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Senior Plasma Code Developer

UK Atomic Energy Authority
Full-time
On-site
Culham England United Kingdom
Fusion
Company Description

By 2050, the planet could be using twice as much electricity compared to today. Are you interested in contributing and helping to shape the future of the world’s energy? If so, read on

Fusion, the process that powers the Sun and Stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs.

UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research for groundbreaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid, supported by tomorrow's power stations. In pursuit of our mission, UKAEA embraces core values: Innovative, Committed, Trusted, and Collaborative.

As an employee of UKAEA you will benefit from:

Outstanding defined benefit pension scheme, details of which can be found at the end of this advert.
Corporate bonus scheme up to 7 % and a Relocation allowance (if eligible).
Flexible working options including family friendly policies and the right to request flexible working from the start of your employment.
Employee Assistance Programme and trained Mental Health First Aiders.
Generous annual leave allowance starting with 25 days, plus 3 days Christmas closure and 2.5 privilege days, in addition to UK bank holidays.
Wide range of career development opportunities.
A vibrant culture committed to equality and being fully inclusive.

Job Description

The salary for this role is £56,596 (inclusive of a Specialist Allowance). This is a permaenent role with UKAEA and the Onsite working is expected for 3 days a week, however, we actively support requests for flexible working.

This role can be based in Culham, Oxfordshire.

This role requires employees to complete an online Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open source data.

The Role

Are you looking for an exciting opportunity to make a difference? Join our team and contribute to the future of fusion energy. As Senior Plasma Code Developer, you will be responsible for developing and maintaining plasma core and edge modelling codes, and for ensuring that UKAEA’s plasma modelling capability incorporates state-of-the-art physics models and features needed to reliably model fusion experiments and concept devices such as MAST-U, JET, STEP, and ITER. Code development will be predominantly focused on the integrated transport modelling suite JINTRAC, including the core transport code JETTO, a multi-fluid code to describe the edge plasma (e.g. EDGE2D or SOLPS), and a kinetic Monte Carlo code (e.g. EIRENE) to describe the neutral particle source.

Additional Responsibilities:

Responsible for the development of core and/or edge codes within the integrated modelling suite JINTRAC.
Local expert in plasma core, multi-fluid edge plasma code, and/or kinetic Monte Carlo neutrals codes.
Maintain and document local installations of core (JETTO) and/or edge (EDGE2D-EIRENE) modelling codes.
Implement new code features and coupled physics models via a close collaboration with other developers at UKAEA and external laboratories.
Support JINTRAC users at UKAEA and external laboratories.
Optimise code algorithms for modern computers (HPC).
Ensure high quality standards throughout the software development process, maintaining and improving tests and release procedures.
Maintain and develop the JAMS GUI and its interface to UKAEA, EURO fusion, and ITER data systems.
Demonstrate and disseminate new core and edge JINTRAC algorithms and features to UKAEA plasma modellers and external JINTRAC users.
Exploit tools for coupled core-edge simulations to study plasmas on existing or concept fusion devices, such as MAST-U, JET, STEP, and ITER. • Post-holder will be encouraged to disseminate work in publications and at conferences.

Qualifications

Essential Requirements:

• PhD or equivalent level of knowledge in tokamak plasma modelling.

• Experience developing scientific codes for computational physics.

• Ability and willingness to work on the development, validation, and application of high-impact physics codes and publishing results in scientific journals.

• Understanding of good software engineering practices and Quality Assurance systems, including version control, profiling tools, testing frameworks and debuggers.

• Ability, willingness, and ideally experience of working on and understanding large legacy codes written by others.

• Strong ability to communicate scientific results clearly and concisely, both verbally and in writing.

• Not essential, but we would value experience with either the LINUX operating system, MPI, FORTRAN, C/C++, IDL, Python, or Script-Languages

Additional Information

A full list of our benefits can be found here https://careers.ukaea.uk/life-at-ukaea/employee-benefits/

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds who want to help us achieve our mission. We are under-represented from some groups and so want to encourage applications in particular from women in STEM, people from Black British Caribbean and African backgrounds and from Pakistani and Bangladeshi British backgrounds. Our Executive team, supported by our 'Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion' (EDI) and Wellbeing and our EDI Networks actively promote Inclusion and takes steps to increase diversity within our organization. We reinforce best practices in recruitment and selection and evaluate approaches to remove barriers to success.

UK Atomic Energy Authority is committed to being accessible. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or require help or adjustments to compete on a fair basis, for example, changes to the way we interview or share information.

Please note that vacancies are generally advertised for 4 weeks but may close earlier if we receive a large number of applications.