Postdoctoral Researcher – Sparse Linear Systems (Software Implementation) (HLRS_10_2026)

As one of Europe's leading facilities for high-performance computing, HLRS is a diverse community of scientists, engineers, and other professionals focused on discovering and developing new applications of powerful digital technologies and computer science methods.

Postdoctoral Researcher – Sparse Linear Systems (Software Implementation)

High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS)
Future Computing Group

About HLRS
The High-Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) is Germany's first federal high-performance computing center. It operates one of the world's fastest supercomputers and provides universities, research institutions, and industrial partners with access to high-performance computing resources. Furthermore, HLRS holds a leading global position in the research areas of parallel computing, cloud computing, as well as big data and artificial intelligence, and plays a key role in international and national research projects. Within HLRS, the Future Computing Group focuses on next-generation technologies for HPC, including research on photonic processors that promise to revolutionize computational performance for specific classes of problems.

The position is a 2.5‑year fixed‑term contract.

Background and Motivation

Sparse linear systems arise ubiquitously in scientific simulation: finite element and finite volume discretizations of PDEs, graph problems, network flows, and many machine learning inference tasks all reduce to solving Ax = b where A is sparse. At HLRS, we are investigating how photonic processors can be leveraged to accelerate sparse linear algebra operations through development of production‑quality software libraries. Algorithmic innovation only reaches users when embodied in robust, well‑documented software. Position B is the software engineering counterpart to Position A (Algorithms): it is responsible for translating algorithmic designs into production‑quality backends that plug into dominant frameworks for parallel sparse linear algebra in HPC and expose photonic sparse solver capabilities to the existing user base of scientific codes in HPC.

Research Objectives

The successful postdoctoral researcher will:

• Design and implement the software architecture for photonic‑accelerated sparse linear solvers
• Develop the library plugin interface to expose photonic capabilities to existing HPC applications
• Conduct systematic performance and robustness evaluations
• Ensure software maintainability across multiple hardware generations

Key Tasks

• Design of the library integration architecture
• Implementation of the library plugin interfaces backed by photonic acceleration
• Continuous integration, testing, and benchmarking frameworks
• Roofline and other performance analyses to identify optimization opportunities
• User documentation, tutorials, and support for HPC application groups onboarding
• Publication of methods and results in peer‑reviewed journals and conferences

Essential Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, computational engineering, or a closely related discipline
• Experience with C++ software engineering in an HPC context
• Familiarity with CMake, MPI, and at least one GPU programming model
• Strong software engineering skills
• Ability to work independently and as part of an interdisciplinary team
• Excellent communication skills in English (written and spoken)
• Willingness to publish and communicate results to academia

Beneficial Experience

• Prior contributions to open‑source scientific software libraries
• Knowledge of solver framework architectures
• Experience with performance profiling and optimization tools
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for scientific software
• Background in numerical linear algebra

What We Offer

• Opportunity to conduct cutting‑edge research at the intersection of numerical methods and emerging photonic computing technologies
• Access to world‑class supercomputing infrastructure including the Vulcan, Hunter, and HammerHAI systems
• Collaborative research environment with connections to academic and industry
• Professional development through participation in international conferences and publication opportunities
• Contribution to pioneering work in photonic HPC acceleration
• Competitive salary according to TV‑L 13 (100%)

The University of Stuttgart aims to increase the proportion of women in academic and academic support roles and is therefore particularly interested in applications from women. Full‑time positions may generally be split into part‑time positions. Individuals with severe disabilities will be given priority in hiring if equally qualified.