Senior Research Engineer, Software developer, CSSH Program, AI Factory

7_26_CSSH_RE2

Senior Research Engineer, Software developer, CSSH Program, AI Factory (RE2)

Saturday, 07 February, 2026

Reference: 7_26_CSSH_RE2

Job title: Senior Research Engineer, Software developer, CSSH Program, AI Factory (RE2)

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.

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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

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC) is seeking a Research Engineer to join our Computational Social Science and Humanities Laboratory as part of the AI Factory initiative. The AI Factory is a European project accelerating AI adoption across industry sectors, particularly supporting SMEs and startups while strengthening the European innovation ecosystem.

The AI Factory, which utilizes MareNostrum5's specialized AI partition, relies on the secure and efficient management, sharing, and analysis of diverse and often sensitive datasets, including public administration and health data. This role will contribute to designing and implementing the necessary data infrastructure for the AI Factory ecosystem. This includes developing components such as a Data Broker for managing data access in adherence to GDPR, ensuring secure storage, transmission, and monitoring of sensitive data.

While Trusted Research Environments (TREs) will manage secure access for highly sensitive data, such as in healthcare and genomics, this position will primarily focus on building the broader, interconnected data infrastructure that supports all AI Factory initiatives. A key responsibility will involve implementing data curation practices and adhering to FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) to facilitate data management and dataset coordination for AI Factory users.

This position provides an opportunity to contribute to AI readiness strategies, combining technical skills with effective data stewardship, and bridging computational innovation with practical AI implementation across European public and private sectors.

This project is funded by the European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility, in accordance with Council Regulation (EU) 2020/2094 of 14 December 2020, and regulated by Regulation (EU) 2021/241 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 February 2021, in the context of the "BSC AI Factory" project.

The BSC AI Factory project has received funding from the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (JU) under grant agreement No The JU receives support from the European Union's Horizon Europe Programme and Spain, Portugal, and Türkiye.

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Key Duties

• Design and develop scalable software systems for the AI Factory data infrastructure, including architecting and coding a comprehensive Data Broker platform that manages multi-tenant data access while ensuring GDPR compliance and regulatory adherence.
• Design and implement robust services and APIs to handle secure data ingestion, processing pipelines, and real-time monitoring systems for sensitive datasets (public administration, healthcare, genomics)
• Engineer data curation tools and automated workflows that implement FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), including building custom software for dataset coordination, metadata management, and data lineage tracking
• Provide technical support for data analysis, including AI/ML models and advanced statistical models, relevant to the development and validation of the data infrastructure
• Develop specialized research tools and software add-ons such as computational workflows to support the creation and optimization of the AI Factory's data infrastructure
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to translate complex technical requirements into robust software implementations, working closely with data scientists, researchers, and infrastructure teams
• Contribute to documenting methodologies, processes, and best practices related to the data infrastructure and sensitive data handling within the AI Factory ecosystem

Requirements

• Education
• MSc in Data Science, AI or similar
• Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
• Hands-on experience with Python or R
• Experience with data analysis, such as using Python ML libraries or R statistical libraries.
• Experience applying data analysis to social science and/or humanities research.
• Experience with data processing, data cleaning or preparing data for analysis.
• Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
• Good knowledge of HPC and Distributed Computing
• Experience in AI models for science is a plus
• Competences
• Good fluency in both spoken and written English
• Good communication skills for effective collaboration.
• Ability to work both independently and within a team.
• Hard-working and highly organized.

Conditions

• The position will be located at BSC within the Computational Social Science and Humanities Laboratory.
• 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
• 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: asap

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:

• 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.

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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.

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