Computing Fellowship: Software Engineer (CI/CD)

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.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN’s mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization.

ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment, is a dedicated heavy ion experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The ALICE Collaboration is studying the physics of strongly interacting matter at extreme energy densities and temperatures. Upon restart of the Large Hadron Collider in 2021, ALICE will operate at a peak Pb-Pb collision rate of 50 kHz collecting 100x more data than in previous years posing new challenges for data analysis.

In order to ensure seamless development and operation of the Software and Computing infrastructure of the experiment a Continuous Integration system is in place. It continuously verifies the end-to-end development process:  from developing a new feature, to testing it and integrating it in periodic releases which get deployed on the GRID.

With hundreds of developers contributing to the code base, this process is in particular essential to assure fast and correct turn around of simulation, reconstruction and analysis production requests, adapting to the Physics needs of experiment and ensuring optimal resources utilisation.

The candidate will be in charge of maintaining and further developing the ALICE continuous integration infrastructure and the associated tools, with a continuous effort to reduce test turnaround time and assuring highest quality and performance of the periodic software releases.

You see all aspects of software development as part of your work from prototyping to writing clean and well documented code, from testing to deployment, from bug hunting to user support.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State;
• You have graduated, or are about to graduate with a university degree (BSc or MSc level in computer science,engineering or another relevant course) and have no more than 4 years’ relevant experience after obtaining your degree;
• Kindly note that experience prior to the latest obtained degree will not be taken into account for the calculation of your overall years of experience.

Essential skills and experience:

• Experience in following programming languages: Python, JavaScript and Bash;
• Experience with managing a cluster of computers, build tools and best practices on Linux (ideally also macOS);
• Fluent in software development toolkits: Git, CMake and Make. Knowledge of Openstack, Puppet, Kubernetes would be an advantage;
• You enjoy learning and tackling new challenges.

Please note that CERN Staff members are not eligible to apply for a Fellowship.

CERN would very much like to benefit from your expertise, commitment and passion.

In return, CERN will provide you with:

• An employment contract for between six months (minimum) up to a maximum of 36 months.
• A stipend ranging from 5,281 to 6,558 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: an installation grant, family, child and infant allowances as well as travel expenses to and from Geneva.
• 2.5 days of paid leave per month.

Your Life @CERN

Find out more here: https://hr-dep.web.cern.ch/content/life-cern

This is how you can apply:

You will need the following documents to complete your application:

• A CV, ideally including a link to your Github account.
• A scanned PDF of your most recent relevant qualification.

We recommend to add two recent letters of recommendation, giving an overview of your academic and/or professional achievements. You can upload these letters at the time of application if you have them to hand. You will also be provided with a link as soon as you have submitted your application to forward to your referees to upload their letters confidentially. Please note this must be done before the closing date.

All applications should reach us no later than 2nd of August 2020.