6 month Engineer position Stochastic modelling and numerical simulation of coupled oceanic flow, small-scale dynamics, wave-current interaction

inria; France; Hybrid; EUR 27,000 - 33,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Partial transport costs reimbursement

Teleworking (90 days/yr)

Partial insurance costs

Job summary

Inria in Rennes invites applications for a 6-month engineer position focusing on ocean modelling within the ERC Stuod project. You will work with researchers from Inria, Ifremer and IMT Atlantique to develop and test stochastic models of ocean dynamics.

The role requires strong mathematical background, knowledge of stochastic parameterization, and proficiency in Fortran, Python, and PyTorch. Collaboration across international teams is expected.

Qualifications

• The candidate should have a solid background in applied mathematics and fluid dynamics.
• Experience with stochastic parameterization and numerical modelling is required.
• Proficiency in Fortran, Python, and PyTorch is essential.

Responsibilities

• Numerically assess coupled stochastic variational models for ocean dynamics.
• Implement systems in idealized settings and validate against benchmarks.
• Collaborate with team members in Rennes and with partners at Ifremer and IRMAR.
• Produce short regular reports on progress and results, in English.

Skills

Fortran

Python

Pytorch

Stochastic modelling

Education

Applied mathematics degree

Job description

Inria, the French national research institute for the digital sciences

Organisation/Company Inria, the French national research institute for the digital sciences Research Field Mathematics Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Leading Researcher (R4) Established Researcher (R3) Application Deadline 31 Dec 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Country France Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Hours Per Week 38.5 Offer Starting Date 1 Dec 2026 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Horizon 2020 Reference Number 2026-10561 Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

The Odyssey team is offering a 6 month engineer position on ocean modelling within the ERC Stuod (Stochastic transport in ocean dynamics). Odyssey (for Ocean DYnamicS obSErvation analYsis) is a recently created team involving researchers from Inria (Rennes, France), Ifremer (Brest) and IMT Atlantique (Brest).

Inria is one of the leading research institute in Computer Sciences in France, and Odyssey is also affiliated to the mathematics research institute of the Rennes University (IRMAR).

The team expertise encompasses mathematical (stochastic) and numerical modelling of ocean flows, observational and physical oceanography, data assimilation and machine learning.

Gathering this large panel of skills, the team aims at improving our understanding, reconstruction and forecasting of ocean dynamics, and more specifically to bridge model-driven and observation-driven paradigms to develop and learn novel representations of the coupled ocean-atmosphere dynamics ocean models.

For accurate climatic predictions, it is essential to have plausible forecasts of the future ocean state. Ideally, high-resolution ocean simulations would be used for this purpose. However, due to their associated computational costs, this approach is currently infeasible, and we must rely only on large-scale ocean representations.

To address this challenge and the urgent need to generate various likely scenarios, there has been a growing interest in geophysical sciences and climate studies in developing flow models that incorporate noise to account for modelling uncertainties or errors.

The introduction of noise into ocean dynamics models must be done on a theoretically rigorous ground. Ad-hoc choices for model noise can fundamentally disrupt the corresponding fluid dynamics models, leading to unrealistic properties. Rigorously justified methodologies for deriving stochastic dynamics models have been recently introduced in the Odyssey team within the ERC STUODand a longstanding collaboration with Imperial College and Ifremer.

The theoretical framework on which we rely, referred to as "modelling under location uncertainty", decomposes the flow in terms of a resolved smooth component and a rapidly oscillating random component.The stochastic dynamics is then defined from a stochastic representation of the Reynolds transport theorem.From this modelling principle, stochastic equivalents of the classical geophysical flow models can be defined.

The present engineer position aims to assess numerically coupled stochastic variational models proposed recently.

Originally proposed for the Euler equations by A. Debussche and E. Mémin for the incompressible Euler equation, the formalism has been very recently extended to oceanic flow models. The objective will consist in implementing such systems in idealized situations.

The engineer position will take place in the Odyssey group in Rennes, and will collaborate with Arnaud Debussche and Etienne Mémin.

The candidate should have a solid background in applied mathematics and in fluid dynamics dynamics. He/She should have knowledge on stochastic parameterization. She/he must have a good knowledge of Fortran, Python, Pytorch.

Specific Requirements

The candidate will work within an international collaboration. This will include in particular regular meetings and the writing of short regular reports on the advance oh his/her his work. She/he must be fluent in english.

Languages FRENCH Level Basic

Languages ENGLISH Level Good

Additional Information

• Partial reimbursement of public transport costs
• Possibility of teleworking (90 days per year) and flexible organization of working hours
• Partial payment of insurance costs

Starting from €2,695 gross per month, based on your experience

Selection process