, season, and lead time, and feed results back into the pipeline.
- Quantify and address sources of model and data uncertainty, developing robust data assimilation and error-correction strategies to produce confidence intervals for operational decisions.
- Ensure data quality from WireWarrior sensors and third-party feeds, working with hardware, software, and third-party support to apply quality-control procedures and improve sensor accuracy.
- Provide inputs to WireWarrior sensor engineers to improve the next generation of drone-deployed weather and power line sensors.
- Communicate findings and recommendations to data scientists, engineers, utility partners, and internal stakeholders. Defend methodology in technical conversations with utility meteorologists and transmission planners.