Job Reference
556_25_CASE_PNM_R2
Position
OpenACC porting of Alya (R2)
Closing Date
Monday, 08 September, 2025
Reference: 556_25_CASE_PNM_R2
Job title: OpenACC porting of Alya (R2)
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Context And Mission
Supercomputers are indispensable tools for solving the most challenging and complex scientific and technological problems through simulations. The Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe, PRACE, has been a unique persistent pan-European Research Infrastructure for High Performance Computing (HPC) and forms the top level of the European HPC ecosystem. BSC has been one of the core partners of PRACE providing a tier-0 system like MareNostrum4 to the PRACE computing resources. BSC is now involved in EuroHPC and will soon host Marenostrum5, a pre-exascale heterogeneous cluster.
The mission revolves around Alya, a high-performance computational mechanics code developed within the CASE department to solve complex coupled multiphysics/multi-scale/multi-domain problems, which are mostly coming from the engineering realm. Among the different physics solved by Alya, we can mention incompressible/compressible flows, non-linear solid mechanics, chemistry, particle transport, heat transfer, turbulence modelling, electrical propagation, etc.
The candidate will work in the development of HPC techniques to enhance the scalability and computational performance of Alya for heterogeneous architectures. This will include porting to accelerators using OpenACC of specific computational kernels, the leveraging of overlapping strategies to control the cost of MPI communications among others. The candidate will work in close collaboration with other researchers of the department involved in the same project.
The mission revolves around Alya, a high-performance computational mechanics code developed within the CASE department to solve complex coupled multiphysics/multi-scale/multi-domain problems, which are mostly coming from the engineering realm. Among the different physics solved by Alya, we can mention incompressible/compressible flows, non-linear solid mechanics, chemistry, particle transport, heat transfer, turbulence modelling, electrical propagation, etc.
The candidate will work in the development of HPC techniques to enhance the scalability and computational performance of Alya for heterogeneous architectures. This will include porting to accelerators using OpenACC of specific computational kernels, the leveraging of overlapping strategies to control the cost of MPI communications among others. The candidate will work in close collaboration with other researchers of the department involved in the same project.
Key Duties
- Port the physical modules of Alya and required kernels to GPU architectures using OpenACC
- Improve the performance of existing parallel algorithms, improving the serial efficiency and the scalability, changing if necessary the code or helping the developers with their required modifications.
- Provide consultancy to scientists on new computer architectures and programing models.
- Generate performance analysis and benchmarks for selected applications and report the results to the applications developers.
Requirements
- Education
- Master in computer science or in any other scientific field but directly related to HPC
- Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
- GPU programming
- Experience porting and optimizing applications on UNIX-based systems experience in Fortran, C, MPI, OpenACC, OpenMP, and parallel methods.
- Experience supporting and collaborating with external partners.
- Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Experience using performance analysis tools, and parallel debuggers.
- Good understanding of Linux environment and Shell scripting.
- Experience in managing big and collaborative projects and experience with git
- A thorough understanding of high performance computing architectures.
- Good level in English
- Competences
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to be able to work within a team to complete tasks on schedule.
Conditions
- The position will be located at BSC within the CASE Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
- Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: 01/10/2025
Applications procedure and process
All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:
The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:
- A full CV in English including contact details
- A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English, clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.
Development of the recruitment process
The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:
- Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points
- Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.
The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.
In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.
The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information, please follow this link.
Deadline
The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes
BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
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