Senior Software Architect and Engineer

80%-100%, Zurich, fixed-term

The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) develops and operates cutting-edge, high-performance computing (HPC) systems as an essential service facility for science. The centre enables world-class research through its scientific user lab, which is available to domestic and international researchers in academia, industry, and the business sector. The centre is operated by ETH Zurich and has offices in Lugano (headquarters) and Zurich.

Project background

EBRAINS is an open research infrastructure, co-financed by the EU. EBRAINS gathers data, provides tools, and collaborates with computing facilities for brain-related research. CSCS is contributing to EBRAINS with the operation and further development of the Knowledge Graph (KG) environment, which supports scientists in centrally tracking the data, software, and models that contribute to their next discoveries.

The existing KG is machine- and human-readable, and it already contains deep knowledge about available resources. The existing KG is expected to continue to grow in size and functionality during the next years.

These efforts are going to be taken over at CSCS by a small team composed of a product owner, a senior software architect and engineer, and a software engineer who will have the possibility to work either in our offices in Lugano or Zurich. This open position is a limited position for 36 months.

Job description

As the software architect of the KG, you will design its architecture and contribute to its development and maintenance in close collaboration with the product owner and a software developer. These efforts will enable a seamless information exchange between the services developed in the scope of EBRAINS so that they can be tightly integrated to create a “one platform” experience. Extensions of the service will be driven by the requirements of the stakeholders and users.

Your responsibilities

As the senior software Architect and engineer of the KG, you will play a leadership role in the architecture and development of rich, highly interactive web applications to enable scientific collaboration and (meta)data management:

• Together with the product owner of the KG, contribute to the strategic roadmap of the product as well as of the EBRAINS platform;
• Lead and contribute to the back-end development (incl. REST APIs) in a microservice architecture while integrating it with other back-end services and tools;
• Manage all aspects of the modern software development lifecycle, including unit testing, continuous integration, version control, debugging, documentation, and direct user support.

Your profile

We are looking for a professional software architect with more than five years of experience in the deployment and management of complex services running on cloud environments.

• Bachelor’s or higher degree in computer engineering, computer science, a relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience;
• Proven experience in the design and implementation of complex services running on cloud environment making use of modern software and platform architectures;

• Proven experience in professional, agile software engineering processes, including automation tools, frameworks, CI/CD processes, and ecosystem;
• Experience in the design and implementation of (REST) API interfaces;
• Knowledge of containerisation of applications (Docker);
• Experience in operations and monitoring (Ansible / AWX, Gitlab CI, Elasticsearch, Kibana, etc.).

Experience with the following is preferred, though there will be ample opportunities to learn and gain more experience with all of these skills on the job:

• Experience in (scientific) metadata management and metadata modelling,
• Java (Spring Boot),
• NoSQL databases (ArangoDB, Elasticsearch),
• Semantic web / linked data (JSON-LD), including modern web technologies and frameworks (TypeScript, React, CSS),
• Modern authentication systems (Keycloak / OIDC).

Your workplace

Your workplace

We offer

• ETH Zurich is a family-friendly employer with excellent and flexible working conditions.
• You can look forward to an exciting working environment, cultural diversity and attractive offers and benefits.
• We value the diversity of our team and, to further enhance the diversity of our workforce, we particularly encourage women to apply.

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We value diversity

In line with

our values

, ETH Zurich encourages an inclusive culture. We promote equality of opportunity, value diversity and nurture a working and learning environment in which the rights and dignity of all our staff and students are respected. Visit our

Equal Opportunities and Diversity website

to find out how we ensure a fair and open environment that allows everyone to grow and flourish.

Curious? So are we.

Please include the following documents with your application:

• Motivation letter
• CV
• Relevant certificates and diplomas

We look forward to receiving your online application, including a letter of motivation, CV, diplomas, and employment certificates. Please address your application to Ms Stephanie Frequente, CSCS Human Resources, via Trevano 131, 6900 Lugano.

Please note that we exclusively accept applications submitted through our online application portal. Applications via email or postal services will not be considered.

Further information about CSCS can be found on our website . Questions regarding the position should be directed to Mauro Bianco, [email protected] (no applications).

For recruitment services, the GTC of ETH Zurich apply.

About ETH Zürich

ETH Zurich is one of the world’s leading universities specialising in science and technology. We are renowned for our excellent education, cutting-edge fundamental research and direct transfer of new knowledge into society. Over 30,000 people from more than 120 countries find our university to be a place that promotes independent thinking and an environment that inspires excellence. Located in the heart of Europe, yet forging connections all over the world, we work together to develop solutions for the global challenges of today and tomorrow.