R&D Associate - Performance Portability for Coupled Physics Applications

Requisition Id 16901  Overview: As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an impressive 80-year legacy of addressing the nation’s most pressing challenges. Our team is made up of over 7,000 dedicated and innovative individuals! Our goal is to create an environment where a variety of perspectives and backgrounds are valued, ensuring ORNL is known as a top choice for employment.

These principles are essential for supporting our broader mission to drive scientific breakthroughs and translate them into solutions for energy, environmental, and security challenges facing the nation. The Computational Coupled Physics (CCP) Group within the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division (CSED), at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is seeking an R&D Associate to support performance portable software for applications in coupled physics applications.

The successful candidate will have a strong background in modeling and simulation of physical phenomena, especially structural and fluid mechanics on contemporary high-performance hardware. Primary tasks will include development and performance improvements for hardware-portable scientific software and participation in development of underlying libraries for performance portability. A strong background in particle based and statistical modeling is preferred.

Competency in programming across hardware types, especially for GPUs across multiple hardware vendors, as well as experience in software sustainability and design patterns is expected. Major Duties/Responsibilities: Collaborate within a multi-disciplinary research environment consisting of computational scientists, computer scientists, experimentalists, and engineers/physicists conducting basic and applied research in support of the Laboratory’s missions.

Participate in the development of Kokkos, a C++ performance portability library. Participate in the development of Cabana and CabanaPD, which are HPC targeted libraries for particle-based simulation. Develop software design patterns that are applicable to a wide variety of HPC applications and ensure sustainability of research software. Follow team planning, documentation, verification and validation, and development.

Author peer reviewed papers, technical papers, reports and proposals for internal and external release as well as represent the organization by giving technical presentations in large public forums. Engage with the broader community for computational methods, artificial intelligence and machine learning, and real-world coupled physics applications. Deliver on ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service.

Basic Qualifications: A PhD degree in mechanical engineering, mathematics, physics or a relevant engineering field with emphasis on computational modeling and simulations. Expertise in the development and application of multi-physics simulations and performance portability libraries. Experience with accelerator programming models such as CUDA, HIP, SYCL, OpenMP, MPI, etc. Demonstrated effective written and oral communication skills, a proven publication record, and effective interpersonal skills Preferred Qualifications: Demonstrated expertise in multi-physics simulations using particle-based simulations Demonstrated expertise in design and implementation of multi-physics codes for mechanics and fluid mechanics Demonstrated expertise in performance portable development or strong background in multiple accelerator programming models Experience with the Kokkos C++ library Experience with multi-physics simulations on high-performance computing (HPC) hardware Motivated self-starter with the ability to work independently and to participate creatively in collaborative teams across the laboratory Ability to function well in a fast-paced research environment, set priorities to accomplish multiple tasks within deadlines, and adapt to ever c