Research Engineer – Speech Large Language Models (RE2)

Reference: 392_26_AII_S_RE2 Job title: Research Engineer – Speech Large Language Models (RE2)

About BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

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We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.

If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.

Context And Mission

The Speech Team at the newly established AI Institute hosted at BSC brings together extensive expertise in several areas, including automatic speech recognition, speech synthesis, and speech LLMs, with a particular emphasis on low-resource languages and settings. In addition, the AI Institute has been entrusted by both the Spanish and Catalan governments with the mission of developing foundational open-source resources and technologies for Spanish and Catalan.

The Speech Team contributes to two flagship national initiatives: the AINA project, funded by the Catalan Ministry of Digital Policy and aimed at advancing AI resources for Catalan, and the ALIA project, funded by the Spanish Secretariat of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence and aimed at AI resources for the co-oficial languages in Spain. The team also participates in a range of EU- and other nationally funded research projects.

The team is seeking a Machine Learning Engineer with experience in speech technologies, particularly in deep learning and model development for tasks such as speech recognition, speech synthesis, and LLMs. The successful candidate will join the Speech Team, work within a highly advanced HPC environment, gain access to state-of-the-art systems and computational infrastructure, and collaborate with experts across multiple disciplines at both local and international levels.

Key Duties

• Participation in current projects related to speech technologies, including but not limited to research, documentation and deliverables

• Design and develop innovative modules for speech large language models

• Design and develop speech synthesis modules

• Preparation and presentation of scientific articles

• Supervision junior research engineers

• Participation in internal group meetings and other scientific discussions

Requirements

• Education

  • A master's degree in Electronic engineering, Computer Science, Mathematics or related, with specialization in speech processing and recognition, and background in computation

• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Demonstrated experience of at least 2 years in machine learning
  • Demonstrated experience of at least 2 years in deep learning frameworks and in the relevant area(s)
  • Technical skills: Linux, Python, Deep learning libraries, git, HF
  • Ability to access and evaluate scientific literature

• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Demonstrated experience in developing open-source software and resources

• Competences

  • Ability to work under set deadlines
  • Good communication skills in English, both oral and written

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Directors Department

• We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures

• Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration

• Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement

• Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona

• Starting date: ASAP

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:

• A full CV in English including contact details

• A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English, clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.

Development of the recruitment process

The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:

• Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points
• Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.

The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.

In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.

The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.

At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es. For more information, please follow this link.

Deadline

The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.

OTM-R principles for selection processes

BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc. BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law. For more information follow this link