Research Engineer On Ai Hw/Sw (Re3)

Job Reference

721_24_CS_CAOS_RE3

Position

Research Engineer on AI HW/SW (RE3)

Closing Date

Thursday, 31 October, 2024
Reference: 721_24_CS_CAOS_RE3
Job title: Research Engineer on AI HW/SW (RE3)

About BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses Mare Nostrum, 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 Euro HPC 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 deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) based solutions to deliver advanced software functionalities is consolidating as a key competitive factor in several industrial domains. AI solutions are the cornerstone for enabling autonomous operation and decision making along the computing continuum from large servers to small edge devices. Increasingly time-critical functionalities are responsible for processing massive amounts of data coming from multiple sensors in a predictable and timely manner. The complexity of AI-based software functionalities encourages the use of highly modular middleware frameworks such as ROS2, Cyber RT, or Autoware, running on top of general-purpose and/or specialized (real-time) operating systems. Performance and (timing) analyzability are two fundamental (and sometimes conflicting) requirements for this type of system, where extensive guarantees must be provided on the capability to deliver correct results in a timely manner, as dictated by domain-specific Functional Safety (Fu Sa) standards.

The objective of this position is to work in a small team on AI solutions for safety-critical systems, to cover a wide scope of activities to enable the analysis and deployment of cutting-edge AI solutions on specialized middleware/runtimes, on top of both mainstream high-computing platforms and industrially representative embedded devices.

We are looking for a candidate with demonstrated experience to coordinate and lead a small group of engineers in the analysis, tailoring, and re-design of AI models and libraries providing effective software-level solutions for the deployment of performance-efficient and functionally safe AI-based solutions in safety-critical systems. The offered position is meant to cover a wide set of activities to support and optimize the deployment of complex AI functions with respect to several dimensions, including but not limited to performance, timing anlaysability, explainability, and Fu SA compliance.

The candidate will be intensively collaborating in multidisciplinary projects, involving experts in AI, real-time computing, hardware analysis and timing analysis, to adapt, optimize, and instantiate AI models and libraries to meet Fu Sa and timing requirements on concrete AI use-case scenarios. The candidate will also elaborate and deploy efficient methodologies for profiling and debugging AI models' implementations as a means to capturing Fu SA and timing metrics.
The candidate is expected to combine applied investigation and hands-on implementation covering both software and hardware level aspects, including: the functional and non-functional analysis, porting, and optimization of (possibly tailored) AI models and libraries on relevant hardware and software setups, to meet performance, timing and Fu SA requirements, among others, on top of general purpose and specialized or custom

Key Duties

- Develop functional and timing models for Edge-AI systems on reference (distributed) middleware frameworks, on top of industrially representative edge devices
- Identify and explore opportunities for optimization of AI-models, platform and middleware configurations to meet performance, timing, explainability, and Fu SA requirements, among others
- Identify Fu SA, explainability, and timing-related metrics on top of middleware frameworks and develop software-level profiling and diagnostic approaches based on those metrics
- Deploy the devised solutions on mainstream high performance computing platforms and industrially representative setups
- Coordinate the efforts in the group to collect and support requirements on AI libraries and implementations emerging from different research projects
- Lead a small team of junior engineers and students contributing to these tasks.

Requirements

- Education

- Master's Degree on Computer Science, Computer Architectures, Mathematics, or similar

- Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

- Strong background and experience in AI libraries and frameworks

- Basic knowledge on AI fundamentals

- Practical experience in generic programming (C, C++, etc.)

- Familiarity with scripting languages (e.g. Python)

- Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

- Familiarity with Linux-based environment is also appreciated

- Debugging of AI based systems on heterogeneous platforms

- Previous experience on profiling and analysis of timing behavior and other non-functional aspects of execution is appreciated

- Experience on hands on activity with hardware platform is a plus

- Competences

- Problem-solving, proactive, collaborative, and result-oriented work attitude

- Good communication skills including proficiency in English (both written and spoken)

Conditions

- The position will be located at BSC within the Computer Sciences Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/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: 23 paid vacation days plus 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: 01/01/2025

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be made through BSC website and contain:

- A full CV in English including contact details

- A Cover Letter with a statement of interest in English, including two contacts for further references - Applications without this document will not be considered

In accordance with the OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for every vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will start the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. A profile questionnaire as well as a technical exercise may be required during the process.

The panel will make a final decision and all candidates who had contacts with them will receive a feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.

At BSC we are seeking continuous improvement in our recruitment processes, for any suggestions or feedback/complaints about our Recruitment Processes, please contact recruitment (at) bsc (dot) es.

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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.
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