Job Description

Join a diverse team supporting the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. CMS is a major detector operated by a global collaboration of scientists, engineers, and computing experts exploring fundamental particles and forces.

As a Computing Operations Engineer, you will help ensure that computing jobs worldwide have fast and reliable access to the detector's conditions. This involves managing detailed information from over 100 million detector channels, including operational settings and component alignment, stored in a central database. To deliver this data efficiently, CMS uses Frontier, a system that converts database queries into web requests and caches results across a network of servers.

Your responsibilities

You will:

• Operate and maintain the central Frontier infrastructure at CERN.
• Support the distributed Frontier/launchpad system across the global CMS computing network.
• Take responsibility for the glideinWMS Factory, which underpins CMS's worldwide job-submission infrastructure.

Your profile

You have experience in:

• programming;
• service management and system administration;
• software development and code design;
• http and Apache http installations experience is a plus;
• relational databases.

Skills:

You have:

• Basic DevOps knowledge;
• Proficiency in Linux (management and system administration, cluster configuration system, especially puppet is a plus);
• Oracle Database knowledge is a plus;
• Python and shell scripting knowledge;
• SQL knowledge is a plus;
• Knowledge on computing on GRID/CLOUD batch (systems and high throughput) is a plus;
• Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• By the application deadline, you have a maximum of two years of professional experience since graduation in Computer Science, Software Engineering (or a related field) and your highest educational qualification is either a Bachelor's or Master's degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Applicants without University degree are not eligible.
• Applicants with a PhD are not eligible.

Additional Information

Job closing date: 20.11.2025 at 23:59 CET.

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Working hours: 40 hours per week

Job flexibility: Hybrid

Target start date: 01-January-2026

Job reference: EP-CMO-2025-221-GRAE

Field of work: Software Engineering and IT

Benchmark job: 200020 - Computing Engineer

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 5196 and 5716 Swiss Francs (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN's comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: installation grant; family, child and infant allowances; payment of travel expenses at the beginning and end of contract.
• 30 days of paid leave per year.
• On-the-job and formal training at CERN as well as in-house language courses for English and/or French.

About us

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on http://home.cern.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success.