Software Application Engineer

Oak Ridge National Laboratory•Oak Ridge, TN

1d•Onsite

About The Position

The Multiphysics Modeling and Flows (MMF) Group in the Computational Sciences and Engineering Division is seeking a software application engineer with expertise in computational mesh generation to generate validated computational results that are used for large-scale, physics-based simulations for a variety of applications. MMF is a computational multiphysics modeling group at the forefront of deploying novel computational engineering techniques for problems that are critical to U.S. national and energy security. We utilize our expertise in numerical discretization techniques, high performance computing, mesh generation, and geometry representation for a wide variety of physics applications. Our intention is to integrate computational modeling with experimental methods and provide innovative solutions for technology growth. We aspire to help generate technical artifacts (patents) as well as scientific artifacts (journal articles). Almost all of our simulation codes require a mesh to discretize the spatial domain of interest. For some applications, generating this mesh has historically been a labor-intensive process because it is shown to be a leading driver of computational accuracy. As a result, for certain use cases of interest to ORNL, we are in need of an applications engineer capable of generating meshes and accurate solutions to complex problems. As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an extraordinary 80-year history of solving the nation’s biggest problems. With a dedicated and creative staff of over 6,000 people, ORNL’s decadal vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) is to cultivate an environment and practices that foster diversity in ideas and in the people across the organization, as well as to ensure ORNL is recognized as a workplace of choice. These elements are critical for enabling the execution of ORNL’s broader mission to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into energy, environment, and security solutions for the nation. In this role, you will be responsible for working with subject matter experts to understand and refine new CFD application and/or CFD discretization techniques and then lead the implementation of these techniques into large-scale, automatic computational work-flows with particular attention paid to computational accuracy. It is expected that there will be an initial focus on unstructured CFD discretization and conformal mesh generation techniques for applications requiring boundary-layer (i.e., large aspect ratio) meshing capabilities. Additional application methods of interest include adaptive meshing for design/shape optimization as well as solution optimization. In addition to software development/application, you will also engage with the broader community of industry, national labs, and academic partners to understand and advance the state-of-the-art in CFD applications and work-flows.

Requirements

MS in mathematics, computer science, engineering or a related field or a PhD in mathematics, computer science, engineering with relevant experience.

Nice To Haves

Experience with mesh generation/CFD applications for unstructured meshes and/or finite element methods
Experience with CFD discretization techniques for unstructured meshes and/or finite elements with an emphasis on highly scalable algorithms for exascale HPC environments
Experience with parallel computing environments, HPC in a Linux environment
Experience with surrogate modeling
Experience with data analytics techniques
Familiarity with C++ and GPU programming
Familiarity with Python programming
Experience with modern software development practices to ensure code quality
Experience with computational geometry
Excellent written and oral communication skills
Ability to work with a measure of autonomy and a willingness to participate creatively in a collaborative team environment

Responsibilities

Generate validated computational results used for large-scale, physics-based simulations.
Implement new CFD application and/or CFD discretization techniques into large-scale, automatic computational work-flows with attention to computational accuracy.
Focus initially on unstructured CFD discretization and conformal mesh generation techniques for applications requiring boundary-layer meshing capabilities.
Explore adaptive meshing for design/shape optimization and solution optimization.
Engage with industry, national labs, and academic partners to advance the state-of-the-art in CFD applications and work-flows.