Temporary scientific engineer / AI Open Source Software engineer for P16 and AI Factory France

Inria Talence; Talence; On-site; EUR 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

Inria Talence seeks an engineer to enhance UX/UI of AI libraries, maintain software, and provide Level 3 support on the AI Factory France platform. You will join the Institute's engineering team (SED) and contribute to data science tools, with emphasis on open-source collaboration and community growth.

Required engineering degree or PhD in CS or related field, strong Python and front-end skills, and experience in AI/data research.

Qualifications

• Solid experience in Python with scikit-learn, pandas, numpy, matplotlib, scipy.
• Front-end: HTML, CSS, JavaScript; UI components in Jupyter and static docs.
• Collaborative research and software development in a multi-location team.
• Software engineering practices: version control, testing, CI, Agile.
• Excellent communication with internal and external teams.
• Engineering degree or PhD in CS; open-source contribution; AI/data research exposure.

Responsibilities

• Improve UX and UI of libraries, develop front-end tools and visualizations.
• Maintain libraries: new features, bug fixes, tests, benchmarks, docs.
• Provide Level 3 support for AI Factory France platform with Level 2 help.
• Contribute to CI/CD automation and quality metrics.
• Engage in training, promote best practices, and grow the dev community.

Skills

Python

scikit-learn

pandas

numpy

matplotlib

scipy

HTML/CSS/JavaScript

Jupyter UI components

VS Code

version control

CI/CD

Agile methods

communication skills

Education

Engineering degree or PhD in computer science or related field

Open-source project experience

Tools

Git

CI/CD tools

pytest

Jupyter

VS Code

Job description

Context

Since 2018, Inria has played a crucial role as a support for the State's action in the field of artificial intelligence, in close collaboration with the National Strategy for AI. To steer this mission, Inria has created the AI Program, which is part of the Program Agency set-up entrusted by the State to Inria, and which coordinates innovative cross-functional AI initiatives: research, transfer and support for public policies.

As part of the AI acceleration strategy, and in particular in the area of “developing cutting-edge digital infrastructures, stimulating public-private partnerships and increasing the impact of AI research”, Inria has proposed the implementation of an acceleration project to support the implementation and development of an open and interoperable sovereign platform of AI software libraries for French companies, and its scaling to the European level. This initiative is one of Inria's priorities as part of the development of its AI acceleration strategy, and with the aim of contributing to French technological sovereignty and the economic impact on French industry.

The expected impact of this measure on French industry is to enable all French companies, as well as public and institutional players, to accelerate their digital transformation using AI, without being in a captive relationship with the dominant players, thanks to the availability of a generic technological base and a set of associated transfer mechanisms.

As part of this ambition, the implementation of the measure is based on the P16 project, whose aim is to develop and disseminate a coherent suite of software for AI and data science based on three actions:

• Action 1 focuses on data interoperability.
• Action 2, “Data Wrangling,” addresses data preparation, aiming to reduce the manual time required in data science projects.
• Action 3 focuses on model training and execution, in particular on scikit-learn.

It is also based on active participation in national and European projects, with P16 contributing to the provision of software tools and the development of use cases.

Inria is therefore a partner in the AI Factory France project and P16 leads Word Package 5, covering data strategy, data management and the development and management of tools.

The tools include, in particular, the P16 libraries, and we are looking for an engineer capable of working alongside the maintenance teams to improve their usability for AI Factory France users.

Other AI libraries may be integrated during the project.

Assignment

The engineer’s role will be to improve the UX and UI of the various software libraries, to contribute to their maintenance, and to provide level 3 support on the AI Factory platform.

The engineer recruited will be part of the Institute's engineering team, represented at center level by the Experimentation and Development Department (SED).

Main activities

As part of his/her main mission (80% of his/her time)

Improve the UX and UI of the libraries:

• Identify and carry out front-end improvements.
• Develop and improve front-end tools and visualizations.
• Make the libraries' interactive displays and documentation accessible, following Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).
• Measure and improve the performance, accessibility and quality of visualizations.

Participate to the maintenance of the libraires:

• Contribute to general development and maintenance: new features, enhancements, bug fixes, code reviews and issue triage.
• Write and improve tests to increase coverage and reliability.
• Add and improve performance benchmarks to track performance regressions over time.
• Maintain CI/CD automation: linting, test matrices, dependency version monitoring.
• Improve the documentation and its tooling: API reference, user guides and example galleries.
• Support adoption and help the community grow: answer questions, onboard new contributors and promote the libraries.

Technical support level 3:

• Providing Level 3 support for the libraries available on the AI Factory France platform, in collaboration with the Level 2 support teams. Level 3 support consist in resolving complex technical incidents or issues with the development teams.
• Turn user reports into reproducible bug reports and work with the library maintainers to find solutions.

As part of collective or cross-functional activities (20% of his/her time), the engineer will:

• Participate in training courses, seminars and department activities.
• Promote best practices in software engineering and experimentation within the Institute.
• Participate in drafting projects and advising on development projects.
• Participate in the animation of the software development community in the Center and participate in thematic networks.

Skills

Required skills:

• Solid experience in Python, with excellent knowledge of libraries such as scikit-learn, pandas, numpy, matplotlib and scipy.
• Front-end: solid knowledge of core web technologies (HTML, CSS and JavaScript), including building UI components that render in Jupyter, VS Code and static HTML documentation.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively on research and software development projects as part of a multi-location team.
• Strong knowledge of software engineering practices, including version control, testing, continuous integration and Agile methodologies.
• Excellent communication skills, enabling effective collaboration with internal and external teams.

Education and experience:

• Engineering degree or Ph.D. in computer science, applied mathematics, numerical methods, statistical learning or related field.
• Relevant experience in similar projects, preferably in the context of artificial intelligence and data research.
• Experience as a member or maintainer of an open-source project, ideally in the scientific Python ecosystem.
• Experience in technical support