Computer Scientist (EP-AIP-SDS-2024-63-GRAP)

Your responsibilities

Join our team at the ALICE experiment within the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to develop high-performance computing code for data processing.

ALICE is recording around 100 Pb of data per year, which makes the data processing extremely challenging and necessitates the usage of compute accelerators such as GPUs. The focus of your project is on efficient data structures for heterogeneous computing environments with compute accelerators such as GPUs.

You'll collaborate with a small team as part of the Next Generation Triggers program of CERN, aiming for solutions that benefit all LHC experiments.

Responsibilities:

•  Work with a small team of experts to design and develop efficient data structures for heterogeneous environments with compute accelerators.
• Design clean and simple ways to define data types, minimizing memory copies and maximizing efficiency on diverse architectures.
• Collaborate closely with experts from various LHC experiments to understand their software needs and environments.
• Gain deep insights into compute accelerator performance characteristics, including alignment, memory access constraints, cache effects, and data structures.
• Investigate, and propose solutions for optimized data structures and benchmark and demonstrate efficiency, feasibility, and ease of integration.
• Partner with reconstruction experts from ALICE and other LHC experiments to adapt existing GPU event reconstruction algorithms to utilize the proposed data structure framework, conducting performance benchmarks to demonstrate efficiency gains.

If you're passionate about advancing high-performance computing and contributing to groundbreaking research in particle physics, we encourage you to apply. Join us at the forefront of innovation in LHC data processing.

More information here: https://alice.cern

Your profile

Skills and/or knowledge

Required Skills and/or Knowledge:

• Programming languages: C++, any GPU programming language (CUDA, HIP, or OpenCL)
• Operation systems: Linux

Advantageous:

• Knowledge of multiple GPU programming languages and familiarity with GPUs of different vendors
• Knowledge of vendor-independent GPU frameworks like Alpaka.
• Experience with vectorization (e.g. AVX on CPUs), efficient data structures and alignment for vectorized processing.
• Experience with High Performance Computing (HPC).

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State. A limited number of positions are also available to candidates from Non-Member States. 
• You have a professional background in Computer Science (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.

Job closing date: 19.04.2024 at 12:00 AM (midnight) CEST.

Job reference: EP-AIP-SDS-2024-63-GRAP

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

Target start date: 01-July-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.