Detector Simulation Physicist

Big Science Sweden; Genf; On-site; CHF 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

CERN seeks a highly skilled developer to advance GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo detector simulation, focusing on optical photon transport within the Geant4 team. You will contribute to software design, physics validation against CPU simulations, performance tuning, and integration into experimental software frameworks.

You will collaborate with international teams across the Geant4 collaboration and Large Hadron Collider software groups to validate GPU-based transport and ensure long-term software

Qualifications

• Master's degree or PhD with limited professional experience since graduation.
• Eligibility rules include nationalities of CERN Member/Associate Member States.
• Never had a CERN fellowship or graduate contract before.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and integrate GPU algorithms for optical photon simulation.
• Compare GPU results against established CPU implementations for validation.
• Develop unit, regression, and physics-validation tests.
• Profile applications and optimize computational performance.
• Collaborate with LHC experiments to integrate GPU-accelerated transport into frameworks.
• Engage with the Geant4 collaboration and its user community on optical photon simulation.
• Contribute to documentation, maintenance, and long-term software quality.

Skills

GPU programming

Monte Carlo

Geant4

CUDA

Education

Master's degree

PhD

Tools

Geant4 framework

CUDA toolkit

Job description

In this role, you will develop and improve GPU-accelerated Monte Carlo detector simulation software within the Geant4 team, with a particular focus on optical-photon transport. You will contribute to software design and implementation, physics validation against established CPU simulations, performance optimisation, and integration into experimental software frameworks.

Your responsibilities

• Design, develop, and integrate GPU algorithms for optical photon simulation within a Monte Carlo particle-transport framework.
• Compare and validate GPU simulation results against established CPU implementations.
• Develop unit, regression, and physics-validation tests.
• Profile applications, identify performance bottlenecks, and optimise computational performance.
• Collaborate with software teams from the Large Hadron Collider experiments to integrate GPU-enabled particle transport into their simulation frameworks.
• Engage with the international Geant4 collaboration and its user community, particularly in the area of optical photon simulation.
• Contribute to the documentation, maintenance, and long-term quality of the developed software.

Be sure to meet the eligibility criteria

• You are a national of a CERN Member State or Associate Member State . Currently, we cannot consider applications from Pakistani, Lithuanian, Latvian, Cypriot, Croatian and Turkish nationals, as the ceiling defined under Article II.5 of the Associate Membership Agreement has been reached.
• By the application deadline, you have a master’s degree with 2 to 6 years of professional experience since graduation or a PhD with a maximum of 3 years of professional experience since graduation. You are not eligible with only a bachelor’s degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Please pay attention to the additional criteria and requirements for this specific position and mentioned above.