Research Software Engineer for Open Galaxy Catalogue Infrastructure in Gravitational-Wave Cosmology (E1C43 - M/F)

Job Description

Missions

The research engineer will participate in the design, prototyping, development, and deployment of software and digital infrastructures for large-scale galaxy catalogues and community-driven data platforms, in the context of gravitational-wave cosmology. The position is part of the OSCARS-funded project UpGLADE: community-driven open-data infrastructure for gravitational-wave cosmology, whose goal is to deliver the largest open-access all-sky galaxy catalogue.

Placed under the scientific responsibility of Gergely Dálya, Principal Investigator (PI) of the project (moving to the Eötvös University of Budapest), and Nicola Tamanini, co-PI at the L2IT, the recruited person will work in close collaboration with astrophysicists and cosmologists involved in gravitational-wave and multi-messenger astronomy, while focusing primarily on software engineering, data infrastructure, and platform development rather than on scientific analysis itself. The research engineer will interact regularly with international partners and infrastructure providers involved in the OSCARS, EOSC, and ESCAPE ecosystems.

The following documents must be submitted to the CNRS Job Portal:
- CV
- Cover letter including a summary of previous work experience (max 2 pages)

Candidates selected for an interview will be asked to provide at least 2 letters of recommendation by email.

Activity

- Design, implement, and maintain scalable software solutions for the ingestion, validation, versioning, and dissemination of large astronomical catalogues;
- Develop and maintain database backends and high-performance querying solutions (e.g. spatial and redshift-based queries) for the UpGLADE catalogue;
- Design and implement programmatic access to the data through APIs and interoperable services, in compliance with FAIR and EOSC principles;
- Contribute to the upgrade of the GLADEnet platform into a community-driven system, including secure data submission workflows, provenance tracking, and validation pipelines;
- Report on progress, participate in project meetings and international collaborations, and present technical developments when appropriate;
- Produce and maintain technical documentation and user-oriented documentation to ensure long-term usability and sustainability of the developed infrastructure.

Your Profil

Skills

Required skills

- Proven experience in software engineering for data-intensive applications, including needs analysis, prototyping, and evaluation of technical solutions;
- Proven expertise in Python for scientific or data-oriented software development;
- Proven experience with relational databases and data modelling (e.g. PostgreSQL), including query optimisation and handling of large datasets;
- Proven knowledge of quality assurance practices: methods, tools, standards, and procedures applied to software and data products;
- Proven experience with version control systems (e.g. Git) and collaborative development workflows;
- Ability to write clear technical documentation and technical reports in English;
- Mastery of technical English: C1 level within the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Preferred skills

- Experience in developing backend services and APIs (e.g. RESTful or GraphQL services);
- Experience developing applications targeting scalable, load-balancing and/or fault-tolerant deployment infrastructures (e.g. kubernetes cluster);
- Experience with astronomical or geospatial data, including catalogue-based data or sky-coordinate systems;
- Familiarity with FAIR data principles, open science practices, or EOSC-related infrastructures;
- Experience working in an international research environment or large collaborative projects;
- Knowledge of Virtual Observatory standards or tools (e.g. TAP, VOTable, TOPCAT, Aladin);
- Ability to provide technical support, guidance, and advice to scientific users.

Your Work Environment

The Laboratoire des 2 Infinis - Toulouse (L2IT) is a young and dynamic laboratory created in 2020 to conduct fundamental research with new numerical and theoretical approaches for data analysis. The laboratory's research is concentrated on particle physics, gravitational waves, and the equation of state of nuclear matter, and relies on a complementary development of analysis methodologies and data science led by the "Calculation, Algorithms, and Data" (CAD) team. The "Gravitational Waves" (GW) team of L2IT conducts research on theoretical and experimental aspects of gravitational wave science, with a particular focus on the exploitation of new approaches linking theory to observations through data analysis and numerical simulations. The "GW" team is part of the LISA consortium, the Virgo collaboration, and the Einstein Telescope Consortium.

The core objective of the project is to transform the UpGLADE galaxy catalogue into a stable, publicly available, and FAIR-compliant infrastructure, and to upgrade the existing GLADEnet web tool into a participatory platform allowing astronomers to contribute new observations and improvements to galaxy data. These developments support key scientific goals in gravitational-wave cosmology, including precise measurements of the Hubble constant using standard sirens, and benefit a broad community ranging from large international collaborations to individual researchers and citizen scientists.

The research engineer will collaborate closely with astrophysicists, cosmologists, and infrastructure partners, but will not be expected to carry out independent scientific research or cosmological inference. The emphasis of the position is on software quality, scalability, interoperability, and long-term sustainability of the developed tools and services. The work will involve interaction with computing centres and infrastructure providers hosting the services, as well as coordination with international partners contributing to the catalogue and platform, located in Budapest, Glasgow, Perugia, and Warwick.

Compensation and benefits

Compensation

Between 3143€ and 3403€ gross per month, depending on experience.

Annual leave and RTT

44 jours

Remote Working practice and compensation

Pratique et indemnisation du TT

Transport

Prise en charge à 75% du coût et forfait mobilité durable jusqu’à 300€

About the offer

About the CNRS

The CNRS is a major player in fundamental research on a global scale. The CNRS is the only French organization active in all scientific fields. Its unique position as a multi-specialist allows it to bring together different disciplines to address the most important challenges of the contemporary world, in connection with the actors of change.

CNRS

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