Software Engineer – Frontend Web Developer (W/M)

Computing and Engineering Positions       ·       Switzerland        ·      Full time

The Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs 6,000 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of 16,000 people, including over 10,000 students and 3,500 researchers from 120 different countries.

Software Engineer – Frontend Web Developer (W/M)

Your mission :

The aim of the EPFL Blue Brain Project (BBP), a Swiss brain research initiative founded and directed by Professor Henry Markram, is to establish simulation neuroscience as a complementary approach alongside experimental, theoretical and clinical neuroscience to understanding the brain, by building the world’s first biologically detailed digital reconstructions and simulations of the mouse brain.

In order to accelerate neuroscience discovery and clinical translation through open science and global collaboration the BBP provides the community with regular releases of data, models and tools via portals – knowledge spaces used by scientists and researchers all over the world.

You would be joining the Neuroscientific Software Engineering team, which is in charge of developing the future of the Blue Brain Portals, as a Software engineer – Frontend Web Developer (W/M).

You will be tasked with designing and creating rich web applications to facilitate the work of scientists such as sharing and searching and visualizing data. You are a javascript developer passionate about open-source software and are familiar with the movements in the web development community. You have a product-oriented approach to designing user-centric and delightful software.

Main duties and responsibilities include :

• Build user-friendly websites to facilitate the dissemination of scientific data to the worldwide neuroscience community.
• Contribute to scope definition/refinement and website design in alignment with existing graphical guidelines.
• Features of these websites may include:
  • Intuitive navigation through a complex scientific domain.
  • Searching for scientific data (full-text and faceted search leveraging document stores such as ElasticSearch).
  • Presentation of search results, both in the form of summary tables as well as detailed pages.
  • Create meaningful scientific visualisation components.
  • Enabling a user to download scientific data.
• All aspects of modern software development life-cycle: testing, continuous integration, DevOps, documentation and direct user support.
• Implement best-practices for maintainable software development.

Your profile :

• Master degree in computer science or equivalent professional experience,
• At least 3 years experience of frontend software development,
• Excellent command of the English language, both written and spoken. French would be a plus.

Experience and preferred skills: 

• Expertise in modern Javascript and preferably Typescript.
• Experience with React, Vue and other Javascript frameworks.
• Well-versed in the modern Javascript ecosystem.
• Experience using the input of a graphical designer to build a website.
• Knowledge of static site generators.
• Experience with version control and workflows with git.
• Solid HTML and CSS knowledge.
• Experience working with REST APIs.
• Agile software development, unit and integration testing.

Experience in any of the following areas would be a plus:

• Experience in developing data visualization applications (d3.js, three.js, WebGL).
• Experience in making compelling user experience and UI design.
• Document stores (ElasticSearch).
• Knowledge of other programming languages, notably Python
• Semantic web technologies (RDF/OWL, SPARQL, RDF Triple Stores).

We offer :

• Opportunity to work on open-source software with a growing community of users,
• An internationally visible and rising project in simulation-based research in neuroscience using supercomputers,
• A dynamic, multidisciplinary, international and collaborative working environment committed to benefitting the global community
• A modern working environment, based at the Biotech Campus in Geneva Sécheron

Start date: as soon as possible
Term of employment: Fixed-term (CDD)
Work rate: 100%
Duration: 1 year renewable
Remark: Only candidates who applied through EPFL website or our partner Jobup’s website will be considered. Files sent by agencies without a mandate will not be taken into account.
Reference: Job Nb 2187

Please click here to apply.