Software Developer

Location: Hamburg, Germany
Staff Category: Staff Member
Contract Duration: 2 years
Grading: 4, 5 or 6, depending on experience and qualifications
Closing Date: 12 January 2015
Reference Number: HH_00075

Job Description

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is one of the highest ranked scientific research organisations in the world. The Headquarters Laboratory is located in Heidelberg (Germany), with additional sites in Grenoble (France), Hamburg (Germany), Hinxton (UK) and Monterotondo (Italy).

The EMBL is an inter-governmental research organization dedicated to basic molecular biology research, technology development, service provision and advanced training. The EMBL Hamburg Unit is located on the DESY research campus and pursues research in structural biology and the development of instrumentation and computational methodology for macromolecular crystallography (MX) and small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS).

We are seeking a software maintainer for the SAXS software package ATSAS, a program suite for small-angle scattering data analysis from biological macromolecules. The ATSAS suite is a collection of 20+ applications, actively developed for more than 15 years by the SAXS group at EMBL-Hamburg. It is in use in more than a 1000 academic research institutes world-wide. The software maintainer for ATSAS shall further improve the internal processes and general user experience.

The main tasks of the maintainer are:

- basic code maintenance
- improving code coverage of run- and unit tests
- improving general user experience by maintaining documentation,
- user interfaces, installation packages
- maintenance of internal revision control and issue tracker

The SAXS group in Hamburg is an active team that provides a stimulating work environment. This position also involves frequent contacts with international users of the software.

Qualifications and Experience

Applicants should have at least a bachelor degree in a relevant field (Computer Science or related disciplines). Experience with FORTRAN is required, and profound knowledge of the later standards would be an asset. Basic experience in C/C++, Python and PHP would be considered beneficial. Knowledge of revision control (subversion), build management (cmake/ctest), bug tracking (bugzilla) and documentation tools (doxygen) are essential. The maintainer needs to be able to work with a large code base with patience, precision and attention to detail. Applicants need to be proficient in spoken and written English. General knowledge of German would be a plus.

Application Instructions
Please apply by clicking the 'Apply now' button.

Additional Information
EMBL is an inclusive, equal opportunity employer offering attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation.

Please note that appointments on fixed term contracts can be renewed, depending on circumstances at the time of the review.