Overview
Starting date: 16/03/2026
Job Reference: 81_26_LS_TBR_R2
Position: Postdoctoral Researcher on Secure Computing (R2)
Closing Date: Thursday, 05 March, ****
Reference
81_26_LS_TBR_R2
Job Title
Postdoctoral Researcher on Secure Computing (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 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 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 **** staff from 60 countries.
Context and Mission
The Technologies for Biomedical Research Lab (TechBioLab) within the Life Sciences Department of BSC brings together specialised teams to enable research activities in the Life Sciences. These teams cover areas including research data and software and infrastructures for centralized and federated analysis and learning. TechBioLab focuses on developing infrastructures that support Life Sciences research, including software components for bioinformatics, research data management and benchmarking of research software, in collaboration with various communities and projects. Special attention is given to developments enabling analysis of sensitive data in federated settings, enabling AI models without moving data from its original site. The lab also contributes to the development of Trusted Research Environments for use of research data on single sites under configurable usage conditions. The INB coordinates ELIXIR and related activities. The INB is the major bioinformatics platform in Spain and the Spanish node of ELIXIR. The INB coordinates the Data Science programme within the Spanish Infrastructure for Personalised Medicine, among other initiatives. All developments will be aligned with European initiatives, including ELIXIR, 1+Million Genomes, and related data‑sharing projects. The candidate will join a dynamic Life Sciences department team, working in the cooperative, multidisciplinary, distributed context of ELIXIR and INB and related national initiatives such as TransBioNet.
Key Duties
* Design and advance the architecture of secure and controlled environments for the analysis of sensitive data.
* Develop and optimise compute analysis tools and pipelines, including containerised workflows and reproducible execution environments.
* Design and implement controlled data access mechanisms and secure data processing pipelines aligned with governance requirements.
* Design and implement the integration and delegation of compute workloads between cloud environments and HPC infrastructures.
* Contribute to research outputs, technical deliverables and publications within national and EU‑funded projects.
* Contribute to supervise junior members at the TechBioLab and the INB Computational Unit at the BSC.
* Ensure the adoption of good practices for software development, following the guidelines of the community.
Requirements
Education
Preferably a PhD in Bioinformatics, computational biology or computer sciences with significant bioinformatics experience. Minimum Level Required Is MSc.
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
* Over 5 years of experience in biomedical research infrastructures, secure computation or cloud‑HPC integration.
* Over 5 years of experience in programming language ecosystems such as C++, Perl, Python, PHP and/or Java.
* Over 5 years experience with containerisation technologies (e.g. Docker, Singularity) and orchestration of reproducible computational environments.
* Extensive experience working with Unix/Linux systems.
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
* Experience with workflow managers such as Galaxy, Nextflow or similar.
* Experience in developing project technical specifications.
* Knowledge of infrastructure‑as‑code tools (e.g. Terraform).
Competences
* Ability to understand scientific literature, and software documentation.
* Ability to communicate scientific results.
* Ability to work independently.
* Ability to represent the team in international project meetings.
* Used to working under pressure under strict deadlines.
Conditions
The position will be located at BSC within the Life Sciences 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: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 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.
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.
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.
* 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.
Equal Opportunity Statement
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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