We analyze the temporal dynamics associated with axisymmetric coherent structures in a turbulent jet. It has long been established that turbulent jets comprise large-scale coherent structures, now more commonly referred to as “wave packets” [Jordan and Colonius, Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 45, 173 (2013)ARVFA30066-418910.1146/annurev-fluid-011212-140756]. These structures exhibit a marked spatiotemporal organization, despite turbulence, and we aim to characterize their temporal dynamics by means of nonlinear statistical tools. The analysis is based on data presented Breakey , in Proceedings of the 19th AIAA/CEAS Aeroacoustics Conference, AIAA Paper 2013–2083 (AIAA, Reston, VA, 2013), where time series of the wave-packet signatures are extracted at different streamwise locations. The experiment runs at and . A thorough analysis is performed. Statistical tools are used to estimate the embedding and correlation dimensions that characterize the dynamical system. Input-output transfer functions are designed as control-oriented models; and for this special case, consistent with other recent studies, we find that linear models can reproduce much of the convective input-ouput behavior. Finally, we show how surrogate models can partially reproduce the nonlinear dynamics.