Postdoctoral Research Associate or Research Associate in Computer Science (

Job Number:

24000510)

Department of Computer Science

Grade 6/7: - Grade 6: £29,605 - £36,024 per annum, Grade 7: £37,099 - £44,263 per annum

Fixed Term - Full Time

Contract Duration: up to 10 months

Contracted Hours per Week: 35

Working Arrangements: We are undertaking a hybrid pilot looking at how best our staff can work flexibly and on and off campus.

Closing Date

: 09-May-2024, 10:59:00 PM

Disclosure and Barring Service Requirement: Not Applicable. 

Working at Durham University

A globally outstanding centre of teaching and research excellence, a warm and friendly place to work, a unique and historic setting – Durham is a university like no other.

As one of the UK’s leading universities, Durham is an incredible place to define your career. The University is located within a beautiful historic city, home to a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and surrounded by stunning countryside. Our talented scholars and researchers from around the world are tackling global issues and making a difference to people's lives.

We believe that inspiring our people to do outstanding things at Durham enables Durham people to do outstanding things in the world. Being a part of Durham is about more than just the success of the University, it’s also about contributing to the success of the city, county and community. Our University Strategy is built on three pillars of research, education and wider student experience, but also on our keen sense of community and of inspiring others to achieve their potential. Our Purpose and Values

We want our University to be a place where people can be free to be themselves, no matter what their identity or background. Together, we celebrate difference, value one another and are each responsible for creating an inclusive community that is respectful and fair for all.

Find out more about the benefits of working at the University and what it is like to live and work in the Durham area on our Why Durham? information page.

The Department

The Department of Computer Science is one of Durham’s newest departments and hosts a scientific computing (SciComp) research group, bringing researchers together which are scattered over many departments in other universities. Among its core mission is training and research around high-performance computing and data analysis algorithms. Durham’s directorate of Advanced Research Computing (ARC) is a centralised division which provides supercomputing resources as well as software development expertise to all faculties and departments at Durham.

Over the past years, SciComp and ARC have secured multiple high-profile simulation grants which require both fundamental research plus extensive software development. Furthermore, they have the ambition to contribute towards UK-wide knowledge exchange, i.e. to take new insights and ideas and to share them with the wider community. We are searching for a candidate to support our projects. The ideal candidate would initially make contributions to our software base – integration of different solver blocks, profiling and tuning, GPU porting, … - and through this acquire knowledge and skills around the simulation of physical challenges such as black hole simulations, as well as skills on scientific software development. The candidate later should either switch to an academic career track around scientific software development or join the centralised RSE team, where they apply and roll out the skill set to other projects from other PIs, departments and faculties.

The Role

Applications are invited for a Research Associate or Postdoctoral Research Associate to join our core software development team led by Prof Tobias Weinzierl. We particularly want to encourage candidates with a first degree (BSc or MSc) in sciences who consider staying in academia yet have a liking for software development, or PhDs who found themselves enjoying software development more than other aspects of academic live throughout their studies. Flexible working arrangements are available.

In close collaboration with the PI, the applicant will identify tasks and software components that are mission-critical for the underlying research (such as components which consume too much compute time and need to be ported to GPUs, third-party components that should be coupled, improved postprocessing scripts, or support for novel input file formats for new experiments) and implement these software blocks independently. The applicant will be embedded into a team of researchers, all contributing multiple software building blocks to the overall compute ecosystem. The delivered software will directly be used by collaboration partners – primarily in their earthquake and gravitational wave simulation codes.

Key responsibilities:

At Grade 6:

• To understand and convey information which needs careful explanation to the team or group of people through presentations, discussions and meetings which contribute to the production of research reports and publications, and notably software releases.
• To write up results of research work, present information on research progress and outcomes to bodies supervising research in a clear and accurate manner. Examples are reports on software performance, high-quality software documentation or the delivery of unit and system tests.
• To analyse or undertake basic research by deciding how best to apply existing methodology and software according to overall context and objectives.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and offering creative or innovative solutions.
• To liaise with research colleagues (in particular users of the software) and make internal and external contacts to develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To assist in contributing to support student projects and new colleagues on the use of research methods and equipment.
• To contribute to fostering a collegial and respectful working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• To engage in wider citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• To engage in continuing professional development by attending relevant training and development courses.

At Grade 7:

• To understand and convey material of a specialist or highly technical nature to the team or group of people through presentations and discussions that leads to the presentation of research papers or software releases in conferences and publications.
• To prepare and deliver presentations on research outputs/activities to audiences which may include: research sponsors, academic and non-academic audiences as well as existing and potential new software users.
• To publish high quality outputs, including papers for submission to peer reviewed journals and papers for presentation at conferences and workshops under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To assist with the development of research objectives and proposals.
• To conduct individual and collaborative research software development projects under the direction of the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder.
• To work with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and other colleagues in the research group, as appropriate, to identify areas for research, develop new research methods and extend the research software portfolio.
• To deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines by discussing with the Principal Investigator or Grant-holder and offering creative or innovative solutions.
• To liaise with research colleagues (in particular users of the software) and make internal and external contacts to develop knowledge and understanding to form relationships for future research collaboration.
• To deliver training in research techniques/approaches to peers, visitors and students as appropriate.
• To be involved in student supervision, as appropriate, and assist with the assessment of the knowledge of students.
• To contribute to fostering a collegial and respectful working environment which is inclusive and welcoming and where everyone is treated fairly with dignity and respect.
• To engage in wider citizenship to support the department and wider discipline.
• To engage in continuing professional development by participation in the undergraduate or postgraduate teaching programmes or by membership of departmental committees, etc. and by attending relevant training and development courses.

This post is fixed term, as the underlying research programme is time limited and will end on 1st April 2025. After that, the successful applicant will be encouraged to join the central RSE team, subject to post availabilities and performance.

The post-holder is employed to work on research/a research project which will be led by another colleague. Whilst this means that the post-holder will not be carrying out independent research in his/her own right, the expectation is that they will contribute to the advancement of the project, through the development of their own research ideas/adaptation and development of research protocols.

Successful applicants will, ideally, be in post as soon as possible.

Working at Durham

A competitive salary is only one part of the many fantastic benefits you will receive if you join the University: you will also receive access to the following fantastic benefits:

• 30 Days annual leave per year in addition to 8 public holidays and 4 customary days per year – a total of 42 days per year. 
• The University closes between Christmas and New Year.
• We offer a generous pension scheme, As a new member of staff you will be automatically enrolled into the University Superannuation Scheme (USS).
• No matter how you travel to work, we have you covered. We have parking across campus, a cycle to work scheme which helps you to buy a bike and discount with local bus and train companies.
• There is a genuine commitment to developing our colleagues professionally and personally. There is a comprehensive range of development courses, apprenticeships and access to qualifications and routes to develop your career in the University. All staff have dedicated annual time to concentrate on their personal development opportunities.
• Lots of support for health and wellbeing including discounted membership for our state of the art sport and gym facilities and access to a 24-7 Employee Assistance Programme.
• On site nursery is available and children’s clubs in the summer holidays.
• Family friendly policies, including maternity and adoption leave, which are among the most generous in the higher education sector (and likely above and beyond many employers).
• The opportunity to take part in staff volunteering activities to make a difference in the local community.
• Discounts are available via our benefits portal including; money off at supermarkets, high street retailers, IT products such as Apple, the cinema and days out at various attractions.
• A salary sacrifice scheme is also available to help you take advantage of tax savings on benefits.
• If you are moving to Durham, we can help with removal costs and we have a dedicated team who can help you with the practicalities such as house hunting and schools. If you need a visa, we cover most visa costs and offer an interest free loan scheme to pay for dependant visas.

Durham University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) are a key component of the University’s Strategy and a central part of everything we do. We also live by our Purpose and Values and our Staff Code of Conduct. At Durham we actively work towards providing an environment where our staff and students can study, work and live in a community which is supportive and inclusive. It’s important to us that all colleagues undertake activities that are aligned to both our values and commitment to EDI.

We welcome and encourage applications from those who are currently under-represented in our work force, including people with disabilities and from racially minoritised ethnic groups.

If you have taken a career break or periods of leave that may have impacted on the volume and recency of your research outputs and other activities, such as maternity, adoption or parental leave, you may wish to disclose this in your application. The selection committee will take this into account when evaluating your application.

The University has been awarded the Disability Confident Employer status. If you are a candidate with a disability, we are committed to ensuring fair treatment throughout the recruitment process. We will make adjustments to support the interview process wherever it is reasonable to do so and, where successful, reasonable adjustments will be made to support people within their role. 

Contact Information

Department contact for academic-related enquiries:

Professor Tobias Weinzierl (tobias.weinzierl@durham.ac.uk)

Contact information for technical difficulties when submitting your application

If you encounter technical difficulties when using the online application form, we prefer you send enquiries by email. Please send your name along with a brief description of the problem you’re experiencing to e.recruitment@durham.ac.uk

Alternatively, you may call 0191 334 6801 from the UK, or +44 191 334 6801 from outside the UK. This number operates during the hours of 09.00 and 17.00 Monday to Friday, UK time. We will normally respond within one working day (Monday to Friday, excluding UK public holidays).

How to Apply

To progress to the assessment stage, candidates must evidence each of the essential criteria required for the role in the person specification below. It will be at the discretion of the recruiting panel as to whether they will also consider any desirable criteria, but we would urge candidates to provide evidence for all criteria.

While some criteria will be considered at the shortlisting stage, other criteria may be considered later in the assessment process, such as questions at interview.

Submitting your application

We prefer to receive applications online. We will update you about your application at various points throughout the selection process, via automated emails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folder periodically to make sure you have not missed any of our updates.

What to Submit

All applicants are asked to submit:

• a CV and cover letter which details your experience, skills, and achievements in meeting (or the potential to meet) the criteria set out below.
• a cover letter detailing previous experience with scientific code development. This can compromise a list of completed Bsc/Msc/PhD modules with significant code development coursework or links to authored open source software (webpage or git link).

Next Steps

Short-listed candidates will be invited to the University, either virtually or in-person and will have the opportunity to meet key members of the Department. The assessment for the post will normally include a presentation to staff in the Department plus the RSEs working at ARC followed by an interview and we anticipate that the assessments and interviews will take place over two days in or around 22 April 2024.

In the event that you are unable to attend in person on the date offered, it may not be possible to offer you an interview on an alternative date.

Please note that in submitting your application Durham University will be processing your data. We would ask you to consider the relevant University Privacy Statement https://www.durham.ac.uk/about-us/governance/information-governance/privacy-notices/privacy-notices/job-applicants/ which provides information on the collation, storing and use of data.

When appointing to this role the University must ensure that it meets any applicable immigration requirements, including salary thresholds which are applicable to some visas.

Person Specification 

At Grade 6

Essential Criteria:

1. A good first degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a related programme with a strong code development element.

2. Experience in conducting basic academic research or providing research assistance, including the use of standard research methods.

3. Demonstrable ability to produce concise and well-written reports for a range of stakeholders.

4. Experience in C/C++ and Python programming.

5. Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team, including participating in research meetings. This can be evidenced by the completion of collaborative coursework/software projects.

6. Ability to manage time effectively and work to strict deadlines.

7. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

8. Ability to liaise with a range of stakeholders.

Desirable Criteria:

9. A MSC (or be close to submission) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a related discipline with a strong code development element.

10. Experience of conducting high quality academic research.

11. Experience of preparing academic papers (or a final year/dissertation report).

12. Experience in C/C++ and Python programming, git version control and systematic testing.

13. Ability to contribute to the planning and management of independent research.

At Grade 7

Essential Criteria:

Qualifications

1. A good first degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a related discipline with a strong code development element.

2. A PhD (or be close to submission) in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering or a related subject with a strong code development element.

Experience

3. Experience in conducting high quality academic research.

4. Demonstrable ability to write material of a quality commensurate with publication in highly-ranked journals.

5. Demonstrable ability to present research papers at national conferences and communicate complex information to specialists and within the wider academic community.

Skills

6. Demonstrable ability to work cooperatively as part of a team, including participating in research meetings.

7. Ability to work independently on own initiative and to strict deadlines.

8. Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.

9. Experience in C/C++ and Python programming, git version control and systematic testing.

Desirable Criteria

Experience

10. Strong publication record in peer-reviewed journals, commensurate with stage of career.

11. A track record of presenting research at conferences, symposia, or meetings, commensurate with stage of career.

Skills

12. Experience in code profiling, GPU programming, or related topics.

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