DevOps Engineer for HEP GPU Benchmarks (IT-CE-LCG-2026-168-GRAP)

CERN; Genf; Sur place; CHF 71 000 - 78 000; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

Health insurance

Relocation package

30 days annual leave

On-the-job training & language classes

Résumé du poste

CERN IT Department seeks a DevOps Engineer for HEP GPU benchmarks, contributing to the next-gen benchmarking stack for WLCG. The role covers development, containerization, and performance analysis across CPU/GPU architectures to support LHС experiments.

Responsibilities include building container images, maintaining CI/CD pipelines, and providing user support to the WLCG community, with onsite work and 24-month duration potential extension.

Qualifications

• Advanced Python development experience including packaging and testing.
• Solid understanding of Docker and Apptainer/Singularity.

Responsabilités

• Develop, package, and distribute the HEP benchmark stack for production workloads.
• Create, test, and maintain container images of HEP workloads using CI/CD pipelines.
• Maintain core benchmarking infrastructure and data ingestion services.

Connaissances

Python development

Containerisation

DevOps & automation

Linux performance profiling

Data analytics pipelines

Communication

Formation

Master's degree 2-6 years

PhD up to 3 years

Outils

Docker

Apptainer/Singularity

GitLab CI/CD

Puppet

OpenSearch/Grafana

Kibana/Logstash

Apache Spark

Description du poste

DevOps Engineer for HEP GPU Benchmarks (IT-CE-LCG-2026-168-GRAP)

• Full-time
• Compensation: CHF 6,372 - CHF 7,004 - monthly

The Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) project is a global collaboration of around 170 computing centres in more than 40 countries, linking up national and international grid infrastructures. As computing evolves for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) era, WLCG faces a rapidly growing computing demand alongside increasingly heterogeneous hardware environments (CPUs, GPUs, Cloud, and HPC).

To guide procurement, resource pledging, performance studies and accounting, the High Energy Physics (HEP) community relies on domain-specific benchmarking tools to accurately measure and compare computing resources.

As a Graduate / Applied Engineer (QUEST), you will join our team in CERN's IT Department to support the development, operation, and user support for WLCG HEPScore benchmarking services. You will contribute to key activities, helping to build and maintain the next-generation benchmarking software stack for the WLCG community.

Your responsibilities

• Software Development: Actively contribute to the development, packaging, and distribution of the HEP benchmark software stack. Integrate, profile, and validate production-level GPU application workloads from LHC experiment software (e.g., event generation, simulation, fast inference, and HLT).
• Containerisation: Build, test, and maintain container images of HEP workloads using automated GitLab CI/CD pipelines.
• Service Maintenance & Enhancement: Ensure the smooth operation of the core benchmarking infrastructure and data ingestion services using Puppet, GitLab CI/CD, ActiveMQ, Logstash, OpenSearch, Kibana, Apache Spark and Grafana.
• Performance Analysis: Collect, process, and analyze grid-wide benchmark data to evaluate performance scaling across diverse CPU/GPU architectures and server configurations.
• Technical Support: Provide technical support and documentation to the WLCG user community.

Your profile

• Advanced Python Development: Solid experience in Python programming,including modular code structure,packaging, distribution, and testing.
• Containerisation: Solid understanding of Docker and Apptainer/Singularity, along with familiarity with GPU container execution runtime environments.
• DevOps & Infrastructure Automation: Proficiency with GitLab CI/CD pipelines, container registries, configuration management (Puppet), and deployment methodologies.
• Linux Systems & Performance Profiling: Strong Linux administration and shell scripting skills. Experience in system metrics tracking (e.g., CPU/GPU utilisation, hardware performance metrics, power monitoring).
• Data Analytics Pipelines & Visualisation: Experience with monitoring and data analytics stacks such as OpenSearch/Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Grafana, or Apache Spark.
• Communication & Collaboration: Good technical writing and communication skills to interact with domain experts across the global WLCG collaboration.
• You have a professional background in Applied Physics, Software Engineering (or a related field) and have either:
  • a Master's degree with 2 to 6 years of post-graduation professional experience;
  • or a PhD with no more than 3 years of post-graduation professional experience.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.

Skills

• Programming & Scripting: Python (code, packaging, testing), Bash, Git.
• Containerisation: Docker, Apptainer/Singularity.
• GPU Computing: NVIDIA Container Toolkit, CUDA, nvidia-smi, AMD ROCm, rocm-smi, GPU profiling.
• Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.
• You have a professional background in Applied Physics, Software Engineering (or a related field) and have either:
  • a Master's degree with 2 to 6 years of post-graduation professional experience;
  • or a PhD with no more than 3 years of post-graduation professional experience.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Working hours: 40 hours per week

Job flexibility: Fully Onsite

This position involves:

• Stand-by duty, when required by the needs of the Organization.
• Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organization.

Job reference: IT-CE-LCG-2026-168-GRAP

Field of work: Information Technologies

Benchmark job: 200020 - Computing Engineer

• A monthly net stipend of either 6372 or 7004Swiss Francs per monthdepending 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.

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