Job Reference
245_25_LS_BCU_SOLT
Position
Scientific Officer for the Language Technologies Unit
Closing Date
Sunday, 06 April, 2025
Reference: 245_25_LS_BCU_SOLT
Job title: Scientific Officer for the Language Technologies Unit
About BSC
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Look at the BSC experience:
BSC-CNS YouTube Channel
Let's stay connected with BSC Folks!
We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.
We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.
If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.
Context And Mission
The Life Sciences Department is composed of 6 research groups and 7 technical units covering the main areas of Computational Biology and bioinformatics, including genome analysis and annotation structural bioinformatics, network biology and text mining. Overall, the department has as a common goal the technical, computational and scientific challenges in the field of Personalised Medicine.
Within the Department, the Language Technologies Unit has consolidated experience in several NLP areas, such as massive language model building, biomedical text mining, machine translation and unsupervised learning for under-resourced languages and domains. It has been entrusted by the Spanish and the Catalan governments to develop fundamental open-source resources and technologies for Spanish and Catalan. In connection with this, the Unit is currently in charge of two flagship projects at the national and regional level: the Spanish National Language Technology Plan, funded by the Spanish Secretariat of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, and the AINA project, aimed at developing AI resources for Catalan, funded by the Catalan Digitalisation Department. In addition, the Unit participates in various EU-funded international projects.
The mission of this role is in the framework of the recent growth of the Language Technologies Unit and the need to structure its activities with the Unit Leaders and staff. The selected candidate will work within the Life Sciences Department but will also work in coordination with the central administration department. They will coordinate and follow-up ongoing projects together with technical staff, organise outreach activities, start and follow-up legal agreements/contracts, and represent the unit's interests to external stakeholders when needed.
Within the Department, the Language Technologies Unit has consolidated experience in several NLP areas, such as massive language model building, biomedical text mining, machine translation and unsupervised learning for under-resourced languages and domains. It has been entrusted by the Spanish and the Catalan governments to develop fundamental open-source resources and technologies for Spanish and Catalan. In connection with this, the Unit is currently in charge of two flagship projects at the national and regional level: the Spanish National Language Technology Plan, funded by the Spanish Secretariat of Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, and the AINA project, aimed at developing AI resources for Catalan, funded by the Catalan Digitalisation Department. In addition, the Unit participates in various EU-funded international projects.
The mission of this role is in the framework of the recent growth of the Language Technologies Unit and the need to structure its activities with the Unit Leaders and staff. The selected candidate will work within the Life Sciences Department but will also work in coordination with the central administration department. They will coordinate and follow-up ongoing projects together with technical staff, organise outreach activities, start and follow-up legal agreements/contracts, and represent the unit's interests to external stakeholders when needed.
Key Duties
- Technical support to the Language Technologies Unit strategic research projects and activities, internal and external.
- Monitoring and vigilance of the evolution of open issues at the Language Technologies Unit level (financial, HR, Department activities, etc.), maintaining regular interactions with the PI and Team leads.
- Provide support to Language Technologies Unit PI and Team leads in talent recruitment processes and financial matters, in coordination with the research support departments in the BSC.
- Help researchers in the Language Technologies Unit in the preparation of scientific presentations to external stakeholders and to ongoing project partners.
- Provide technical support to the management of strategic projects (pending actions, meeting minutes, etc.).
- Monitor personnel at the Language Technologies Unit with regards to training needs, suitable presence at events/conferences, etc.
- Establish and maintain collaborations with international researchers.
Requirements
-
Education
- Master degree on Linguistics or IT sector, or equivalent professional experience in such sectors in academia.
-
Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Minimum 5 years' experience on a similar role.
- Familiarity with academic environments and their specific needs.
- Project management skills: reporting, documenting and planning.
- Excellent command of tools to prepare well-structured written documents and presentations.
- Proficient computer skills, and the ability to maintain an organised and clean digital environment.
-
Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
- Experience in the writing and technical coordination of national and international research projects.
- Experience in technical and financial reporting of research projects.
- Experience in events organisation (small-medium size, from 30 to up to 180 people).
- Certification in Project Management.
- Experienced in the recruitment process to incorporate talented researchers.
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Spanish (Catalan is a plus).
-
Competences
- Candidates must be proactive, self-motivated individuals who can understand technical, high-level concepts in the biomedical/bioinformatics sector.
- Enjoy working in an academic environment and be motivated by contributing to the delivery of first-class science, while promoting equality and diversity values in science.
- Excellent time management and self-organization skills.
- Willing to take the initiative and propose actions, prioritise tasks and work under set deadlines.
- Ability to work both independently and within a team, taking ownership of his/her own projects.
Conditions
- The position will be located at BSC within the Life Sciences Department
- We offer a full-time contract (37.5h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
- Holidays: 23 paid vacation days plus 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: asap
Applications procedure and process
All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:
- A full CV in English, including contact details.
- A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English, clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.
Development of the recruitment process
The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:
- Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points
- Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.
The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.
In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.
The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.
At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information, please follow this link.
Deadline
The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.
OTM-R principles for selection processes
BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link