Software Engineer @ CMS Experiment (EP-CMG-CO-2024-225-GRAE)

Your responsibilities

As part of our team, you will be responsible for managing all programming and infrastructure support related to the CMS databases, particularly those involving online and offline conditions data handling and processing for alignment and calibration. Your role will include the following key responsibilities: 

• Coordinate and manage databases: Oversee the databases at P5, where the conditions are written, as well as the copies hosted at CERN IT. You will also manage databases used by various computing projects for data and workflow management.
• Collaborate with the AlCa-DB team: Work closely with physicists in the Alignment, Calibration, and Database (AlCa-DB) team, which coordinates detector and physics object groups to prepare and deploy alignment and calibration conditions.
• Ensure service stability: In partnership with CERN IT DBAs, ensure the stability of services, coordinate scheduled updates, and oversee maintenance tasks.
• Optimize operations: Provide expertise to identify operational bottlenecks and suggest optimizations to users, ensuring smooth and efficient workflows.
• Manage data handling tools: Develop and maintain tools that enable users to efficiently manage conditions and calibration data in the database, and facilitate the distribution of this data to worldwide grid computing farms through the Frontier system.
• Support new use-cases: Offer guidance and expertise to handle new use cases that arise, providing tailored solutions as needed.
• Monitor and alert services: Implement monitoring systems for various services and establish infrastructure to alert experts when operational parameters are outside their acceptable limits.
• Operate CMS conditions database workflows: Manage the routine updates of the CMS conditions database, including Conditions and Global Tag management, for data processing and Monte Carlo productions.
• Maintain and develop tools: Contribute to the development and maintenance of web-based tools that manage and monitor alignment and calibration workflows, ensuring their continuous, unattended operation.

Your profile

Skills

• Excellent programming skills in Python and C++.
• Strong knowledge of databases, particularly ORACLE DB, and database handling tools like SQL and sqlalchemy.
• Expertise in software release management, testing procedures, SQL, and Object Relational Mapper (sqlalchemy).
• Familiarity with modern web frameworks such as CherryPy and Flask, and web technologies like jQuery and AJAX.
• Knowledge of High Energy Physics (considered an advantage).
• Demonstrated ability to achieve results.
• Results-oriented mindset.
• Excellent problem-solving skills.
• Strong autonomy and self-management.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• By the application deadline, you have a maximum of two years of professional experience since graduation in Computer Science or Engineering, Physics (or a related field) and your highest educational qualification is either a Bachelor's or Master's degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Applicants without University degree are not eligible.
• Applicants with a PhD are not eligible.

Job closing date: 07.01.2025 at 23:59 CET.

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

Target start date: 01-May-2025

Job reference: EP-CMG-CO-2024-225-GRAE

Field of work: Software Engineering and IT

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 5134 and 5647 Swiss Francs (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.

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.