Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation

Duke University

The Center for Computational and Digital Health Innovation is seeking an experienced Research Associate to support cutting-edge research projects across multiple disciplines. This individual will play a key role in advancing interdisciplinary computational science, providing support for high performance computing (HPC) environments, and facilitating large-scale data fabric deployment. The successful candidate will work with faculty across diverse research domains, contributing to the development and optimization of software systems that underpin groundbreaking advancements in health innovation.

Objectives of this role:

• Develop Scalable Software: Create scalable software platforms and applications that are unit tested, code-reviewed, and regularly maintained for continuous integration.
• Optimize HPC Workflows: Collaborate with computational scientists to optimize parallel computing workflows and port research tools to high-end computing platforms.
• Automate Developer Workflows: Design tools and frameworks to streamline developer workflows, focusing on automation for development, testing, and deployment.
• Cloud and On-Prem Integration: Build workflows for seamless integration with cloud and on-premises systems, ensuring interoperability across diverse computing environments.
• Support Large-Scale Data Fabric Deployment: Extend software infrastructure to support large-scale data storage, processing, and real-time data handling for scientific research.
• Collaborate and Document: Collaborate with researchers, clinicians, and engineers to support multidisciplinary projects, improve documentation, and maintain interactive environments for development and testing.

Key Responsibilities:

• Plan and execute the full software development lifecycle for each assigned project, adhering to institutional standards and ensuring quality delivery.
• Design and build automation tools to accelerate development, deployment, and management of research software.
• Scale distributed applications and software platforms, leveraging synchronous and asynchronous design patterns for robust, high-quality output.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to gather and prioritize technical requirements and translate them into functional software solutions.
• Maintain awareness of state-of-the-art technologies and trends in scientific computing and automation to suggest improvements.

Required Skills and Qualifications:

• Experience: Five or more years of experience as a software engineer in high-performance computing and collaborative software development.
• Technical Expertise: Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, C++, and Java, along with experience in scripting, test automation, and parallel computing.
• HPC and Data Fabric Expertise: Demonstrated experience in high-performance computing environments, with knowledge of porting and optimizing applications for parallel execution.
• Problem Solving: Proven ability to analyze existing systems, identify flaws, and propose solutions that enhance performance and reliability through automation.
• Documentation: Strong ability to document design processes, including development, testing, analytics, and troubleshooting.
• Education: Bachelor’s degree (preferred) in Computer Science, Electrical and Computer Engineering, or a related field.
• Experience with cloud computing and integration with on-premises systems.

• Knowledge of scientific research workflows, particularly in computational science and digital health innovation.
• Experience collaborating with interdisciplinary teams across various scientific and engineering domains.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas-an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.