Research Engineer – Advanced Configuration Of Edge Ai Accelerators (Re1)

Barcelona Supercomputing Center; Barcelona; On-site; EUR 52,000 - 76,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Restaurant tickets

Private health insurance

Relocation support

Job summary

Barcelona Supercomputing Center is seeking a skilled engineer to advance embedded AI platforms and hardware-software integration. You will design and analyze configurations for GPUs and NPUs, develop prototype tooling, and contribute to publications with researchers and industry partners across Europe.

The role requires a background in embedded systems, proficiency in C/C++, Linux, and experience with AI accelerators on edge devices.

Qualifications

• Proven ability to develop and analyze performance on embedded targets.
• Experience with AI accelerators (NPU/GPU) and edge devices.
• Strong C/C++, Linux kernel interfaces and low-level hw/hw-software integration.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to research on configuration and control of GPUs/NPUs and other accelerators.
• Analyze hardware and system-software interfaces for resource allocation and scheduling.
• Develop prototype software to expose accelerator configuration and observability capabilities.
• Document results and contribute to publications and project deliverables.
• Collaborate with researchers and industry partners across Europe.

Skills

C/C++

Linux systems

Embedded/edge platforms

Performance benchmarking

Python & shell scripting

AI accelerators

Jetson/Orin familiarity

Hardware telemetry

Education

Engineering degree or Master in CS/Computer Architecture

Job description

This position is at Barcelona Supercomputing Center The selection process will be entirely managed by Barcelona Supercomputing Center.

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe.

The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress.

BSC combines HPC service provision and R hardware-supported partitioning and isolation mechanisms; execution-time and resource predictability for AI workloads; memory, cache, and interconnect bandwidth management; accelerator scheduling and workload placement; power and performance configuration; hardware performance monitoring and telemetry; integration of low-level accelerator control mechanisms into system software, middleware, and runtime frameworks; experimental characterization of representative Edge AI workloads on state-of-the‑art embedded platforms.

The work will involve both experimental platform development and research-oriented prototyping, with the objective of identifying and exposing hardware and system-software mechanisms that enable predictable and controllable execution of AI workloads at the edge.

Candidates are required to exhibit a background in embedded systems and familiarity with both hardware and software analysis and configuration.

Applicants are expected to hold an engineering degree in fields related to embedded systems, computer architecture, or closely related areas.

The position offers opportunities to collaborate with research institutions and industrial stakeholders across several European locations, providing a stimulating environment for professional growth, knowledge exchange, and hands‑on research experience.

Key Duties

• Contribute to the research on advanced configuration and control mechanisms for GPUs, NPUs, and other hardware accelerators available in state-of-the‑art Edge AI platforms
• Analyze hardware and system-software interfaces for resource allocation, partitioning, scheduling, monitoring, and performance management
• Contribute to system-level, application level, and containerization level solutions to improve non-functional metrics like execution time and resilience to hardware faults
• Develop low-level prototype software components, tools, and APIs to expose accelerator configuration and observability capabilities
• Document technical results and contribute to scientific publications, project deliverables, demonstrations, and presentations
• Collaborate with a small team of researchers and industrial partners working on embedded systems, AI acceleration, automotive computing, and software‑defined platforms

Requirements

• Education: Engineering degree or Master Degree in Computer Science, Computer Architecture, or a related field
• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience: Previous experience running AI workloads on embedded targets with accelerators like NPU and GPU Performance, heat, power consumption analysis of benchmarks running on embedded workloads
• Good programming skills in C/C++
• Solid knowledge of Linux systems programming
• Familiarity with computer architecture and heterogeneous computing platforms
• Experience working with embedded or edge‑computing platforms
• Ability to perform experimental performance analysis and benchmarking
• Familiarity with scripting and automation tools, preferably Python and shell scripting
• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience: Embedded AI platforms such as NVIDIA Jetson/Orin, NXP iMX8, Qualcomm, AMD, Intel, or ARM-based SoCs
• Familiarity with Neural Processing Units and dedicated AI accelerators
• Linux kernel interfaces, device drivers, ioctl, MMIO, or low-level hardware interfaces
• Experience in programming and collecting hardware performance counters and accelerator telemetry
• Competences: Problem-solving, pro-active, result-oriented work attitude
• Good communication skills including a good command of the English language (written and spoken)
• Good technical English and ability to work with technical documentation and research literature

Conditions

The position will be located at BSC within the Computer Sciences Department

We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the‑art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures

Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration

Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement

Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona

Starting date: November

Employer and Equal Opportunity Statement

BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion.

We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.