Young Researcher

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Position Title: Young Researcher
Location: Geneva
Country: Switzerland
Deadline Date: 07.03.2025

Job Details

Job Posting Organization:
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, was established in 1954 and is one of the world's largest and most respected centers for scientific research. With over 2,500 employees and thousands of scientists from around the globe, CERN operates in 23 member states and collaborates with numerous non-member countries. The organization is dedicated to understanding the fundamental structure of the universe through high-energy particle physics, utilizing the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments to study the basic constituents of matter.

Job Overview:
The position of Young Researcher is an exciting opportunity to engage in cutting-edge research at the intersection of particle physics and computational science. The successful candidate will join the NextGen Trigger project, collaborating closely with the CMS experiment at CERN. The role involves leading efforts to evolve the CMS Software (CMSSW) into a distributed application, which is crucial for simulating, reconstructing, selecting, and analyzing physics data. The researcher will focus on optimizing the software to run across multiple nodes and leverage remote accelerators such as GPUs and FPGAs, all while ensuring minimal changes to the existing code. The emphasis will be on minimizing latency and maximizing throughput using high-performance interconnects and communication libraries. This position not only offers the chance to contribute to groundbreaking research but also to present findings at prestigious conferences and workshops internationally.

Duties and Responsibilities:
The Young Researcher will be responsible for implementing a communication library based on the Message Passing Interface (MPI) for distributed data management within CMSSW. They will study and optimize the integration of remote GPUs and accelerators via high-speed network protocols to efficiently offload computational tasks. Investigating fault tolerance mechanisms is essential, ensuring the system can detect and recover from failures in a large-scale, heterogeneous computing environment. The researcher will also extend the CMS Data Acquisition (DAQ) system to support a distributed High-Level Trigger (HLT) application, utilizing modern orchestration technologies and implementing a dedicated test system. Collaboration with colleagues at CERN and partner institutes is crucial, as is the ability to present work at international conferences.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must possess a strong background in computer science, physics, or a related field. Expertise in C++ programming is essential, and experience with the CMS software stack is considered a plus. Proficiency in software development tools such as Github and GitLab, as well as continuous integration practices, is required. Knowledge of distributed computing approaches, GPU programming, and heterogeneous computing architectures is advantageous. Familiarity with container technology and orchestration systems is also beneficial.

Educational Background:
The ideal candidate should have a professional background in Applied Physics or a related field. They must hold 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. It is important that candidates have never held a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.

Experience:
The position requires candidates to have relevant professional experience, which can vary based on their educational background. Those with a Master's degree should have between 2 to 6 years of experience, while PhD holders should have up to 3 years of experience in a related field.

Languages:
Fluency in English is mandatory, and knowledge of French is considered an asset. Candidates should be able to communicate effectively in both spoken and written forms.

Additional Notes:
The job closing date is set for 07.03.2025 at 23:59hrs CET. The contract duration is 24 months, with a possible extension of up to 36 months. The working hours are 40 hours per week, and the target start date is 01-April-202

• The position may involve stand-by duty, night shifts, and work during Sundays and official holidays as required by the organization. The job reference is EP-CMD-2025-20-GRAP, and the field of work is Applied Physics. The compensation includes a monthly stipend ranging from 6287 to 6911 Swiss Francs (net of tax), comprehensive health coverage, and various allowances depending on individual circumstances. Employees are entitled to 30 days of paid leave per year and will receive on-the-job training as well as formal training opportunities at CERN.