Software Engineer (MESA), Center for Computational Astrophysics
Simons Foundation
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Benefits offered by this job
Job summary
Qualifications
- At least 3 years of experience in software development in a research context.
- Proficiency with software development in at least one compiled language.
- Experience working with collaborative software engineering practices and project management.
Responsibilities
- Support and enhance the MESA software tool.
- Participate in software testing and release management.
- Mentor junior scientists and organize software education efforts.
Skills
Education
Tools
Job description
The Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) at the Flatiron Institute, a division of the Simons Foundation, is seeking a full-time research software engineer to develop, maintain, and contribute to the community-oriented software instrument tool MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics), and to support projects that align with the research directions of the CCA. The position adapts over time to the needs of the broader astronomical community and the CCA research community.
Research in astronomy and astrophysics depends critically on open source and other scientific software projects that are largely community-driven. The primary role of this position (approximately 60% of effort) is to help support the community-oriented software instrument tool MESA.
The other major role of this position is to support and contribute to projects that align with the current research directions of the CCA, and provide leadership in supporting the larger software community within CCA.
The CCA seeks a full-time research software engineer to support the MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics) software instrument tool, and to help build, improve, and support software efforts within the center.
MESA is a suite of open-source libraries extensively used in computational stellar astrophysics. It uses adaptive mesh refinement and sophisticated timestep controls, and supports shared memory parallelism based on OpenMP. Its wide-ranging capabilities allow the simulation of diverse stellar evolution scenarios, from low-mass to massive stars, including advanced evolutionary stages and binary interactions. See https://docs.mesastar.org/en/latest/ for more information about MESA.
Within the MESA Project, the successful candidate will be responsible for:
- Technical Management and Enhancement: Adapting MESA to new technologies and evolving requirements such as compiler updates, library evolutions, operating systems progression, and hardware advances (e.g. GPU-porting).
- Code Maintenance and Enhancement: Providing daily care and enhancement of the MESA source code, in collaboration with the MESA developers team and the MESA user community.
- Testing: Participating in the daily MESA testing framework in partnership with the MESA developer team.
- Product Release: Overseeing and collaborating on the public releases of the source code to the MESA community.
- Community Support: Responding agilely to the software needs of the MESA user community.
- Team Partnership: Becoming a key partner of the mesa-developer team, with a focus on horizontal collaboration rather than hierarchical reporting.
Within the CCA, the successful candidate will be expected to:
- Help support various software development efforts of CCA scientists.
- Mentor and train junior scientists, including the Flatiron Software Research Fellows.
- Organize community efforts around software education within CCA and potentially Flatiron.
There will also be opportunities for ongoing skill development in software development and scientific computing, including mentoring by senior research scientists, discussions and tutorials with the CCA software community and the SCC (Scientific Computing Core), and support for attending external tutorials and conferences. The research software engineer will be part of a growing community of Flatiron scientists and software engineers working on astronomical software, including Flatiron Software Research Fellows (postdocs), CCA-affiliated SCC scientists, and other research software engineers in CCA. Members of this community will be encouraged to collaborate as well as to create and seek opportunities for skill development.
The research software engineer will report to a research scientist (equivalent of faculty) at CCA and will join a growing team of research software engineers across the Flatiron Institute. The position will be based in person at the Simons Foundation office in New York City.
Visit the Simons Foundation career page at simonsfoundation.org/careers to learn more.
- M.S. or Ph.D. in astronomy, physics, computer science, mathematics, statistics, or a related technical discipline
At least 3 years of experience with software development in a research context, including:
- Experience developing software in a research environment (including academic contexts like graduate school and postdoctoral appointments, or research-oriented industry).
- Proficiency with software development in at least one compiled language (e.g., Fortran 95, C, C++ etc.).
- Proficiency with collaborative version control systems (especially Git & GitHub).
- Experience with parallel programming (e.g., OpenMP, MPI).
- Experience working with collaborative software engineering practices, including coding standards and code review.
- Experience writing documentation and an interest in supporting user communities.
- Experience with project management and developing multiple concurrent projects.
- Technical and scientific curiosity with a collaborative attitude.
- Experience with the MESA software instrument.
- Experience with commonly-used high-level languages (Python, Julia, MATLAB, etc.).
- Experience with HPC, GPU, and/or code profiling and optimization.
- Experience with ML/AI tools (PyTorch, JAX, TensorFlow).
- Working knowledge of applied mathematical concepts and numerical methods.
- Working knowledge of astronomy and physics core concepts.
- The full-time starting annual compensation range for this position is:
- (3-6 years of experience) $150K–$185K
- (6-8+ years of experience) $190K–$215K
- In addition to competitive salaries, the Simons Foundation provides employees with an outstanding benefits package.
- Curriculum vitae
- Cover Letter
- Applications received by April 10, 2026 will receive full consideration. Late applications may be considered at the discretion of the selection committee.
Many of the greatest ideas and discoveries come from a diverse mix of minds, backgrounds, and experiences. The Simons Foundation is committed to advancing basic science and mathematics to benefit humankind and expand our collective understanding of our world. As part of our mission, we support partners, programs, and initiatives that seek to broaden the scientific community and open pathways to science and mathematics careers.
The Simons Foundation provides equal opportunities to all applicants without regard to race, religion, color, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic disposition, neurodiversity, disability, veteran status, or any other protected category under federal, state, and local law.
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