Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Weather Program Director

🎯 Role Definition

As the Weather Program Director, you will lead the strategic direction, operational delivery, and continuous improvement of weather and atmospheric services across the organization. This role combines deep meteorological expertise (operational forecasting, NWP, radar/satellite interpretation) with proven program and people leadership—managing multi-disciplinary teams, accountable for budgets, vendor/partner contracts, stakeholder relationships, and public-facing communications during high-impact weather events. The Weather Program Director ensures timely, accurate, and actionable weather products and services while advancing innovation through data assimilation, model development, and science-to-operations transitions.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Senior Operational Meteorologist / Lead Forecaster
Program Manager or Operations Manager in meteorology/climate services
Research Scientist with operational transition experience

Advancement To:

Director of Atmospheric Sciences / Director of Environmental Services
VP of Operations (weather/climate products)
Chief Meteorology Officer / Head of Resilience & Emergency Services

Lateral Moves:

Director of Climate Services
Head of Forecast Operations
Director of Remote Sensing or Data Products

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Provide strategic leadership and operational oversight for the organization's weather program, defining program goals, success metrics (forecast accuracy, lead time, customer satisfaction), and a multi-year roadmap aligning meteorological capability with organizational objectives.
Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary team of meteorologists, hydrologists, modelers, data scientists, forecasters, emergency coordinators, and operations staff; recruit, develop and retain talent, establish clear performance expectations, and run regular technical and professional development programs.
Ensure end-to-end operational forecast quality by defining and enforcing standards for forecast production, verification and validation, continuous model evaluation, and post-event diagnostics to drive measurable improvement in forecast skill.
Direct the integration, customization, and operationalization of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems, ensemble forecasting, and model post-processing pipelines to deliver robust, probabilistic, and deterministic products for internal and external stakeholders.
Oversee the design, operation and calibration of radar, lidar, and satellite processing systems, ensuring real-time ingest, quality control, and visualization tools meet operational performance and reliability targets.
Establish and manage the program budget including forecasting expenditures, allocating resources across personnel, hardware, computing time, satellite/radar maintenance, and third-party contracts; present budget plans and variances to executive leadership.
Lead procurement, vendor selection and contract management for weather data providers, model licensing, cloud compute, software vendors, and system integrators; negotiate SLAs and ensure vendor performance against agreed KPIs.
Serve as the primary liaison to emergency management agencies, transportation authorities, utilities, aviation partners, and other critical infrastructure customers; translate meteorological products into actionable warnings and decision support tailored to each stakeholder.
Develop and execute the emergency response and incident management playbooks for high-impact weather events, coordinating forecasts, watches/warnings, decision support, and real-time communications with incident commanders and executive leadership.
Champion the transition of new science into operations (S2O): coordinate research partnerships, proof-of-concept experiments, and production deployment of improved algorithms, data assimilation schemes, and new observing systems.
Own the program’s data strategy: standardize metadata, implement robust data pipelines, ensure data lineage and observability, and enable reproducible verification metrics for all operational products.
Lead public-facing communications during significant weather events: prepare briefing materials for executives, draft public advisories, support media interviews, and ensure consistent messaging across channels to protect life and property.
Design and execute a rigorous verification program: establish KPIs (bias, RMSE, POD, FAR), run continuous skill assessments, and lead root-cause analyses that inform model tuning, algorithm selection, and forecast practice changes.
Ensure compliance with national and international meteorological standards and guidance (e.g., WMO, national weather services), maintain close coordination with government agencies, and represent the organization at industry forums and interagency working groups.
Drive innovation in visualization and decision-support tools to enable non-expert users to consume probabilistic information and take timely operational actions; prioritize UX improvements and mobile delivery where appropriate.
Supervise implementation of cybersecurity, disaster recovery, and high-availability strategies for critical forecasting infrastructure including on-premise and cloud-based systems.
Manage grants and funding initiatives: identify funding opportunities, lead proposal development, manage awarded funds, ensure deliverables are met, and produce required progress and technical reports.
Oversee quality assurance for model configurations, observation ingestion, automated alerting systems, and verification dashboards to maintain trust in operational outputs across stakeholders.
Coordinate cross-functional program governance: chair steering committees, convene technical working groups, and produce monthly program reports outlining risk, schedule, budget, and technical milestones.
Promote equity and inclusion in service delivery: evaluate how forecast products impact vulnerable communities, develop outreach and education strategies, and ensure services are accessible and actionable to a diverse customer base.
Lead long-term capacity planning for compute, storage, and human capital to meet forecast demand growth, seasonal surges, and major events, including structured contingency planning for equipment or data outages.
Develop and monitor KPIs for customer satisfaction and service-level performance; conduct stakeholder reviews, collect feedback, and implement product/service improvements based on user needs and measurable outcomes.
Facilitate knowledge transfer between research, operations, and partner organizations; document operational procedures, run tabletop exercises, and maintain an updated runbook for critical workflows.
Build and maintain relationships with academic, government, and private sector partners to source new science, access observational datasets, and collaborate on joint initiatives that extend service capabilities.

Secondary Functions

Provide subject-matter expertise to product managers and data teams to help translate meteorological concepts into technical requirements for APIs, dashboards, and decision-support systems.
Support ad-hoc investigatory requests from executives, regulators, or partners, including post-event assessments, regulatory reporting, and expert testimony where required.
Contribute to workforce training modules and certification programs to raise forecasting consistency and maintain accreditation of operational staff.
Participate in industry forums, standards development groups, and conference presentations to promote the organization’s capabilities and gather best practices.
Assist business development teams in scoping proposals, estimating delivery timelines, and articulating program capabilities during client engagements and RFP responses.
Monitor developments in observational platforms (GNSS-RO, cubesats, radar networks) and new model frameworks, recommending strategic investments to enhance observing system coverage and forecast accuracy.
Support continuous improvement initiatives including DevOps processes for model deployment, CI/CD pipelines for operational codebases, and monitoring/alerting for model failures or degraded performance.
Facilitate internal audit and regulatory reviews, ensuring record-keeping and documentation meet compliance and funding requirements.
Act as escalation point for complex forecast or service delivery issues, coordinating technical and operational teams to resolve high-impact incidents swiftly.
Support outreach initiatives with schools, community groups, and partner organizations to increase public understanding of weather risk and preparedness.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Operational meteorology and forecast production for convection, winter weather, hydrology, tropical systems, and mesoscale phenomena.
Deep knowledge of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) systems and experience operationalizing models (e.g., WRF, GFS, ECMWF, HARMONIE, HRRR).
Experience with data assimilation techniques and working with observational networks including radar, satellite, surface obs, radiosondes, buoy and remote sensing systems.
Proficiency with meteorological software and tools such as AWIPS, GEMPAK, MET, METplus, Python, R, MATLAB, and SQL for data analysis and product generation.
Familiarity with cloud computing environments (AWS, Google Cloud, Azure) for model hosting, ensemble runs, and data storage; experience with containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) preferred.
Strong verification and validation skillset: designing verification experiments, producing actionable diagnostics, and applying statistical skill metrics.
Experience managing procurement, contracts, vendor SLAs, and third-party data licensing for meteorological datasets and software.
Budget management and financial planning experience for mid- to large-scale scientific/operational programs.
Hands-on knowledge of GIS and geospatial visualization tools (ArcGIS, QGIS, Mapbox) to deliver location-specific products and mapping services.
Familiarity with WMO guidelines, national meteorological service operations, and emergency management integration protocols.
Competence in software development lifecycle practices, CI/CD, and version control (Git) as they relate to operational model/code deployment.
Experience with public communications, developing warnings/advisories, and briefing executives and media during high-impact weather events.
Grant writing, fund management, and reporting experience for public-private partnerships and research-to-operations projects.

Soft Skills

Strategic leadership with a track record of setting vision, aligning teams, and delivering multi-year technical programs on schedule and within budget.
Excellent stakeholder management: ability to build trust with government agencies, private sector clients, and community partners and to tailor technical messaging for varied audiences.
Crisis leadership and calm decision-making under pressure during severe weather or system outages.
Strong written and verbal communication skills for technical reports, public advisories, executive briefings, and media engagement.
Collaborative team builder: fosters cross-functional collaboration between researchers, developers, forecasters, and product teams.
Problem-solving orientation with a data-driven mindset and the ability to drive root-cause analyses and corrective actions.
Project and program management skills including risk management, milestone planning, and governance.
Adaptability to evolving technology, changing weather science, and shifting stakeholder priorities.
Mentorship and talent development competency: ability to coach senior meteorologists and technical staff into leadership roles.
Customer-focused mindset with an emphasis on service delivery, continuous improvement, and quantifiable impact.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Earth Science, Environmental Science, or closely related technical field.

Preferred Education:

Master’s or PhD in Meteorology, Atmospheric Science, Climate Science, or related discipline; MBA or Master's in Public Administration for candidates emphasizing program leadership and stakeholder management.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Atmospheric Science / Meteorology
Climate Science / Hydrology
Data Science / Computer Science (for modeling and analytics)
Emergency Management / Public Policy (beneficial for stakeholder engagement)
Geospatial Science

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range: 8–15+ years of progressive experience in operational meteorology, forecast operations, or atmospheric science with increasing leadership responsibilities.

Preferred:

10+ years in operational forecasting or program leadership including demonstrated experience managing multi-million-dollar budgets, vendor contracts, and cross-agency coordination.
Prior experience in emergency management coordination, public warning systems, and real-time operational delivery during high-impact events.
Proven track record of transitioning research to operations, integrating NWP models into production, and leading verification/validation programs.
Experience working with national meteorological services, aviation/weather regulators, utilities, or critical infrastructure stakeholders is highly desirable.
Demonstrated success in grant-funded projects, public-private partnerships, or business development related to weather and climate services.