Workflows Engineer for AI processes (RE2)

Reference: 382_26_ES_EMW_RE2 Job title: Workflows Engineer for AI processes (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

Within the Computational Earth Sciences group, the Models and Workflows (MWT) team studies and develops essential frameworks and tools for efficiently running modeling experiments on HPC infrastructures. MWT is a growing team of approximately 30 members, closely collaborating with the Performance, Data, and AI teams, as well as the other scientific groups within the Department.

The successful candidate will contribute to the deployment and development of state-of-the-art external and in-house workflow solutions supporting the complete lifecycle of AI-based scientific workflows, from data preparation and model training to validation, deployment, and reproducible execution. The work will be carried out within European research projects developing next-generation AI-enabled digital twins for climate applications, integrating HPC systems, AI infrastructures, and large-scale data services.

The position offers the opportunity to collaborate with leading European research institutions in the areas of AI, climate science, workflow technologies, and research software engineering.

Learn more on our website: https://bsc.es/research-development/research-areas/computational-earth-sciences/models-and-workflows-team

Key Duties

• Develop, maintain, and deploy workflow solutions for AI-driven scientific applications.

• Contribute to the development of reproducible and traceable computational workflows following FAIR principles and research software engineering best practices.

• Collaborate with AI researchers, climate scientists, and software engineers to integrate new AI models into operational workflows.

• Contribute to software testing, continuous integration, documentation, and dissemination of developed technologies.

• Participate in European collaborative research projects and interact with international partners.

Requirements

• Education

  • BSc in Computer Science, Computational Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, or a related discipline.
  • Having a Master’s degree will be valued.

• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Experience in scientific software development using Python.
  • Experience deploying and developing workflow solutions for scientific or AI applications.
  • Experience with workflow management systems (e.g. Autosubmit, Airflow, or similar).
  • Experience with AI model lifecycles
  • Experience working with Linux environments and HPC systems.
  • Experience using version control systems (Git) and collaborative software development practices.
  • Experience with container technologies such as Docker or Singularity.
  • Knowledge of software engineering best practices, including testing, documentation, and continuous integration.

• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Troubleshooting and debugging skills.
  • Good written and spoken English.
  • Understanding of HPC computer architecture issues, including CPU, accelerators, memory, interconnect, parallel I/O, and computational performance in general.
  • Knowledge of HPC job schedulers (Slurm, PBS or similar).
  • Knowledge of climate or Earth system modelling workflows.
  • Experience participating in European or international research projects.
  • Contributions to open-source software projects.

• Competences

  • Earth system models are sophisticated tools and High-Performance Computers are complex systems. The candidate needs to have excellent problem-solving skills and a proactive attitude to address new challenges and perfect the current solutions so they gain reliability and efficiency.
  • This is a specialized position so the successful candidate is expected to have a demonstrated learning capacity and the motivation to maintain a learning progression during the contract.
  • The candidate will work within international collaborative projects, so it is mandatory to be able to fulfill schedules and coordinate with members from other institutions, as well as disseminate the advances in international workshops.

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Earth Sciences 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