Postdoctoral Appointee - Software Engineering Research

Sandia National Laboratories

Albuquerque, NM

ID: 7141636 (Ref.No. 689537)
Posted: April 21, 2023

Job Description

Posting Duration: This posting will be open for application submissions for a minimum of seven (7) calendar days, including the ‘posting date’. Sandia reserves the right to extend the posting date at any time. What Your Job Will Be Like: Software is now central to the scientific enterprise, which has brought the question of how to engineer high-quality software systems to the fore. The future is one of sustainable ecosystems of software embracing open-source and open science practices and principles. Recent years have seen the emergence of the research software engineer as a professional designation and growing interest in building bridges to the software engineering research community. Making progress on advancing the state of practice in computational science and engineering (CSE) will require a deep understanding of the interplay between software technologies and human factors in the processes of scientific discovery. Out team is seeking a dedicated Postdoctoral Appointee who is interested in an explicit focus on research in software methodologies for research-to-production CSE software, and strong curiosity about exploring, developing, adapting and adopting modern software engineering to the CSE software domain, including exploration of software productivity and sustainability metrics, development of tools and workflows, especially related to Agile methodologies built upon new and emerging software technology platforms. Activities will include working with research software engineers and the CSE teams that they serve to collaboratively create solutions that enhance productivity and sustainability for CSE research software products. Responsibilities include, but are not limited to: + Research and development of new methodologies, metrics, tools and best practices for CSE research software, using GitHub, Docker and related modern software platforms + Publication, presentation and engagement with the US and international communities on research topics in CSE software + Effective engagement software teams at Sandia and other DOE laboratories This post-doctoral position is for motivated and enthusiastic individuals with excellent interpersonal skills who have the ability to work in a collaborative research environment. The successful applicant will be encouraged to work closely with CSE software developers as well as have the opportunity to pursue independent research projects. Please note the successful candidate will be based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. US citizenship is desirable but not required. Qualifications We Require: + You have, or are pursuing, a PhD in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM) field with a strong emphasis on software, PhD must have been conferred within five years prior to employment + Programming skills applicable to the HPC environment (C/C++, Fortran, Bash, Python, Julia, R, or similar languages) + Experience with Linux shell environments and scripting + Experience with one or more of the following: configuration management, issue tracking, continuous integration, software testing Qualifications We Desire: + Computer Science and/or Software Engineering emphasis for degree + Ability to use debugging tools, unit tests, and other techniques to resolve complex software problems in applications and libraries + Experience working on challenging problems in a research and development team environment + Good communication, interpersonal, and teaming skills for effectively working in multi-disciplinary teams of mathematicians, engineers, and scientists + Software development experience (industry, academic, or internship) with modern high-performance computing development stack (e.g., C /C++ including the use of templates, Python, Java, Fortran, CMake, Bash) + Experience crafting, maintaining, and automating (unit, integration, performance, acceptance) test suites + Experience with Agile software quality engineering and/or full software development lifecycle + Experience with programming for shared and distributed memory parallelism (OpenMP, MPI) and accelerators (GPUs) + Ability to use techniques to resolve complex software problems in applications and libraries, e.g., debugging tools, unit tests, and other techniques + Experience running and optimizing software on parallel systems: experience with HPC queue management software (e.g., PBS, Slurm, Flux); ability to compile, configure, and integrate open-source applications into HPC environment; experience with performance tuning + Experience with modern DevOps infrastructure and practices (e.g., Git, CI /CD, GitLab and its workflows, Jenkins, VMs and/or containers, correctness testing including static, coverage, and memory analysis) and the use of branches and pull requests for change management About Our Team: The Software Engineering and Research Department (1424) within the Center for Computing Research, is leading the strategic goal of furthering the substantiation of software engineering as an engineering field. This dynamic team of experts conducts fundamental and applied research, development and application in software engineering, design, and the processes and principles that underlie the establishment of quality, difficulty, correctness, and repeatability in the implementation of algorithms and applications in software for high consequence applications. The team focuses on applications for scientific computing, computational algorithms, large scale data analytics, and operating system components such as run-time systems and application programming interfaces. A key element of the work is teaming with application and algorithm researchers to establish a solid foundation in software methodologies, innovative practices, and maintenance and support for production codes and libraries. The department works closely with other organizations across Sandia and with external collaborators. The department is part of the Extreme Scale Computing group, which unifies computer engineering and science fields to advance highly scalable and performant computing architectures based on current conventional, as well as future non-conventional, technologies. Our team is committed to nurturing a culture compatible with a broad group of people and perspectives in accordance with the changing makeup of the workforce. Join us and work towards your goals while making a difference!

About Sandia:

Sandia National Laboratories is the nation’s premier science and engineering lab for national security and technology innovation, with teams of specialists focused on cutting-edge work in a broad array of areas. Some of the main reasons we love our jobs: + Challenging work with amazing impact that contributes to security, peace, and freedom worldwide + Extraordinary co-workers + Some of the best tools, equipment, and research facilities in the world + Career advancement and enrichment opportunities + Flexible work arrangements for many positions include 9/80 (work 80 hours every two weeks, with every other Friday off) and 4/10 (work 4 ten-hour days each week) compressed workweeks, part-time work, and telecommuting (a mix of onsite work and working from home) + Generous vacations, strong medical and other benefits, competitive 401k, learning opportunities, relocation assistance and amenities aimed at creating a solid work/life balance* World-changing technologies. Life-changing careers. Learn more about Sandia at: http://www.sandia.gov*These benefits vary by job classification.

Security Clearance:

This position does not currently require a Department of Energy (DOE) security clearance. Sandia will conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications. Furthermore, employees in New Mexico need to pass a U.S. Air Force background screen for access to Kirtland Air Force Base. Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause access to be denied or terminated, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment. If hired without a clearance and it subsequently becomes necessary to obtain and maintain one for the position, or you bid on positions that require a clearance, a pre-processing background review may be conducted prior to a required federal background investigation. Applicants for a DOE security clearance need to be U.S. citizens. If you hold more than one citizenship (i.e., of the U.S. and another country), your ability to obtain a security clearance may be impacted. Members of the workforce (MOWs) hired at Sandia who require uncleared access for greater than 179 days during their employment, are required to go through the Uncleared Personal Identity Verification (UPIV) process. Access includes physical and/or cyber (logical) access, as well as remote access to any NNSA information technology (IT) systems. UPIV requirements are not applicable to individuals who require a DOE personnel security clearance for the performance of their SNL employment or to foreign nationals. The UPIV process will include the completion of a USAccess Enrollment, SF-85 (Questionnaire for Non-Sensitive Positions) and OF-306 (Declaration of for Federal Employment). An unfavorable UPIV determination will result in immediate retrieval of the SNL issued badge, removal of cyber (logical) access and/or removal from SNL subcontract. All MOWs may appeal the unfavorable UPIV determination to DOE/NNSA immediately. If the appeal is unsuccessful, the MOW may try to go through the UPIV process one year after the decision date. EEO: All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, or veteran status and any other protected class under state or federal law. Position Information: This postdoctoral position is a temporary position for up to one year, which may be renewed at Sandia's discretion up to five additional years. The PhD must have been conferred within five years prior to employment. Individuals in postdoctoral positions may bid on regular Sandia positions as internal candidates, and in some cases may be converted to regular career positions during their term if warranted by ongoing operational needs, continuing availability of funds, and satisfactory job performance. Job ID: 689537


All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran status.