The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Global Monitoring Laboratory (GML) is seeking one primary technician, and one alternate technician for Winter 2024-2025 at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station.
Two NOAA technicians work at the National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station to operate, calibrate, and maintain NOAA and partner climate instrumentation and projects for a one-year period. The team collects high quality data to monitor the composition of the atmosphere and the Earth’s energy budget, enabling researchers to understand how the climate changes over time. They also serve as members of the station’s Emergency Response Team and assist with community tasks such as cleaning the station, station opening/closing tasks, and other duties as assigned.
A primary technician will be hired as a federal employee on a term-limited appointment and must initially pass the mandatory physical qualification (PQ) for deployment. If the technician does not meet the NSF’s rigorous PQ standards for wintering at South Pole Station, the term appointment will be ended early and employment will be terminated. Concurrent to completing the PQ, the technicians will complete training with NOAA and partner project leads at the NOAA/GML office in Boulder, and virtually. Training may include a travel to, and hands-on experience at the NOAA Barrow Atmospheric Baseline Observatory in Utqiagvik, AK. Team building and emergency response training is anticipated to be held in the Denver area in early October 2024.
Deployment to Antarctica for the primary technician is anticipated to occur in mid-October 2024. However, with uncertainty surrounding the 2024-2025 season COVID-19 protocols, dates are subject to change. There may be a quarantine or isolation period included in this year’s deployment.
An alternate technician will be hired as a federal employee on a term-limited appointment and must initially pass the mandatory physical qualification (PQ) for deployment. If the technician does not meet the NSF’s rigorous PQ standards for wintering at South Pole Station, the term appointment will be ended early and employment will be terminated. Concurrent to completing the PQ, the alternate trains alongside the primary technicians in Boulder. However, they remain in an “on call” status until the South Pole Station closes for the winter in mid-February. In the event the primary technician cannot deploy, or leaves South Pole during the summer season (November - February), the alternate would immediately deploy to take their place.
If the training period is successful and the alternate technician does not deploy, they will remain in Boulder as a member of the Observatory Operations team and deploy as the primary NOAA technician for the following year (2025).
For any questions about this posting contact Christine Smith at christine.smith@noaa.gov.
Please upload your resume/cv for this position at the linked Google Form: https://forms.gle/sDNSeq7WDzUnTSvh6
For information about the United States Antarctic Program physical qualification process, please visit: https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/documents/policy/SOH_POL_2000.10a_V6.pdf