Research Software Engineer (RSE) at UD

In this Research Software Engineer (RSE) position, you will closely collaborate on innovative interdisciplinary research software projects across Departments of Computer & Information Sciences, Electrical & Computer Engineering, Political Science & International Relations, and Civil & Environmental Engineering. You will be part of a dynamic team of Research Software Engineers (RSE) that we are building for the newly funded NSF Award “Building a Computational and Data-Intensive Research Workforce & Network in the Mid-Atlantic Region” – an interdisciplinary science project that focuses on modernizing social, behavioral and economic sciences, finance along with coastal science applications. The project aims to leverage tools and techniques in High Performance Computing (HPC) Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Data Science to advance the targeted domain sciences.  

The position provides an excellent chance for the RSE to split their time equally between  enhancing their research software development skills and also contributing to the establishment and the growth of the RSE program at UD in collaboration with partnering organizations. The role will also provide teaching and training opportunities allowing the RSE to balance their time and focus between technical and professional development.. 

The position includes benefits and competitive salary based on qualifications. 

Review of Applications will begin on August 31st, 2024.

Your responsibilities will include:

Software Development 

• Develop relevant and optimized software for domain science code via communication and collaboration with domain scientists to enhance the necessary metrics that may include performance, readability, usability, scalability of the code
• Maintain software libraries and (open-source) repositories  
• Contribute/coordinate with the MATCH/ACCESS program
• Contribute clean and effective code using software development platforms such as GitHub/GitLab
• Be an advocate to maintain and improve computing infrastructure for code development 
• Create comprehensive documentation of software developed 
• Complete user manuals for knowledge transfer, and ensure smooth handover with clear communication at the conclusion of the RSE software development 

Professional development 

• Learn about existing domain science code bases to better understand the need to apply research software engineering skills to the same 
• Learn to collaboratively develop software 
• Contribute to research and/or project reports as and when needed
• Adopt modern software development techniques and enhance/build best practices on RSE lessons learnt by working together with the RSE community 
• Employ agile development methods involving regular releases  
• Initiate/engage in RSE office hours/webinars/Slack channels 
• Assist with project-driven hackathons that include mentoring
• Provide RSE consulting expertise across domain sciences within UD and our external partners to leverage synergy across projects  
• Adapt to FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) research software principles while engaging in datasets, software development and dissemination 

Essential requirements 

• A Bachelors in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical fields
• 3+ years of experiences in applying software engineering techniques to optimize scientific applications using parallel programming or distributed computing or machine learning (ML)/ AI techniques or high performance computing 
• Knowledge of parallel programming models/abstractions and/or MPI 
• Experiences with data science and ML/AI models 
• Expertise using medium-large scale multicore and heterogeneous (CPUs + accelerators such as GPU) clusters 
• Experience with software development for at least mid-size code bases
• Experience with languages such as Python and R for statistical analysis 
• Demonstrated ability to prepare scientific results for publications and/or presentations at relevant seminars and meetings
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills 

Preferred requirements  

• Contributions to open-source software ecosystem 
• Familiarity with CMake, make 
• Knowledge of version control systems 
• Ability and interest to communicate and collaborate with diverse science disciplines
• Experience in leadership, project management, or employee supervision
• Ability to help design as as well teach some modules of the to-be-created new RSE course/certificate 
• Experience in leading/offering training sessions

How to apply

Interested candidates with the required expertise and background, please prepare your application that should include a curriculum vitae with publications or link to publications listed and links to contributions to software (GitHub/GitLab profile names if possible). 

Please submit a SINGLE PDF to scipe-rse@udel.edu

Student Research Assistants for Research Software Engineering at HU, LU, DSU

The Research Software Engineer (RSE) profession requires dual skills in (i) research software development, implementation, and documentation and (ii) interdisciplinary team science. The University of Delaware’s recently funded NSF Award “Building a Computational and Data-Intensive Research Workforce & Network in the Mid-Atlantic Region” endeavors to develop these dual skillsets within several specific interdisciplinary science areas, including the social, behavioral & economic sciences, finance, and coastal science & engineering. 

As part of this project, we are seeking research assistant (RA) applications from interested undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Delaware, Delaware State University, Lincoln University, and Howard University. Depending on the school and timeline, these research assistant positions may occur during summer breaks, winter breaks, and/or standard fall/spring semesters. In participating, student RAs will develop skills in the use of High Performance Computing (HPC) Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Data Science for interdisciplinary research projects within the substantive domains mentioned above.

Student RAs will be paired with specific project(s) to assist domain scientists and dedicated RSEs in scaling up analyses, writing code, implementing code both locally and on HPCs, documenting code, and writing up scientific results. Several more specific duties will include:

• Implement specified analyses in the AI and ML areas
• Develop and optimize software for domain science code 
• Create effective (training) data formats and workflows
• Assist domain scientists in learning new HPC systems and programming languages
• Maintain software libraries and (open-source) repositories  
• Contribute code on platforms such as GitHub/GitLab
• Create comprehensive documentation of software developed 
• Debug code and existing applications
• Communicate the above tasks to teams of RSEs, students, and domain scientists

Hiring will be done on a rolling basis depending on school and project needs. Several desired background and prior skills are listed below, though applicants who are uncertain as to their level of skills in these areas are still encouraged to apply. 

• A major (or Bachelors degree) in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical fields OR,
• A major (or Bachelors degree) in one of the domain fields mentioned further above (e.g., the Social & Behavioral Sciences, Economics, Finance, or Geosciences & Engineering).
• Experience with programming languages such as Python or R
• Exposure to coursework or research intersecting with data science, data structures, machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), quantitative analysis, and/or statistics
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills