Scientific Software Engineer

Key Skills

Algorithms, Machine learning techniques, NumPy, Python Programming, SQL

Job Description

The Johns Hopkins AI-X Foundry is focused on revolutionizing discovery by advancing artificial intelligence that evolves collaboratively with human intelligence, combining the strengths of each for the betterment of society and the world in which we live. AI-X will bring together the mathematical, computational, and ethical foundations of AI with the domains of Health & Medicine, Safety & Assurance, and Discovery & Inquiry. The Foundry seeks a Scientific Software Engineer with a strong academic backgrounds and relevant experience in industry. The successful candidates will work at the cutting edge of modern science within the new Scientific Software Engineering Center (SSEC) at Johns Hopkins University (JHU). The Center is part of the Virtual Institute for Scientific Software (VISS), launched by Schmidt Futures, a philanthropic initiative founded by Eric and Wendy Schmidt. VISS will address the growing demand for high-quality professional software engineers who can build dynamic, scalable, open software to facilitate accelerated scientific discovery across fields. (See https://www.schmidtfutures.com/schmidt-futures-and-leading-research-universities-launch-software-engineering-centers-to-accelerate-scientific-discovery/ for more information on the VISS.) The SSEC will be hosted by the Institute of Data Intensive Engineering and Science (IDIES) at JHU within AI-X, a new pan-institutional initiative at Johns Hopkins to advance artificial intelligence and its applications, in part through investments in the software engineering, data science, and machine learning space. The SSEC engineers will be at the forefront of modern data intensive science, where high-level software is rapidly becoming the key ingredient for success. The AI-X initiative includes the build-out of a substantive and professional-scale software engineering capability, and a dramatic increase in infrastructure, both in hardware and in personnel. JHU has long been a world leader in the broader domains of medicine and public health as well as a wide range of science and engineering fields. This combined with our ethos of building out capabilities to have demonstrable global impact (e.g., JHUs Coronavirus Resource Center the award-winning global resource for real-time data and analysis for COVID-19) and other unique large scientific data sets, like the archives for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and several simulations, will be key leverage points that will make the Center successful.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• The successful candidates will be given a choice of ground-breaking research projects that need advanced software solutions requiring expertise in software engineering not commonly found in scientific collaborations.
• The projects may require the creation of AI/ML solutions using the latest DNN libraries trained on state-of-the-art hardware.
• Projects may also involve analysis of massive data sets either in the cloud or on premises.
• They may require creation of software pipelines for processing of real-time high-frequency data processing workflows and may need the design of complex database models for storing and disseminating scientific data sets.
• Some projects may require deep engagement, possibly leading to co-authorship on scientific publications, while others may involve a more casual consulting engagement.
• They may require software solutions developed from scratch or refactoring existing solutions to make them conform to industry standards (quality, reusability, robustness, portability, documentation, etc.).
• It is a high-level goal of the SSEC to translate the efforts for the individual projects into frameworks and template patterns for sustainable scientific infrastructure benefiting future projects.

The engineers will be JHU staff positions and will correspondingly enjoy the university's very substantial benefits including full medical insurance, JHU-level college tuition benefits for children after 2 years of full-time employment, flexibility, significant vacation benefits, and more. Embedded in one of the premier research institutions in the world, the successful candidates will be expected to participate in its academic life, including working with and potentially tutoring students.

Minimum Qualifications

• Masters in a Quantitative Discipline, e.g., Computer Science, Engineering, Astrophysics, Bioinformatics with strong scientific computing and/or mathematics background.
• Three (3) years or more experience working in software development and/or data science in large projects in industry.

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in a quantitative discipline.
• Five years or more experience working in software development and/or data science in industry.
• Experience with articulating and translating business/application questions and translating these into software and statistical techniques to arrive at an answer using available data.
• Demonstrated leadership and self-direction.
• Willingness to both teach others and learn new techniques.
• Demonstrated skills in selecting the right tools given a data analysis problem.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills.