Seeking a few Senior Research Scientists, Research Scientists or Postdoctoral Researchers (25-2457) Full-time

Senior Research Scientist, Research Scientist or Postdoctoral Researcher

We are now recruiting a person who will work exclusively for “Research and Development Project of the Enhanced Infrastructures for Post-5G Information and Communication Systems / R&D of Computing Platform Technologies for Expanding Computable Domains” project under New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). The name of the research project is “R&D on the Utilization of Diverse AI Accelerators and the High-Efficiency Use of Computing Resources”.

In this call, we invite applications for research staff who will engage in research and development focused on building foundations for performance evaluation, visualization of performance metrics, and automated benchmarking of AI accelerators. Responsibilities include designing and implementing methods for performance measurement, analysis, and comparative evaluation—primarily for advanced AI accelerators—as well as developing a continuous benchmarking environment integrated with CI/CD workflows. The position also involves designing key features for performance prediction, constructing and enhancing training datasets, and developing performance visualization dashboards.

In addition, candidates are expected to flexibly contribute, according to their expertise, to multiple research themes described in the “Outline of Laboratory” above, which are being advanced by our research group. Through these activities, the successful applicant will play a central role in advancing the computational infrastructure that supports next-generation scientific computing and in promoting technology development that will contribute to both domestic and international research communities and industry.

The job description may be changed during the contract period or upon contract renewal to the extent described above.

Qualifications

Applicants are expected to meet many of the following required skill items:

• Doctoral degree in computer science, information engineering, computational science, electrical/electronic engineering, machine learning, or related fields, or equivalent knowledge and professional experience
• Experience in software development in a Linux environment (Shell, Python, C/C++, etc.)
• Basic understanding of machine learning frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow
• Interest and experience in programming with GPUs or AI accelerators, or in performance analysis
• Strong motivation to independently investigate new technologies and carry out implementation and verification
• Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with colleagues inside and outside the laboratory (in both Japanese and English)

Candidates with the following experience or skills are especially welcome:

• Development and/or performance optimization experience on GPUs (NVIDIA CUDA / AMD ROCm / Intel oneAPI)
• Experience in evaluating AI accelerators such as SambaNova, Cerebras, Groq, MN-Core, etc.
• Experience building automated environments using CI/CD tools (GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, etc.)
• Experience using or developing benchmarking frameworks (Benchpark, Spack, Caliper, etc.)
• Experience building monitoring/visualization systems such as Grafana or Prometheus
• Experience in performance prediction, feature engineering, or data analysis for machine learning models (e.g., MLPerf)
• Experience using large-scale computing environments (HPC clusters or supercomputers)
• Experience writing research papers and presenting at international conferences
• Contributions to open-source software development

Senior Research Scientist

A PhD holder in the area related to the Job description.

Research Scientist:

Conduct research projects and other activities in corresponding laboratories.

Postdoctoral Researcher

A PhD holder who earned a doctorate within the past 5 years in the area related to the Job description. Including those who expect to obtain a doctoral degree before starting the position.

Work location

RIKEN Kobe Campus – South 7-1-26, Minatojima-minamimachi, Chuo-ku, Kobe, Hyogo 650-0047, JAPAN

RIKEN may order the employee to change work locations, if necessary.

Salary and benefits

• 1. A one-year fixed-term employment contract, renewable based on evaluation, but not beyond the end of September 2028.
• 2. RIKEN may adjust the above maximum period of renewability based on a) the employee's abilities, workload at the time of contract completion, performance and work attitude and b) the continuation of the employee's center, laboratory or project and RIKEN's management situation and budget at the time. In principle, employment contracts will not be renewed for individuals older than 70 years.

RIKEN has indefinite-term positions. Any scientists, including fixed-term employees who have been hired through this open call, are eligible to apply to open calls for indefinite-term positions.

In principle, the first two months of employment are considered a trial period.

Salary will be an annual salary based on experience, ability, and performance, and will consist of a base salary and a variable salary. The variable salary will be determined each fiscal year based on experience, ability, and performance. Discretionary work, commuting and housing allowances will be provided. Social insurance will be applied.

The approximate amount of salary at the time of hiring: The total amount of monthly discretionary work allowance and monthly salary at the time of hiring will be 572,000JPY or more for Senior Research Scientist, 515,000JPY or more for Research Scientist, 367,000 JPY or more for Postdoctoral Researcher.

RIKEN has a telecommuting system, but this position requires attendance at the work location. Therefore, the telecommuting system is not available for this position, in principle. In exceptional cases, limited and partial use of telecommuting system may be permitted. For more information, please get in touch with the hiring staff at kobe-jobs@riken.jp.

This position falls under the specialized duties discretionary work system; one working day will be calculated as 7 hours and 30 minutes.

Days off include public holidays, New Year's holidays (Dec. 29 – Jan 3), and RIKEN Foundation Day. Paid leave includes annual paid leave (up to 20 days depending on the month of employment), special paid leave (caring for a sick child, family nursing care, etc.), and work life balance holidays (up to 7 days depending on the month of employment). There are also additional leave systems such as maternity leave, childcare leave, and family nursing care leave. Smoking is entirely prohibited on site. These and other provisions are in accordance with RIKEN regulations.

Mandatory membership in the RIKEN Mutual Benefit Society (RIKEN Kyosaikai).

The Kobe Campus has an on-site daycare, Po-I Kids Kobe . For details, please send an email to kobe-kosei@riken.jp.

RIKEN is actively undertaking initiatives to promote gender equality and diversity, and moving forward with the establishment of a diverse and vibrant research environment. If multiple candidates are found to have the same aptitude following a fair assessment, active efforts will be made to recruit female candidates.

Application and Required documents

Required documents

Please prepare the following documents in English. Only the letter of recommendation may be either in English or in Japanese.

• 1. CV or CV
  • * Email address, Application Number[25-2457] and position to apply (e.g. : Research Scientist) are required.
  • * Format is free. Or the format attached is available.
• 2. List of research achievements (including ResearcherID or Google Scholar ID, if available) Include not only peer-reviewed papers but also a list of patents, a list of invited lectures. Also include quantitative measures for evaluation such as the Google Scholar citation index, whenever possible.
• 3. Copies of up to five most important publications (Please mark the papers on the list of publications.) When the original publications are not in PDF format, scan the papers and save them as PDF documents prior to submission.
• 4. List of competitive funds acquired, awards received, and other achievements including, contributions to university/institution operations, contribution to society through activities in academic societies, joint research projects, technology transfers, etc.
• 5. Description of previous research, future research plans, and career goals: No format specified, approximately three to four A4 pages in total. It is desirable that a diagram describing the research is provided.
• 6. At least one letter of recommendation from a person who can evaluate your work
  • * In principle, the letter of recommendation should be from the applicant's current supervisor. When it is difficult to do so, a letter of recommendation written by a