Numerical Engineer In Fisheries Science M - F H/F Ifremer

Deadline for applications: 12/06/2026

Who are we?

The Research Unit (UMR) Ecosystem Dynamics and Sustainability: From Source to Ocean (DECOD) brings together researchers, engineers, and technicians from Ifremer, INRAE, and the Institut Agro Rennes-Angers, with laboratories in Brest, Lorient, Nantes, and Rennes (https://www.umr-decod.fr). DECOD's activities focus on analyzing the ecological and evolutionary processes at work in aquatic environments and their interfaces, from the source to the ocean, on assessing the state of ecosystems, and on developing scenarios for these ecosystems. To address these questions, the Laboratory of Fisheries Biology (LBH) aims at improving knowledge on exploited marine organisms, from the individual to the population scale, and implements models and quantitative approaches based on empirical data, within the framework of the ecosystem-based approach to fisheries.

Implementing the ecosystem approach to fisheries requires taking into account the various components of marine social-ecological systems, particularly fish and other harvested species and their biotic and abiotic habitats. The characterization of ecological components relies on a variety of data (in situ, remote sensing, experiments, model outputs) that are integrated into numerical models. These models enable the exploration of mechanisms influencing the dynamics of individuals, populations, and communities impacted by various environmental and anthropogenic pressures, including fishing.

In this context, numerical models simulating higher trophic level compartments allow for the reconstruction and projection of the future of different levels of biological organization under scenarios of various climate and anthropogenic pressure. The models may focus on stock assessment or incorporate additional mechanisms for one or more species to address research questions (e.g., integrated life-cycle models; individual-based models incorporating bioenergetics; end-to-end ecosystem models). Several models are developed or applied within the unit: DEB-IBM, OSMOSE, Atlantis, life cycle models, etc.

The engineer will be responsible for configuring, maintaining, and applying models within research projects and expertise frameworks. This includes interfacing various ecological models with physical and biogeochemical models to contribute to a digital twin for higher trophic levels (e.g., fish). He or she will contribute to the exploration of scenarios useful for ecosystem-based fisheries management.

What will your mission and activities be?

• You will contribute to the development, maintenance, and dissemination of the models used by the unit to represent higher trophic levels, and conduct simulations over various time scales for different climate and pressure scenarios;
  
• You will work on the coupling/forcing of models representing different spatial scales (downscaling of global scenarios to address regional and local scales, upscaling of fine-scale spatial behaviors), temporal scales (hindcast - nowcast - forecast), and ecosystem levels (physiology-individual-population coupling, lower and upper trophic levels, fish-fishery);

• You will contribute to developing numerical scenarios of the evolution of the ocean in its higher trophic level dimension, particularly for populations and communities exploited within research projects and for expertise.

How are your activities organized?

• You will develop, maintain, and share the numerical codes for the laboratory's various models (e.g., DEB-IBM, life cycle model) and their components (e.g., larval drift, bioenergetics, physiology, behavior, movement), and you will contribute to their coupling with hydrodynamic and lower trophic level models

• You will implement tools to ensure data flows for model forcings or coupling, as well as the computation of indicators (environmental, biological, anthropogenic pressures);

• You will monitor developments and initiate new applications for numerical modeling tools, including the development of couplers and hybrid AI for integration with existing modeling tools. You will apply methods for model parameterization, calibration, and sensitivity analysis;

• You will be involved in research projects and ad hoc fisheries expertise using relevant models for hindcast analyses and projections under various scenarios;

• You will serve as the unit's point person for CROCO (Community Hydrodynamic Code, https://www.croco-ocean.org/) and Datarmor (Ifremer's supercomputer) and assist unit members in using the High Performance Calculator.

Who will you be working with ?

• Internal collaborative relationship

UMR DECOD, Unités Ifremer (HMMN, MARBEC, HISSEO, DYNECO, LOPS, IRSI...).

• External collaborative relationship

Mercator Ocean International, IRD, INRAE, CLS, Instituts européens, CIEM, consortium FishMIP.