Every Friday, I break down real meteorology job postings and cover what the role actually involves, what employers are really looking for, and how to position yourself to get hired. Experience in energy, aviation, agricultural commodities, transportation, outdoor recreation, and event forecasting. Free, every Friday
The Friday Job Report - Week 42
Published 9 days ago • 17 min read
Issued on the 16th of October, 2026
New Courses
The Forecast Desk: Transitioning from University to Professional Meteorology
Learn about the differences between university and a professional role in meteorology and how to adjust.
Handling increased workload and deadlines.
Effective Communication with Clients
Recovering from a Busted Forecast
Being confident in Yourself
Career Advancement
Cost: Free
Energy Trading Meteorology: Short Course
Learn about energy trading, what it is and why it exists.
Develop an understanding of load demand and the role of weather.
Create wind power forecasts and learn how to communicate risk to traders.
Learn about solar power, how to create a generation curve, and how to convey risk.
Learn about hydropower forecasts, what matters, and how to create a forecast.
Put it all together into a 5 to 10 minute briefing, and with an option to have a real meteorologist provide feedback.
Cost: $50 USD
Learn at your own pace, access the courses as much as you want in the future, join a community of other meteorologists also learning how to improve and potentially open up more career opportunities.
Degree: Currently pursuing a Bachelor's degree in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, Engineering, Economics, or a related field.
Qualifications:
Interest in weather forecasting, renewable energy, energy markets, or operational analytics.
Coursework or experience in meteorology, forecasting, atmospheric science, renewable energy, statistics, or energy economics.
Experience with programming languages such as Python, R, SQL, or similar analytical tools.
Familiarity with numerical weather prediction models, weather datasets, or forecast verification techniques.
Interest in electricity markets, renewable energy forecasting, or quantitative analysis.
Experience using visualization and reporting tools such as Power BI, Tableau, or similar platforms.
Demonstrated leadership through coursework, research projects, internships, student organizations, or extracurricular activities.
Who Should Apply: All university students, especially anyone that already knows they want to work in the energy sector. Now remember this is a summer internship, so beautiful weather and not freezing cold and snow. In the Summer, warm and humid conditions are possible with severe weather at times. A lot of areas to explore and enjoy your time there.
Degree: Bachelor's degree in Disaster Risk Management, Fire Engineering | Fire Science, Electrical Engineering | Electrical Utilities, Environmental Sciences | Engineering, Forestry, or a related field
Experience: 10+
Qualifications:
Experience: 10+ years of experience in a combination of the following: wildfire preparedness and planning, wildfire/fire behavior modeling, wildfire/fire safety strategy and/or risk mitigation strategy development, electrical utility wildfire risk management, environmental reviews, urban planning, healthy forest management, land resource management, post-fire recovery, fire/wildfire investigations, and code consulting and performance-based designs
Leadership Skills: Demonstrated experience in people leadership at a managerial level, with the ability to inspire and guide cross-functional teams
Technical Expertise: Deep technical knowledge in wildfire fire risk management, wildfire fire behavior modelling including wildfire behavior modeling skills (FLAMMAP, FARSITE) and GIS experience (ArcGIS/QGIS) and demonstrated hands-on technical wildfire experience across multiple core disciplines
Project Management: Strong project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously while maintaining high standards of quality and efficiency
Commercial Acumen: While not solely responsible for sales, candidates should possess commercial acumen and the ability to identify and pursue business development opportunities.Experience with proposals, pursuits, client relationships, and technical service-line growth
Preferred Qualifications
Master's or advanced degree
Who Should Apply: If you have extensive experience, especially in wildfires or planning and live somewhere in the western US. Really good for those that can't move for a job, this job has a wide range of possible locations you could live. If you are a former IMET with the NOAA this would be a good role for you. Not entry-level.
Location: Massachusetts/Minnesota - Remote in those states.
Work Location: Remote
Pay: $100,000 to $145,000/year
Degree: Bachelor’s or advanced degree in physics, mathematics, statistics, engineering or a related technical discipline (advanced degree preferred).
Experience: 4+ years of research and quantitative modeling experience in developing statistical, predictive and/or simulation models.
Qualifications:
High level of proficiency in data analysis, manipulation, and visualization tools with strong programming background (preferably Python and/or R).
Ability to independently formulate research questions and execute analytical studies.
Strong organizational skills, including the ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously in a fast paced and results-driven environment.
Excellent oral and written communication skills and ability to explain technical concepts succinctly to a non-technical audience.
Bachelor’s or advanced degree in physics, mathematics, statistics, engineering or a related technical discipline (advanced degree preferred).
Knowledge of US crop insurance market preferred.
Experience in optimization techniques is desirable.
Experience working with weather and climate datasets would be a plus.
Legally authorized to work in the US.
Who Should Apply: You don't have to know agriculture, but you should have a strong background in data science and research, and easily be able to use Python or R to analyze and manipulate data and then turn that into a visual that can be use to tell a story about the data to an audience.
Location: Remote in state is a very common location requirement. You can work remote, but you have to live in the state's listed. This is often because the company has a base there, they are set up to operate in those states and pay taxes in those states. Reach out to the company for questions on this.
Degree: Bachelor's degree in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Climate Science, Environmental Science, Physics, or a related field.
Experience: 1-3+ years of experience in leadership, effect communication, decision-making, and engaging with stakeholders.
Qualifications:
Experience working in the shipping or maritime industry, specifically with ship or weather routing
Experience with observation and forecast data including WaveWatch III, HYCOM, and ECMWF.
Strong understanding of mid and long-range forecasting and weather patterns
Comfortable with data analysis and modern web applications
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, having communicated with customers around the globe
Ability to work weekend rotations
A passion for and/or connection to the oceans
Preferred Qualifications
Data visualization skills
Ability to speak multiple languages
Experience working with team members across time zones
Who Should Apply: This job is remote and essentially early career or entry level and so there are going to be hundreds of applications. In order to get through, you are going to need the preferred qualifications. So if you can speak fluently more than one language, you can prove working across time zones and can make graphics representing data, cue Python, then you should use that to apply.
Degree: Bachelors inMeteorology or Atmospheric Science
Experience: 0-2 years, can be a new graduate as long as you have a 3.00 GPA or higher.
Qualifications:
Entry level job and you don't necessarily need a lot of non-weather experience.
Have the ability to learn about global weather patterns and apply this to your forecasts.
Produce and interpret aviation weather products, including TAFs, METARs, SIGMETs, AIRMETs, weather outlooks, and climatological information
Monitor tropical weather and other significant weather systems
Provide verbal and written weather briefings to aviation clients and flight crews
Identify weather threats that may affect flight routes, departure and destination airports, and alternate airports
Continuously evaluate changing weather conditions and update forecasts as new information becomes available
Communicate complex meteorological information clearly and concisely to aviation professionals
Work closely with flight planners and flight operations specialists to support safe and efficient flight planning
Who Should Apply: Every single early career or new graduate, and anyone that would like to work in aviation. I know some people have obligations to family and can't move, but for everyone else make yourself flexible, take the job and get the experience.
My first job was another company that did almost the same thing which is setup flight services for private flights worldwide. So the way this works, a private jet company plans to fly a person or a group from A to B, say New York City to Nice, France for the Cannes Film Festival. This company would provide flight plans, help with customs, hospitality like stairs, maybe they need a Jaguar to pick them up at the airport when they land, and have specific drinks and food and whatever else ready upon arrival.
The meteorologist works with the flight planner to develop a weather forecast, usually a TAF for 4 to 6 hours around the departure and another for arrival. Then the meteorologist creates an in route forecast for turbulence, icing, and convection. As the meteorologist, you may have to flight follow, which means you contact the airport where they departed, in this case Teterboro, KTEB, in the New York City area and then you contact the arrival airport, LFMN and get the times the aircraft departed and use the flight times to understand when they will arrive, and then get the arrival time.
In this role, you not only will make a lot of last-minute forecasts for far away places, but you will also get to speak with people worldwide. I had to call Yakutsk in Siberia, Thailand, the Maldives, the Seychelles, routinely Trieste, Italy and Equatorial Guinea, and Sao Paulo to name a few, so it can be a fascinating job. The bar is pretty high for how much you can learn and whether you remain in aviation your whole career or want to move on, aviation encompasses the whole atmosphere and gives you the knowledge to excel any field.
The company operates the 4-on, 4-off, shifts which I personally like the best because imagine if you take those 4-day off, you now have 12 off in a row. I worked this type of schedule for the first five years of my career. Loved it.
Location: Since I'm from Houston and worked there I can tell you relative to most US cities, Houston is affordable. Also there is no personal income tax, so you make more money. If you like Tex-Mex and breakfast tacos you are in luck and they have kolaches. It is pretty hot and humid 9 months of the year and you just have to embrace it or go to the beach which is an hour away.
Title: Strategic Assistant to the Head of Meteorology
Company: UBIMET
Work Location: Vienna, Austria
Pay: €43,040/year, much higher pay available based on experienced.
Degree:
Completed studies in meteorology (Bachelor's and/or Master's degree)
Experience:
5+ years of professional experience
Key Skills or Knowledge: (You should be able to do these duties)
Experience in the analysis and interpretation of complex meteorological models and data
Strong scientific understanding and a passion for questioning existing approaches and developing new solutions.
Ability to present complex scientific and technical content clearly and understandably to different target groups.
Confident demeanor and excellent presentation skills, even in direct customer contact.
High level of initiative, sense of responsibility, organizational skills and a structured, pragmatic way of working with enjoyment of cross-departmental collaboration.
Who Should Apply?
If you speak German first off. This is more of a mid-career opportunity where you provide support to the head of meteorology, like the assistant head meteorologist. If you are in forecasting an looking for a way to advanced and do not mind living in Vienna, then this is who should apply.
Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, or a related discipline.
Years of Experience:
5+ years of operational weather forecasting experience, establishing yourself as a seasoned forecaster capable of confident, independent decision-making.
Key Skills or Knowledge:
Demonstrated a high degree of communication and people interaction skills, with a proven track record of translating complex weather data into actionable business insights for non-technical audiences. They put this at the top because it is very important. You need to be able to convey actionable weather insights to the client.
Showcased a willingness and proven ability to work a highly flexible schedule, including strictly required weekends, holidays, and varied shift hours to support 24/7 operations. You will be working any and all shifts.
Proven ability to thrive in an isolated, solo-shift environment while maintaining high accuracy, situational awareness, and productivity. You won't have anyone to fall back on and will be the authority on the weather with this client.
Gained specialized experience forecasting road-level hazards (e.g., flash floods, snow, ice, black ice, dust storms, fog). You should know that flash flooding is a big deal and where in the Phoenix is more a risk than others. You should know which routes north of Phoenix see snow and ice. Haboobs are a common annual experience in the monsoon season. You should understand the dynamics of forecasting where dust will occur, how long visibility is unsafe for driving, and when it will end.
Developed expertise in urban forecasting and microclimate analysis (highly preferred). You need to develop down to the mile marker where flash flooding, snow, dust will occur.
Committed to relocating to Phoenix, Arizona, to support the client on-site (relocation assistance is anticipated).
Who Should Apply?
To me this client sounds like a regional trucking company. The reason is, the addition of snow and ice which do not occur in Phoenix, but definitely occur on I-17 north of Phoenix heading to Flagstaff and towards The Grand Canyon. I-40 running West to East across northern Arizona is known to have snow and ice issues. Other smaller routes around Sedona and Payson can also see snow and ice. Believe me, I have been in Sedona during a snowstorm and there were not any snow plows for a while which means the roads remain icy for long periods. Flash flooding and dust storms can occur with the same storm, regardless they are both major driving hazards.
You don't have to have road weather experience to do this job.
You do have to be able to develop a sense of the microclimates, develop case studies and pattern recognition guides in order to confidently make a forecast, on your own, and stand by it and then share it with the entire fleet. You have to be able to make forecasts that have several parts such as the warm and cold sector of a storm and how it will affect different routes. It would be very helpful if you had a sense of road elevations, exposure points, frost pockets and more for each mile of road.
Since I love Phoenix and have done road weather forecasting this sounds very interesting to me. Although, this job is all year, so you will also have to be ok with temperatures in the 115 F / 46 C often, and it may be too hot to even swim during the day.
Degree: A PhD in statistics, applied mathematics, physics, computer science, operations research, engineering, or a comparable record of original research and applied technical work.
Experience: 8+ years
Qualifications:
Proven track record of independently defining, driving, and executing a substantial research agenda as a senior individual contributor or industry principal, demonstrated through influential publications, patents, or production systems.
Recognized subject matter expert with deep technical authority and a history of setting research direction without needing direct management oversight.
Extensive experience in probabilistic modeling, uncertainty quantification, model validation, scientific computing capabilities and decision-making under incomplete information.
Substantial experience modeling operational systems. Particularly relevant topics include insurance or catastrophe modeling; weather prediction and climate hazard; outages in power systems; and reliability engineering.
Who Should Apply: This is a good job for those of you with a data science background and with experience, more of a senior level type role.
Degree: Bachelor’s degree in applicable engineering or science disciplines
Experience: Experience
Qualifications:
Proven expertise in air quality dispersion modelling (including CALPUFF and AERMOD; GRAL an asset) and meteorological modelling (including TAPM and CALMET; WRF an asset)
Full understanding of the current regulatory/planning framework/technical guidance for air quality assessments
Demonstrated experience in leading air quality projects
Thorough knowledge of a variety of engineering analytical tools, GIS (QGIIS), experience of ERP systems, and MS Word, MS Excel and MS PowerPoint
Proven ability to act as the technical liaison between internal project teams, external clients, and regulators
Preferred Qualifications:
Post-graduate degree or doctorate in subjects relevant to the role
Working knowledge of programming, for example Python, R, Linux
Professional qualification (e.g. CAQP, CPeng,..)
Membership and participation in air quality associations (e.g. CASANZ) and conferences
Who Should Apply: If you are interested in air quality and you either live in India, or nearby and can get a work permit, then you should apply. Air quality is very important and RWDI is a well known global engineering company and would be a good company to work for.
Title: Extension Specialist and Director of the UGA Weather Network
Company: University of Georgia
Location: Athens, GA
Work Location: Onsite
Degree: M.S. in meteorology, atmospheric science, agricultural engineering, climate science or a closely related field
Experience: 1-3+ years, including training and background in managing extension programs and agriculture systems.
Qualifications:
The successful candidate will have a working understanding of the field of climate-services and the ability to transform data into accessible and actionable tools to aid decision making processes for agricultural producers and other stakeholders.
Candidates with a demonstrated record of collaborative applied research/Extension/instruction/administrative programming, extramural grant success, and program development that integrates applied science and Extension are preferred. Familiarity with managing weather networks and data acquisition of weather and climate observations and an understanding of climatology and the ability to use climate products (NOAA Climate Prediction Center, IPCC, mesonets, etc.) to identify agricultural impacts is highly desirable. Candidates should be interested in collaborating with research faculty to jointly develop and deploy climate-related decision support tools for producers and other stakeholders.
Who Should Apply: First off this is one of the few agriculture meteorology roles that doesn't involve commodity trading or knowledge of such and much more boots on the ground, in the weeds working directly with farmers to help them understand how the weather will affect their crops, what to plant, what crops to alternate in multiple fields, how frost, disease, and bugs may affect their crop, and fertilizer applications may just runoff if the conditions are not ideal. Since my spouse worked for extension for a different university I am familiar what is involved.
Location: Athens is a cool, college town sort of in northeastern Georgia, east of Atlanta. Not far to the North you have the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains, with river rafting, camping and hiking and in the winter downhill skiing. Yes they get snow, sometimes. Not too far from the beach, mild weather and if you enjoy sports, a lot of sporting events in this part of the US. Plus if you want to work around other meteorologist and climate professionals, working at a university is ideal.
Degree: Bachelor’s degree in urban planning, Emergency Management, Geography, Public Administration, Environmental Science, Engineering, Natural Resources, or a closely related field.
Experience: 8+ years experience in hazard mitigation planning, resilience planning, emergency management, climate adaptation, or related field - Many meteorologists can claim this experience even if you've never held this position.
Qualifications:
Ability to utilize Geographic Information System (GIS) and geospatial analysis to support planning and decision-making.
Ability to use Python, R, machine learning, large language models, natural language processing, or other advanced analytical methods.
Familiarity with using artificial intelligence tools or advanced analytical technologies in professional planning, research, technical writing, data analysis, or project management workflows.
Preferred Qualifications
Certified Floodplain Manager (CFM), American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP), Certified Emergency Manager (CEM), and/or related professional certification.
3-year experience serving as a lead author, primary contributor, project manager, or technical lead for FEMA-compliant hazard mitigation plans.
3-year experience of working on FEMA Hazard Mitigation Assistance (HMA), Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP), Flood Mitigation Assistance (FMA), Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC), or similar programs.
Who Should Apply:
This is a very specific type of experience and it may fall to a government or former government meteorologist or someone working in academia around flooding and somewhere where you would have interacted with FEMA.
Once again, there are many jobs out there, but you may have to be flexible and willing to work in an area that is not as interesting to you right now. Then use that opportunity to learn the skills you need to move into something else after a few years. I know moving to another location doesn't sound appealing or even possible for many, but for those that can relocate, there are many opportunities.
Good luck on the job search!
Scott Patterson
21 years as a meteorologist. Former hiring manager. Founder of My Met Job.
Every Friday, I break down real meteorology job postings and cover what the role actually involves, what employers are really looking for, and how to position yourself to get hired. Experience in energy, aviation, agricultural commodities, transportation, outdoor recreation, and event forecasting. Free, every Friday