Job Opening

Job Title: Assistant Computational Scientist (Linux)

Description

Working in the Office of Research Computing is a unique experience; you will work with large supercomputing clusters and with researchers in a variety of fields. The employee will have a wide range of duties to support research at BYU.

We serve faculty and student researchers from dozens of disciplines across campus, as well as external collaborators throughout the world. Areas of research include materials science, computational fluid dynamics, wildfire simulation, genomics, MRI brain scan analysis, jet engine optimization, astrophysics, and many more. Some researchers run jobs that span thousands of CPU cores and numerous compute servers, others use GPUs, some need terabytes of memory, and others queue up thousands of single core jobs. Some researchers need to be introduced to the bash command line while others have used Linux since before 1.0.

Employee responsibilities include answering questions about using the supercomputer, training users, workflow optimization, and advanced troubleshooting. The employee will also install open source and commercial software for researchers via the command line on Linux, manually acquiring and installing dependencies as needed. Some scripting (usually bash, perl, or python) is necessary.

You will learn many things including advanced Linux skills, batch job scheduling (Slurm), high performance computing (HPC), and much more.

See the To Apply section below for job application instructions.

Hours and Pay

Student employees are expected to work 15-20 hours per week during semesters, with the potential for up to 40 hours during Spring and Summer terms. We do allow a little flexibility, but will expect you to set a schedule and then have regular and consistent shift attendance. Worksite is on campus in the Clyde Building.

Starting pay range is $18-20 per hour. Future pay raises may bring you beyond that based on job performance.

Please note that most student employees are exempt from FICA taxes. This means they get an extra 7.65% more in their checks than what they could receive working off campus where they are subject to the FICA tax.

Required Qualifications

• Must be comfortable on the Linux command line
• Able to communicate well with faculty and students
• Capable of installing software from source
• Some experience with programming or scripting

Longevity in the position is preferred.

Citizenship / Residency Requirements

The Office of Research Computing supports projects with various export-control restrictions. Employment is restricted to US citizens and lawful permanent residents. Prior to hire, the final candidate may be subject to a screening process for citizenship/residency status in accordance with export-control regulations. A background check will also be performed.

Suggestions to Improve Your Application

Consider adding about 1-3 paragraphs to your email that explain your technical skills.

While resumes serve as valuable summaries of an applicant's qualifications, they often lack sufficient detail. Including a list of skills is beneficial, but it often does not sufficiently convey the depth or breadth of the applicant's expertise. Using ratings such as "proficient", "skilled", or "excellent" offers some insight, but these terms can be rather subjective and provide limited utility when comparing candidates. Such terms are more effective in gauging an individual's personal skill hierarchy rather than comparing them with other candidates.

For example, simply listing "Linux" as a skill on your resume doesn't help us understand the depth and breadth of your Linux skills. "Linux" doesn't tell us if you have years of experience at the command line, compile your own custom kernels, have tried out dozens of distros, or if your Linux experience is limited to basic tasks such as using a web browser. In the absence of context, we're likely to assume minimal experience. We suggest detailing your skills in your resume or the email body, especially those skills emphasized in this job posting.

To Apply

Please email your resume as a PDF to superjobs@byu.edu with the subject "Assistant Computational Scientist". In the email or resume, please state your estimated graduation date.