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At CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, we are pushing the frontiers of science and technology. Our groundbreaking work brings together not only physicists but also a diverse range of professionals from engineering, technical, scientific, and administrative fields. Together, we foster an environment where innovation and collaboration thrive.
Every day, we face exciting new challenges and opportunities to contribute to cutting-edge research that shapes our understanding of the universe. We meet these challenges through the diverse perspectives within our teams, ensuring every contribution is valued and driving our shared sense of inclusion and purpose. Diversity is a core value of CERN since its foundation, and it remains central to our mission and continued success.
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Job Description
CERN operates the analysis ecosystem used daily by thousands of researchers: the SWAN interactive notebook service, the Rucio data management system, the REANA reproducible-workflow engine, the Zenodo open repository, and CVMFS for software distribution. Building on these services, and as part of the ESCAPE Collaboration.
CERN is developing the next generation of Virtual Research Environments (VRE): a modular, open-source analysis platform, deployed on CERN's Kubernetes infrastructure, that gives researchers a single entry point to data, software, and computing. The VRE and its associated Open Science Competence Centre are being integrated into the CERN EOSC node, opening the platform to federated user communities across Europe.
This work is funded through the OSCARS project, and as a Graduate you will significantly contribute in consolidating our platform to be production-ready.
This role will include:
Working as a software and platform engineer in the team developing and operating the VRE on CERN's cloud infrastructure, alongside the SWAN, Rucio, REANA, and Zenodo service teams.
Hardening Jupyter extensions for Rucio, REANA, and Zenodo into production-ready plugins, with the CERN SWAN service as the reference integration.
Consolidating the unified VRE Helm charts as a common and containerised deployment reference.
Contributing to the integration of the VRE and the Competence Centre into the CERN EOSC node, and engaging with the user communities they serve.
Our ultimate goal is a seamless, reproducible analysis environment where researchers can discover and access data, run interactive and batch analyses across heterogeneous resources, and publish their results within one open ecosystem. This is a unique opportunity to work at the core of CERN's analysis services and shape a platform adopted by research infrastructures well beyond CERN.
Your responsibilities:
Develop and maintain the Jupyter extensions for Rucio, REANA, and Zenodo (Python, JupyterLab/React), upgrading them into production-ready plugins integrated with CERN's SWAN notebook service.
Support the Competence Centre activities through workshops, training events, and documentation, gathering user feedback and translating it into technical improvements.
Prototype the scaling of interactive analysis to distributed compute: offloading of user sessions to HPC and cloud resources using VirtualKubelet/interLink, leveraging CERN's cloud procurement activities.
Streamline data staging between the distributed data infrastructure and the analysis environment.
Your profile:
Experience with Python and software development in a Linux environment.
Familiarity with container technologies, such as Docker, and container orchestration with Kubernetes (including Helm).
Familiarity with version control systems, such as Git, and CI/CD practices.
Exposure to authentication and authorisation technologies (for example OAuth2/OIDC, tokens, INDIGO IAM).
Experience contributing to or working with open-source software projects.
Ability to write clear, maintainable code and learn new technologies.
Familiarity with scientific data management or workflow tools (for example Rucio, REANA, Snakemake, or similar) is an asset.
Basic knowledge of web technologies and modern interfaces (for example JavaScript/React or JupyterLab extensions) is an asset.
Exposure to HPC or cloud computing environments is an asset.
Skills
Required Skills:
Python.
Git.
Docker.
Kubernetes.
Linux.
Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.
Nice to have skills:
Helm, GitOps, Prometheus.
JupyterHub/JupyterLab, React.
Rucio, REANA, Zenodo, CVMFS.
OAuth2/OIDC, token-based AAI, INDIGO IAM.
Kubeflow, VirtualKubelet/interLink.
Experience working on open source projects.
Eligibility criteria:
You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
By the application deadline, you have a maximum of two years of professional experience since graduation in Software Engineering (or a related field) and your highest educational qualification is either a Bachelor's or Master's degree.
You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
Applicants without University degree are not eligible.
Applicants with a PhD are not eligible.
This position involves:
Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organisation.
Global Benefits
A monthly stipend between 5,266-5,793 Swiss Francs per month (tax free) depending on your degree.
30 days of paid leave per year plus 2 weeks' annual closure.
Coverage by CERN’s comprehensive health insurance scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
Family, child and infant monthly allowances depending on your individual circumstances.
A relocation package (installation grant and travel expenses) depending on your individual circumstances.
Possibility to extend your contract up to 36 months.
On-the-job and formal training including language classes.
We've signed the Gradcracker feedback pledge.
(This means that we will supply feedback if requested after an interview.)
