Job offers
Careers / Computing Area
Control Systems and Data Acquisition Specialist for Elettra and FERMI Beamlines
Deadline: 26 April 2026Ref: IA/26/16
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste is an international multidisciplinary research centre offering international users access to synchrotron and free-electron laser radiation for the characterization and processing of matter. The extremely high quality of the light sources and beamlines has set new performance records and has been producing results of great scientific and technological interest. In order to allow the laboratory to remain competitive in the next 20 years, an entirely new synchrotron radiation source - Elettra 2.0 - belonging to the new generation of storage rings (DLSR or Diffraction Limited Storage Ring) is being installed and will join the already operating free-electron source FERMI in the second half of 2026. The new source will exhibit a major increase in the brilliance and coherence fraction of the photon beams. The Elettra 2.0 optics is based on our enhanced symmetric six bend achromat structure (S6BA-E) with a 12-fold symmetry and an emittance of 200 pm-rad at 2.4 GeV. The new structure creates also straight sections in the arcs permitting the installation of additional insertion devices, thus increasing the number of beamlines. Existing beamlines are being upgraded and new beamlines constructed to take full advantage of the characteristics of Elettra 2.0. See http://www.elettra.eu for more information.
The control systems of Elettra and FERMI consist of several computers distributed along the facilities that interface with the different instruments to be controlled. State-of-the-art hardware and software technologies are adopted; the TANGO control system software (http://www.tango-controls.org) is used to develop distributed control applications.
The successful candidate will work on the development of control and data acquisition systems for the Elettra and FERMI beamlines. In particular, he/she will work in collaboration with beamline scientists and external users in order to understand their needs and to establish data acquisition processes and software requirements, to integrate scientific instrumentation in the existing control systems and to manage the data reduction/analysis process.
A Master's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering or related fields is required together with the following technical skills:
- minimum 3 years of experience in computing technologies;
- in-depth knowledge of Python, C/C++, GNU/Linux, networking concepts and distributed computer systems;
- familiarity with PLC programming, electronic laboratory instrumentation and detectors;
- experience in the development of software using the TANGO framework.
Possession of a higher academic degree (such as a PhD) and proven knowledge of the mathematical principles underlying the processing of data produced by high-throughput techniques, including tomographic reconstruction and phase-contrast retrieval, will be considered preferential qualifications.
Good time management skills and ability to prioritize are expected, together with the ability to interact with staff and facility users at all levels and to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
Good oral and written communication skills in English are essential.
