Backend Software Engineer (TE-MPE-CB-2025-181-GRAE)

Your responsibilities

The Machine Protection and Electrical Integrity Group (MPE) is part of CERN's Technology Department (TE) and is responsible for the magnet protection systems and machine interlocks for the CERN accelerator complex.

Within this group, we have the Control and Beams Studies for Protection (CB) section which is where this position would be. The section is a dynamic mix of engineers and physicists with a broad skillset, working in the fields of controls, machine protection systems, beam related failure case studies and reliability and availability studies of accelerator systems for CERN's present and future accelerators. We collaborate closely with equipment and machine protection experts, the operation crews and CERN's controls and IT groups.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN is the world's most powerful particle accelerator, demanding high reliability and safety. The LHC Post-Mortem (PM) system supports this by analysing transient data from multiple systems during critical events (e.g., magnet quenches, beam losses, and beam dumps).

A new version of the PM system must be developed to maintain current interfaces and response times while offering greater scalability and reliability. This includes transitioning from an Oracle database to a Kafka-based streaming architecture and object storage (Ceph/S3) for long-term data retention. The new system will also be designed to run natively in a Kubernetes environment instead of on bare-metal servers.

Automated testing and benchmarking will ensure readiness for LHC Run 4 and will be used throughout the LHC's operational lifetime. The project also involves migrating existing data from Oracle to the new storage infrastructure.

Your responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain robust Java services and client libraries (using Spring Boot) based on the existing PM system code, ensuring high reliability and maintainability.
• Leverage DevOps practices to automate deployment, monitoring, and scaling of the new system in a Kubernetes environment.
• Create comprehensive test suites to validate the system's functionality and performance under real-world scenarios and throughput requirements.
• Implement a data migration solution to transition from the legacy Oracle-based storage to the Ceph/S3 architecture.
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders and system clients to understand and meet their requirements, ensuring seamless integration with existing workflows.

More information here: https://mpe-cb.web.cern.ch/

Your profile

Skills:

• Developing Backend services.
• Working with Java (Spring Boot), SQL, Apache Kafka, and Kubernetes.
• Working with Scrum/Kanban methodologies.
• Strong aptitude for understanding large codebases and refactoring for improved maintainability.
• Ability to work effectively in a team and participate in design discussions.
• Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• By the application deadline, you have a maximum of two years of professional experience since graduation in Computer Science or Software Engineering (or a related field) and your highest educational qualification is either a Bachelor's or Master's degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Applicants without University degree are not eligible.
• Applicants with a PhD are not eligible.

Job closing date: 29.09.2025 at 23:59 CEST.

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Working hours: 40 hours per week

Target start date: 01-January-2026

Job reference: TE-MPE-CB-2025-181-GRAE

Field of work: Software Engineering and IT

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 5196 and 5716 Swiss Francs (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN's comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: installation grant; family, child and infant allowances; payment of travel expenses at the beginning and end of contract.
• 30 days of paid leave per year.
• On-the-job and formal training at CERN as well as in-house language courses for English and/or French.

About us

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on http://home.cern.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success.