Your responsibilities

As an applied physicist, you will join the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) experiment, which is the experiment at the LHC dedicated to heavy ion physics.

Since the start of LHC Run 3 in 2021, ALICE is recording proton-proton and Pb-Pb collision data employing continuous detector readout without rejecting any collision.

To cope with the high data rate from the detectors (up to 3.5 TB/s) ALICE is reconstructing and compressing data as well as creating calibration data synchronous with data taking on a heterogeneous compute farm using both CPUs and GPUs. To provide also sufficient simulated data for physics analysis, ALICE has developed an efficient detector simulation framework that allows for multi-core and sub-event parallel simulation. The framework can employ the GEANT and FLUKA transport engines with the same user code enabling flexibility for users to choose the appropriate simulation tools based on their specific needs and requirements.

The Physics Data Processing (PDP) Project is responsible for online data reconstruction, calibration, and compression as well as for the offline data reconstruction, calibration, the simulation and analysis frameworks. The main developers in the project are hosted by the CERN EP-AIP-SDS section.

You will: 

• Participate in the ongoing optimisations of the simulation framework.
• Collaborate with detector experts from the ALICE experiment to understand their software requirements.
• Provide user support.
• Develop methods for fast simulation.
• Monitor the performance of the simulation framework and provide comparisons with the real data.
• Integrate new generators in the software stack.

More information here: https://alice.cern/

Your profile

Skills and/or knowledge

• Experience with detector geometry and response modelling
• Experience with Geant4
• Experience with ROOT
• Programming languages: C++, Python
• Operation systems: Linux, MacOS

Advantageous:

• Experience with FLUKA.
• Experience with High Performance Computing (HPC).

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• You have a professional background in Physics or Computer Science (or a related field) and have either:
  • a Master's degree with 2 to 6 years of post-graduation professional experience;
  • or a PhD with no more than 3 years of post-graduation professional experience.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.

Job closing date: 15.04.2024 at 12:00 AM (midnight) CET.

Job reference: EP-AIP-SDS-2024-40-GRAP

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Target start date: 01-June-2024

This position requires:

• Participation in a regular stand-by duty, including nights, Sundays and official holidays.

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 6194 and 6808 Swiss Francs per month (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN's comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: installation grant; family, child and infant allowances; payment of travel expenses at the beginning and end of contract.
• 30 days of paid leave per year.
• On-the-job and formal training at CERN as well as in-house language courses for English and/or French.

About us

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on http://home.cern.

We are on a Quest. A Journey into discovery like no other. Bring your expertise to our unique work and develop your knowledge and skills at pace. Join world-class subject matter experts on unique projects, in a Quest for greater knowledge and deeper understanding.

Begin your CERN Quest. Take Part!

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success.