Reference: 458_26_CS_SDES_RE1

Job title: Research Engineer – Advanced Configuration of Edge AI Accelerators (RE1)

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 High-Performance Embedded Systems (HPES) laboratory aims at enabling the adoption of hardware, software, and artificial intelligent (AI) high-performance solutions in embedded systems as its center of gravity, but also in any system with some form of criticality, like cars, airplanes, and satellites. Our work is mainly carried out in the context of bilateral projects with several processor companies as well as several European-funded projects. For a complete list of publications of the group in the last years, please visit HPES page at the following link: https://www.bsc.es/discover-bsc/organisation/research-structure/high-performance-embedded-systems-hpes.

Modern Edge AI platforms integrate heterogeneous computing resources such as multicore CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, DSPs, and dedicated AI accelerators. Efficiently exploiting these resources requires mechanisms that go beyond standard application-level APIs and expose lower-level capabilities for resource allocation, partitioning, scheduling, performance monitoring, interference control, and runtime configuration.

In this context, we are looking for a talented and motivated Research Engineer to work on the advanced configuration, control, and performance optimization of hardware accelerators in cutting-edge Edge AI platforms.

The research activity will investigate how accelerator resources can be observed and controlled from the system-software layer, with particular attention to:

• runtime configuration and resource management of GPUs, NPUs, and other AI accelerators;

• hardware-supported partitioning and isolation mechanisms;

• execution-time and resource predictability for AI workloads;

• memory, cache, and interconnect bandwidth management;

• accelerator scheduling and workload placement;

• power and performance configuration;

• hardware performance monitoring and telemetry;

• integration of low-level accelerator control mechanisms into system software, middleware, and runtime frameworks;

• experimental characterization of representative Edge AI workloads on state-of-the-art embedded platforms.

The work will involve both experimental platform development and research-oriented prototyping, with the objective of identifying and exposing hardware and system-software mechanisms that enable predictable and controllable execution of AI workloads at the edge.

Candidates are required to exhibit a background in embedded systems and familiarity with both hardware and software analysis and configuration. Applicants are expected to hold an engineering degree in fields related to embedded systems, computer architecture, or closely related areas.

The position offers opportunities to collaborate with research institutions and industrial stakeholders across several European locations, providing a stimulating environment for professional growth, knowledge exchange, and hands-on research experience.

Key Duties

• Contribute to the research on advanced configuration and control mechanisms for GPUs, NPUs, and other hardware accelerators available in state-of-the-art Edge AI platforms

• Analyze hardware and system-software interfaces for resource allocation, partitioning, scheduling, monitoring, and performance management

• Contribute to system-level, application level, and containerization level solutions to improve non-functional metrics like execution time and resilience to hardware faults

• Develop low-level prototype software components, tools, and APIs to expose accelerator configuration and observability capabilities

• Document technical results and contribute to scientific publications, project deliverables, demonstrations, and presentations

• Collaborate with a small team of researchers and industrial partners working on embedded systems, AI acceleration, automotive computing, and software-defined platforms

Requirements

• Education

  • Engineering degree or Master Degree in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, or a related field

• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Previous experience running AI workloads on embedded targets with accelerators like NPU and GPU
  • Performance, heat, power consumption analysis of benchmarks running on embedded workloads
  • Good programming skills in C/C++
  • Solid knowledge of Linux systems programming
  • Familiarity with computer architecture and heterogeneous computing platforms
  • Experience working with embedded or edge-computing platforms
  • Ability to perform experimental performance analysis and benchmarking
  • Familiarity with scripting and automation tools, preferably Python and shell scripting

• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

  • Embedded AI platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson/Orin, NXP iMX8, Qualcomm, AMD, Intel, or ARM-based SoCs
  • Familiarity with Neural Processing Units and dedicated AI accelerators
  • Linux kernel interfaces, device drivers, ioctl, MMIO, or low-level hardware interfaces
  • Experience in programming and collecting hardware performance counters and accelerator telemetry

• Competences

  • Problem-solving, pro-active, result-oriented work attitude
  • Good communication skills including a good command of the English language (written and spoken)
  • Good technical English and ability to work with technical documentation and research literature

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Computer 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: November

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