Postdoc in development of the materials cloud web platform

The Paul Scherrer Institute PSI is Switzerland’s largest research institute for natural and engineering sciences. We conduct cutting-edge research in the areas of future technologies, energy and climate, health innovation, and fundamentals of nature. We conduct fundamental and applied research to develop long-term solutions to major societal, scientific, and economic challenges. PSI is committed to training future generations. As a result, approximately one-quarter of our employees are postdoctoral fellows, postgraduates, or apprentices. PSI currently employs 2300 people.

The Materials Software and Data Group at the Laboratory for Materials Simulations is looking for a  Postdoctoral Fellow for development of the Materials Cloud web platform.

Your tasks

This position offers the opportunity to join an exciting and highly motivated international team at the forefront of research in the fields of materials discovery and design (and beyond), powered by AiiDA, an open-source Python framework for reproducible workflow management, and disseminated through the Materials Cloud portal. The candidate will join the group at PSI under the supervision of Dr. Giovanni Pizzi, collaborating with groups around the world (at universities, research institutes, and companies) where AiiDA and its plugins are developed and used (to enable the discovery of next-generation materials and, more recently, for broader applications in the field of weather and climate; and beyond simulations to orchestrate experiments, integrating them toward the creation of an autonomous lab. 

The successful candidate will be in charge of further developing the Materials Cloud portal for FAIR sharing of Open Research Data (ORD), enabling the transition to a sustainable infrastructure using modern software tools and libraries, both in the backend and frontend of the web platform.

The position is supported by a Swiss Open Research Data project. Tight collaborations are also expected between NCCR MARVEL and the other projects in the group (complete list of funded projects). The candidate is expected to work with other project partners such as the Swiss Supercomputer Center CSCS (Lugano), EPFL (Lausanne), Empa, Eawag, and WSL (Zürich), which will provide excellent networking opportunities while also enhancing the candidate’s experience in backend development, frontend development, and/or DevOps.

The candidate will join the Materials Cloud team. The tasks for this position will include:

• Advance the Materials Cloud platform by extending curated data sections of research projects such as MC2D and MC3D, as well as being directly involved in the corresponding materials science projects and their data pipelines.
• Extend the Materials Cloud Archive portal to support new user-facing features and export metadata in standardized formats, facilitating data exchange and interoperability in Switzerland and internationally.
• Contribute to the development of the underlying technology: the Materials Cloud backend (and, potentially, the AiiDA workflow engine and the AiiDAlab web platform for workflow management).
• The Materials Cloud web portal’s general maintenance includes code review, bug fixes and issue management (including user support), and the addition of new features that support new technologies in the frontend (React) and backend (e.g., Ansible, Docker, and Kubernetes).

Your profile

Strong organizational abilities and a love of creating open-source research tools that a wide range of users and researchers can use are desired in candidates. It is expected of candidates to have a strong work ethic and to enjoy teamwork.

Requirements:

• PhD in one of the STEM fields (a PhD in materials science/engineering, physics, or chemistry is a plus)
• Excellent Python programming abilities
• Outstanding JavaScript frontend programming abilities (a working knowledge of React is a plus)
• Strong incentive to fund materials science and exploration initiatives

Desirable (but not required) skills are:

• Using software development tools, including git, testing, and continuous integration.
• Passionate about user interaction and user experience (UI/UX).
• Experience managing large amounts of data and/or running simulations on HPC.
• Experience developing and deploying Python backend software.
• Knowledge of PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, or Elasticsearch

We offer

Our institution is built on interdisciplinary, innovative, and dynamic collaborations. You will benefit from structured on-the-job training, as well as opportunities for personal development and our strong vocational training culture. If you want to balance work, family life, or other personal interests, we can help you with our modern employment conditions and on-site infrastructure.

Your employment contract is for one year and may be renewable based on future funding decisions.

For more information, please contact Dr. Giovanni Pizzi at giovanni.pizzi@psi.ch.

Please apply online by December 29, 2024 (including a list of publications and the contact information for two people who could be contacted for a reference letter) for the position of Postdoctoral Fellow (index no. 7301-00).

The Paul Scherrer Institute, Human Resources Management, Mariusz Prus, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland