[Neutron] Vacancy: Senior Scientific Data Analysis Software Developer / Research Software Engineer and Technical Architect

[Toby Perring - UKRI STFC]

Senior Scientific Data Analysis Software Developer / Research Software Engineer and Technical Architect
STFC, Didcot
£37,789 - £58,558 (dependent on skills and experience and inclusive of maximum annual role-based allowance)
Full Time or Part Time (minimum 28 hours per week)
Fixed term (3 years)

About Us:
The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a partner organisation within UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). UKRI is a new entity that brings together nine partners to create an independent organisation with a strong voice for research and innovation and a vision to ensure the UK maintains its world-leading position in research and innovation.

About the role:
ISIS is a world leading facility for condensed matter research using neutron scattering and muon spectroscopy, with a strong scientific user programme and extensive international links. It supports a national and international community of more than 2000 scientists for research into subjects across physics, chemistry, biology and materials science.

The ISIS Excitations Group operates four world-class neutron instruments at ISIS which are used to study numerous classes of materials, including superconductors, quantum and low dimensional magnets, thermoelectrics and other functional materials. It has just started a major software project to enable a step change the rapidity and quality of the data analysis of the experiments performed on the instruments in the Group. The project, christened PACE (Proper Analysis of Coherent Excitations), aims to provide an integrated visualization, simulation and fitting environment on parallel and distributed computing, and which will interface to materials modelling codes.

The Group is seeking to employ two Research Software Engineers, or Scientists with a strong programming background, to join the other members of the PACE development team and to work with members of the ISIS Excitations Group to implement PACE. This post is for an experienced developer of scientific software for parallel and distributed computing environments to take a lead role in the design and implementation of the PACE data analysis framework, and to ensure the integration of the framework with modelling codes and parameter optimisation algorithms to form a cohesive data analysis application.

The position would suit a computational scientist, an experimental scientist with parallel programming experience, or a research software engineer with a strong technical or scientific background. The role offers the appointee an exciting opportunity to work in a high-level research environment, with the chance to learn from and work together with scientists, researchers and software developers with a variety of backgrounds and skills.

Appointment at Band F will require previous experience of successful delivery of scientific or technical software projects; Appointment at Band E will be for someone who can demonstrate that with appropriate support that they have the potential to move into a lead role.

The duties of the position:

*            responsibility for the architectural design of PACE, based on the scientific requirements defined by the ISIS Excitations Group
*            implement the PACE data analysis framework for parallel and distributed computing, together with the other PACE developers
*            responsibility for the technical project planning and management of PACE throughout the project, together with the Project Scientist
*            agile development of the first release of PACE in response to feedback from ISIS instrument scientists and users during the extended beta release period
*            overall responsibility for the integration of the analysis framework, optimisation algorithms and interface to modelling codes


About you:
It is essential that you have a Master's degree or PhD (or equivalent) in one of the physical sciences (chemistry, physics, material science, earth science, etc.) or numerate disciples (mathematics, computer science), or equivalent experience.  You must have a deep understanding of parallel programming in C++ for shared memory (e.g. OpenMP) and distributed computing (e.g. MPI) architectures for scientific software.

You will have skill in programming in Python and mixed language programming (e.g. Python - C++) as well as having extensive knowledge of up-to-date development practices (Github, unit and system testing, automatic documentation generation etc.).

You must also have the ability to work both as part of a team and with a high degree of autonomy and have excellent written communication skills.

What we offer:
In addition to the competitive salary, an excellent index linked pension scheme and generous leave allowance are offered. Full details of offered benefits can be found on STFC's careers pages.

Further information:
For more details about the PACE project, please visit the web page www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Proper-analysis-of-coherent-excitations.aspx<http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Proper-analysis-of-coherent-excitations.aspx> , or contact Professor Toby Perring (toby.perring at stfc.ac.uk<mailto:toby.perring at stfc.ac.uk>, +44 (0)1235 445428, www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Prof-Toby-Perring.aspx<http://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/Pages/Prof-Toby-Perring.aspx>).

How to Apply:
Applicants are required to include a cover letter outlining their suitability for this role.

Applications are handled by UK SBS; to apply please visit our job board at http://topcareer.jobs/Vacancy/irc247310_8995.aspx . Applicants who are unable to apply online should contact us by telephone on +44 (0)1793 867000.

The closing date for applications is 20 January 2019.

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