SAIL Software Engineer, Hariri Institute

Boston University; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 93,000 - 103,000; Full time

Job summary

Boston University’s Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science and Engineering seeks a SAIL Software Engineer to design, build, and maintain data pipelines, software tools, and computational workflows for lab projects in Boston. The role partners with postdocs, graduate students, and PIs to deliver robust, reproducible research software.

You will produce production-grade code, implement testing and CI/CD, and contribute to open science.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics, or related field.
• 3–5 years of professional software engineering experience or an equivalent mix of graduate-level research and development.
• Proficiency in Python, R, C++, or Julia; strong Git/GitHub/GitLab; Linux; shell scripts; and containerization with Docker or Singularity.
• Excellent communication to explain concepts to non-engineers.
• Preferred HPC with Slurm; cloud platforms; open-source contributions.

Responsibilities

• Translate complex models into modular, well-documented software packages.
• Develop data processing pipelines, interfaces, or visualization dashboards.
• Containerize applications and manage reproducible environments.
• Collaborate with lab researchers to automate workflows and optimize performance.
• Support open science through version control and CI/CD.

Skills

Python

R

C++

Julia

Git

GitHub/GitLab

Linux

Shell scripting

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science / Data Science / related

Tools

Docker

Singularity

CI/CD

Job description

SAIL Software Engineer, Hariri Institute

Category

Job Location

Tracking Code

26500474640831

Posted Date

9/3/2026

Salary Grade

Grade 50

Expected Hiring Range Minimum

$93,000.00

Expected Hiring Range Maximum

$103,000.00

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, training and internal pay comparison. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Type

Full-Time/Regular

This role is based in Boston and follows a hybrid work schedule. Applicants should be located within a reasonable commuting distance of Boston.

The Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science and Engineering (Hariri Institute) is a university-wide research center reporting to the VP for Research, which serves as the university's premiere interdisciplinary hub for education, research, scholarship, innovation, and technology development associated with computational and data science research. Located in the University's Duan Family Center for Computing and Data Sciences, the Hariri Institute community consists of over 400 faculty affiliates, 50+ administrative and research staff, 200 graduate students, and over $26 million in annual research expenditure. The Software & Application Innovation Lab (SAIL) at the Hariri Institute is a professional research, software engineering, and consulting lab that acts as both a driver and a collaborative partner for computational and data-oriented research efforts across Boston University. The Software Engineer position bridges the gap between scientific hypothesis and robust software execution. Reporting to the Director, you will work directly with postdocs, graduate students, and the Principal Investigator(s) to design, build, and maintain data pipelines, custom software tools, and computational workflows. This role ensures the lab's research code is stable, scalable, reproducible, and ready for peer-reviewed publication.

Core Responsibilities

Software Development & Engineering

• Translate complex mathematical models, scientific algorithms, and raw scripts (Python, R, MATLAB) into clean, modular, and well-documented software packages.
• Develop and maintain data processing pipelines, user interfaces, or visualization dashboards for lab datasets.

Data & Infrastructure Management

• Containerize applications (using Docker or Singularity) to ensure identical execution environments across local machines, high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, or cloud platforms.
• Manage large-scale research datasets, ensuring secure storage, version control, and compliance with institutional data management policies.

Research Collaboration & Support

• Partner with lab researchers to understand their computational roadblocks and engineer custom tooling to automate workflows.
• Optimize existing code for performance, speed, and memory usage to handle growing dataset sizes.

Sustainability & Open Science

• Implement professional software practices within the lab, including version control (Git), automated testing, and continuous integration (CI/CD).
• Package and document software to open-source standards, enabling external researchers to replicate the lab's findings.

Required Skills

Required Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Bioinformatics, or a related scientific/quantitative discipline.

Experience: 3-5 years of professional software engineering experience, or an equivalent mix of graduate-level research and development.

Core Technical Skills

Proficiency in languages common to research (e.g., Python, R, C++, or Julia). Strong expertise with Git, GitHub/GitLab workflows, and writing automated tests. Experience working in Linux/Unix environments and writing shell scripts. Familiarity with containerization tools like Docker or Singularity.

Additional Skills

Strong communication skills and the ability to explain technical software concepts to non-engineer scientists.

Preferred Qualifications

Experience running jobs on High-Performance Computing (HPC) clusters using schedulers like Slurm. Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) for scientific computing. Prior experience contributing to open-source software libraries or co-authoring scientific papers.

We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, natural or protective hairstyle, religion, sex, age, national origin, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, military service, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, or because of marital, parental, or veteran status. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.