Laboratory

High Performance Big Data Research Team
RIKEN Center for Computational Science
(Team Principal: Kento Sato)

Outline of Laboratory

The RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS), led by Center Director Satoshi Matsuoka, are threefold, centered around supercomputing: one is to target high performance computation itself as a scientific objective, or namely, the "Science of Computing"; another is to apply the enormous computational power thus obtained to solve difficult scientific problems, or namely the "Science by Computing"; finally, to collaborate with other scientific disciplines that contribute to advances in both sciences, or namely, the "Science for Computing." Our goal is to be recognized as one of the global leadership research centers to advance high-end computational science in this regard.

The High Performance Big Data Research Team is recruiting research employees to carry out a new theme. The research overview of the laboratory is shown below.

Our research team conducts system development aimed at advancing high-performance computing systems such as the supercomputer Fugaku. In particular, we pursue the integration of High-Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data, and Artificial Intelligence (AI). To this end, we develop essential enabling technologies universally required to enhance high-performance computer systems, while also carrying out system development for accelerating “Big Data and AI” workloads on HPC systems (HPC for Big Data/AI) and advancing HPC itself using “Big Data and AI” technologies (Big Data/AI for HPC). In addition, we work on technology development for designing future high-performance computing systems.
More specifically, we are engaged in research on the following topics:

• (1)Scaling and acceleration of Big Data processing, such as large-scale parallel I/O using next-generation storage and file systems
• (2)Development of ultra-parallel algorithms and programming models adapted to next-generation memory/storage systems
• (3)R&D on data collection, transfer, storage, management, and utilization for data science
• (4)Development and scaling/acceleration of software stacks that integrate inductive AI methods for Society 5.0 simulations, system operations, AI training, and training-data collection
• (5)Scaling and acceleration of large-scale deep learning training and inference
• (6)Scaling and acceleration of high-reliability technologies such as large-scale I/O for checkpoints
• (7)Architectural exploration for next-generation large-scale computing systems
• (8)Development of tools that support application development environments and runtime environments for large-scale computing systems
• (9)Other research and development related to high-performance computing.

Job title and Job description

Job title

Senior Research Scientist, Research Scientist or Postdoctoral Researcher: A few positions

Position-specific tasks are as follows:

Senior Research Scientist

Assist Laboratory Heads; provide guidance to researchers and other personnel at corresponding laboratories; autonomously conduct research projects and other activities.

Research Scientist:

Conduct research projects and other activities in corresponding laboratories.

Postdoctoral Researcher

Receive training and guidance from senior staff; conduct research projects and other activities for corresponding laboratories.

Job description

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

Common to all positions

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 third party may be accepted.
    If your current affiliation is the laboratory you apply for, the referee should be a person who does not belong to the laboratory you apply for including the supervisor.
  • *The letter of recommendation must be sent directly by the referees.
  • *The letter of recommendation should be addressed to R-CCS Director. Digital signature image can be embedded in the letter of recommendation within the PDF file. Or please specify the referee’s contact information (name, affiliation, job title, phone number, and email address) in the letter. Please make sure to write the date.
• 7.Consent form for handling personal information based on GDPR/UK GDPR
  If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) or the UK, you are required to sign and submit the document, “Consent form for handling personal information based on Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) and the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation.”
  • *For residents of the EEA, you will find detailed information about the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) on the following website:
    Data protection | European Commission
  • *For residents of the UK, you will find detailed information about Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation) on the following website:
    The UK GDPR | Information Commissioner’s Office

How to apply

Combine the above documents except the letter of recommendation into a single PDF file and upload them to the following link:
Applications for R-CCS High Performance Big Data Research Team

The file name of the PDF should contain the job ad number “25-2457, R-CCS High Performance Big Data Research Team” and the applicant’s name.
Please write the job ad number and the name of the position that you apply for if there is an “Add additional information” box on the website. After you uploaded the PDF file, please let us (kobe-jobs@riken.jp) know the file name of the uploaded file. When you send us an email, please write your name, Job Ad number and the name of the position that you apply for.

The letter of recommendation must be directly submitted from the referees to the link mentioned above with the subject line "Letter of recommendation for [applicant’s name], [name of the position], R-CCS High Performance Big Data Research Team”. Please tell them to email us (kobe-jobs@riken.jp) that they have uploaded the PDF file and to specify the applicant's name, referee's name and contact information in the body of the email.
If a confirmation email is not received within 7 days after submission, please contact: kobe-jobs@riken.jp.

Note: None of the submitted documents will be returned.

Deadline

Applications will be accepted until the positions are filled.

Handling Personal Data

Submitted documents are strictly protected under the RIKEN Privacy Policy and will be used only for the purpose of applicant screening. Personal information will not be disclosed, transferred or loaned to a third party under any circumstances without just cause.

Selection process

Selection will be made based on application screening and interview. After documents screening, only successful applicants will be invited for interview (2 interviews for Senior Research Scientist, Research Scientist positions and 1 interview for Postdoctoral Researcher position). No inquiries on the selection process and results will be answered.

Notification of hiring decision

The notification of hiring decision (conditional offer of employment) regarding this selection shall be carried out through the presentation of an Employment Contract or a Conditional Offer of Employment issued by RIKEN.

Start of Employment

April 1, 2026 or later

Contact Information

For inquiries regarding this open position, please contact below by email:
Research Personnel Affairs Section, Human Resources Strategy Division, Human Resources Group, RIKEN
kobe-jobs@riken.jp

For inquiries on research conducted by the team, please contact the Team Principal by email:
Kento Sato
High Performance Big Data Research Team
RIKEN Center for Computational Science
Email: kento.sato@riken.jp