Computational Software Scientist

Closing date for applications is Friday 24th March 

Come and do the kind of computing that got you into technology in the first place. Work with cutting-edge tech and world-leading scientists and engineers. And harness the power of some of the country's most advances supercomputers to tackle work that improves daily life in the UK and far beyond.

Put simply, come and discover the impact you can make when you're equipped, encouraged and inspired to perform to your very best
 
The Theoretical and Computational Physics Group is based in the Scientific Computing Department (SCD), which is part of UKRI. We are an international, family-friendly group that is active in diverse scientific projects, many of which are in collaboration with STFC’s large experimental Facilities such as the Diamond Light Source (https://www.diamond.ac.uk/) and the ISIS neutron and muon source (https://www.isis.stfc.ac.uk/). One of our current collaborations is the Muon Spectroscopy Computational Project (MSCP) (https://muon- spectroscopy-computational-project.github.io/), which focuses on the development of software tools for the interpretation of muon experiments. 

Muons are subatomic particles that are produced at many active muon sources around the world such as ISIS in the UK and J-PARC in Japan, and as an example muons are used to study areas such as organic compounds and magnetic materials, or to determine the composition of ancient archaeological samples. 

The MSCP has been following a sustainable and modular software architecture that can integrate multiple computational components, as well as incorporate newly developed software tools. At present, the software tools developed by the MSCP are available as command-line tools with some of them integrated into MuonGalaxy (https://muongalaxy.stfc.ac.uk/), part of the open, web-based platform Galaxy(https://galaxyproject.org/). 

MuonGalaxy is predominantly used by our researchers who need to analyse the muon data produced, however they may not have the capabilities to install and maintain the necessary software tools required for performing their computer simulations themselves.  To counter this we want to consolidate MuonGalaxy and expand Galaxy into other areas of materials science, such as catalysisi, neutron diffraction and synchrotron X-Ray experiments. Our main purpose is to enable these communities to have easy access to shared computational resources and data, so that they can accelerate their research. 

To help achieve our goal we are currently looking for a Computational Software Scientist to join our group. The successful applicant will join a rapidly growing team whose aim is to transform how research is carried out at large experimental facilities through a multi-disciplinary approach to data processing, computer simulation and data analytics.  By building the software and providing computational and data analytics expertise, the team plan to spark a paradigm shift in the capability of scientists to design, analyse and interpret experiments.
 
About the role: 
This role will sit at the forefront between software development / deployment, and scientific research at large scale facilities. The role will involve interacting with software engineers, data scientists, STFC scientists and end-users of our systems. The aim of the work will be to advance the science performed at experimental facilities by improving either data interpretation or modelling capabilities using the development of computational tools, implementing them in the Galaxy platform and promoting the tools within well-established computational and experimental user communities. 

The additional development of synergies and follow up opportunities with existing externally funded materials physics/chemistry research and community-focused software development initiatives (https://galaxyproject.org/news/2022-11-05-euro-science-gateway/ and (https://www.psdi.ac.uk/) active at the TPCG, will not only be possible but strongly encouraged. 

About you: 
This is a highly collaborative role, and you will work closely with a variety of people as such the ability to interact and communicate well with others is a must. You must have the ability to develop good working relationships and be eager to develop skills in the interaction with experimental and computational scientists. 

Essential Criteria: 
Extensive experience of the Python programming language. 
Knowledge of Git(Hub), Linux and Ansible. 
Knowledge of databases such as PostgreSQL; MySQL; SQLite and SQLAlchemy. 
Experience in documenting software tools. 
Experience with team-working and, ideally, co-development of scientific software. 
Ability to engage with the relevant scientific and software communities, through networking, as well as organizing workshops and delivering hands-on courses and training as required. 
Being comfortable as part of an international collaboration. 
Excellent communication skills in spoken and written English.

Benefits:
We are offering a permanent position with a host of benefits including:
30 days holiday (in addition to 10.5 bank holidays and privilege days)
Flexible working hours
An excellent defined average salary pension scheme
Excellent learning and development opportunities
Visa Sponsorship for candidates with the right to work in the UK 

We are committed to a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are invested in creating an environment that is welcoming and supportive of all. In this regard, we encourage applications from under-represented groups.

We ask some of the biggest questions in the universe, to answer some of the biggest challenges in the world. Together, our scientists, technologists, engineers, and business-support team explore the unknown across every field you could think of. And they turn what they find into work that changes the world around us.

What could you achieve with the world-leading facilities and experts of one of Europe's largest research organisations by your side? Join us and discover what is possible.