Overview
Reference: 590_25_ES_CES_R2
Job title: Postdoctoral Researcher in Multimodal Foundation Models for Earth System Modeling (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, and is a hosting entity for EuroHPC JU. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into computer and computational science under one roof, with over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of under-represented groups will be favored. We encourage applicants who may not meet all requirements and value diverse experiences and skills.
Context And Mission: We are seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to join the ELLIOT Horizon Europe project, a €25 million, four-year initiative with 30 partners across 12 countries, aimed at advancing multimodal generalist foundation models for Earth system modeling and environmental monitoring, leveraging Europe’s HPC infrastructures including MareNostrum, LUMI, JUPITER, and Leonardo. The successful candidate will develop and optimize ML workflows for large-scale environmental data analysis and contribute to robust AI models for climate science.
Responsibilities
* Collaborate on the training and fine-tuning of large-scale multimodal foundation models for Earth system data.
* Create and implement adapters for foundation models to process and understand diverse spatio-temporal environmental data streams.
* Develop energy- and compute-efficient variants of foundation models for HPC deployment.
* Contribute to open-source datasets, pipelines, and reproducible research tools for the scientific community.
* Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team at BSC and across the ELLIOT consortium.
* Publish research findings in top-tier scientific journals and conferences.
* Lead the development of the project and reporting responsibilities.
Qualifications
* Education: A Ph.D. in Computer Science, Data Science, Computational Environmental Sciences, or a related field.
* Essential Knowledge and Experience: Familiarity with foundation models, adaptation techniques, and fine-tuning (model development in PyTorch, multimodal data ingestion, HPC knowledge);
hands-on experience with deep learning models on large-scale datasets;
experience with environmental or Earth system data (satellite imagery, reanalysis data);
ability to deliver and report on EU projects;
excellent communicationand teamwork with high English proficiency.
* Additional Knowledge and Experience: Experience with HPC environments and parallel programming (MPI, OpenMP);
experience with large-scale geospatial/climate datasets (NetCDF, GRIB, Zarr);
knowledge of Earth system models and climate science;
strong publication record.
* Competences: Problem-solving, proactive, result-oriented;
ability to work in international, fast-paced environments;
good written and verbalEnglish;
ability to work in multidisciplinary teams.
Conditions
* The position is located at BSC within the Earth Sciences Department.
* Full-time contract (37.5h/week) with flexible hours, extensive training, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, relocation support.
* Duration: Open-ended contract linked to project and budget;
Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st December;
Salary: competitive, aligned with qualifications and cost of living in Barcelona.
* Starting date: As soon as possible.
Applications procedure and process
* All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain: full CV in English with contact details;
cover/motivation letterin English stating area/topics of interest;
two references. Applications without this document will not be considered.
Recruitment Process
* The selection is by competitive examination (Concurso-Oposición) with two phases: Curriculum Analysis (40 points) and Interview (60 points). A minimum of 30/60 is required to be eligible.
* The recruitment panel includes at least three people with at least 25% women;
Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment (OTM-R) principles apply, including gender-balanced panels and a mix of interviews and exercises.
* Final decisions include feedback to participants;
contact for suggestions or complaints.
* Deadline: The vacancy remains open until a suitable candidate is hired;
applications reviewed regularly.
EEO and compliance
* BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion;
eligibility applies without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other protected status.
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