Postdoctoral Researcher – Sparse Linear Systems (Software Implementation)

SFB 1313 | University of StuttgartStuttgart

Stellenbeschreibung:

Postdoctoral Researcher – Sparse Linear Systems (Software Implementation)

Location: Stuttgart, HLRS Future Computing Group
Position Type: 2.5‑year fixed‑term contract (Full‑time, 100%, TV‑L 13)
Reference: HLRS_10_2026

High‑Performance Computing Center Stuttgart (HLRS) is Germany’s first federal high‑performance computing centre. It operates one of the world’s fastest super‑computers and provides universities, research institutions and industrial partners with access to HPC resources. HLRS maintains a leading global position in parallel computing, cloud computing, big data and artificial intelligence and plays a key role in international and national research projects. Within the Future Computing Group, research focuses on next‑generation technologies for HPC, including photonic processors that promise to revolutionise computational performance for specific classes of problems.

Background and Motivation

Sparse linear systems arise ubiquitously in scientific simulation: finite‑element and finite‑volume discretisations 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 production‑quality software libraries. Algorithmic innovation only reaches users when embodied in robust, well‑documented software. The software engineering counterpart to the algorithmic research group is responsible for translating design concepts into production‑quality back‑ends that plug into dominant HPC frameworks and expose photonic sparse‑solver capabilities to the existing user base of scientific codes.

Research Objectives

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 analyses and other performance studies to identify optimisation 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 optimisation tools.
Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines for scientific software.
Background in numerical linear algebra.

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

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.