Software Developer in Physics Simulation (IT-GOV-INN-2024-25-GRAP)

Job Description

We are offering a position in the Innovation section of the Strategy and Executive Governance group in the CERN IT department (IT-GOV-INN) on Software Engineering in the realm of high energy physics data simulation.

The work on this post will be carried out in the context of the NextGen project, a collaboration between the LHC experiments and the CERN Research and Computing Departments. NextGen will explore the use and impact of high-performance computing architectures in data simulation and data processing for the LHC experiments.

The simulation of particle collisions is one of the main consumers of computing resources for LHC experiments. Given the expected increase in amount, precision and complexity requirements for future simulation, and to stay within the forecasted computing budget, the throughput of simulation software packages needs to increase substantially.

The successful candidate will join a team of software engineers and physicists that tries to address this challenge. Together, you will speed up software packages for Monte Carlo (MC) event generation. Current and future tasks tackled by the team are at the technology limits in many aspects, such as complexity and accuracy of the simulated physics processes, age and history of the packages or the interplay between different programming languages. In order to profit from the latest computing hardware, adaptations or re-engineering of the software in aspects such as data structures, parallelisation of the workflow or task scheduling are needed.

In case of interest, training on data science, programming languages, software engineering concepts and computing architectures is available and can be provided via various training programs.

Your responsibilities

• Analyze and profile existing simulation code bases and develop strategies for improving their throughput.
• Implement latest software engineering concepts, leveraging on compute accelerators such as GPUs, modern CPU architectures and heterogeneous compute platforms.
• Interact and collaborate with experts in the theory, experimental physics and software engineering communities at CERN and world-wide.
• Supervise students on software development tasks and projects.

Your profile

Skills and/or knowledge

• Preferably a PhD in theoretical or particle physics or Masters Degree with equivalent work experience with a strong background in numerical simulation or statistics.
• A proven track record in software engineering for simulation applications in C++ and/or Fortran. Knowledge of GPU programming languages such as Cuda or HIP is an advantage.
• Interest in computing hardware accelerators and modern computing architectures.
• Fluent in English.

Behavioral competencies:

• You are a team player, you share your knowledge with colleagues and collaborate with them on common code bases.
• You break the domain boundaries and can explain complex physics concepts to non-domain experts.
• You are eager to learn new programming concepts and techniques and apply them in complex environments.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• You have a professional background in Theoretical or particle physics (or a related field) and have either:
  • a Master's degree with 2 to 6 years of post-graduation professional experience;
  • or a PhD with no more than 3 years of post-graduation professional experience.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.

Additional Information

Job closing date: 5 March at 23:59 hrs CET.

Job reference: IT-GOV-INN-2024-25-GRAP

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Target start date: 01-April-2024

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 6194 and 6808 Swiss Francs per month (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN's comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: installation grant; family, child and infant allowances; payment of travel expenses at the beginning and end of contract.
• 30 days of paid leave per year.
• On-the-job and formal training at CERN as well as in-house language courses for English and/or French.

About us

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on http://home.cern.

We are on a Quest. A Journey into discovery like no other. Bring your expertise to our unique work and develop your knowledge and skills at pace. Join world-class subject matter experts on unique projects, in a Quest for greater knowledge and deeper understanding.

Begin your CERN Quest. Take Part!

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success.

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