Contract Research Scientist – Computer Systems & AI Infrastructure
A leading Systems Infrastructure Research (SIR) Lab in Edinburgh is looking for several Contract Research Scientists to work at the intersection of advanced research and practical engineering, helping shape the future of data centre infrastructure.
This is an excellent opportunity for recent PhD graduates, or exceptional BSc/MSc graduates, to gain industrial research experience while working on cutting-edge challenges across Operating Systems, Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing, and Machine Learning Systems.
You’ll work with a multidisciplinary team to rapidly prototype research ideas, optimise large-scale systems across heterogeneous hardware such as CPUs and NPUs, and turn research findings into real-world solutions.
Ideal candidates will have:
- Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science or a related technical field
- Strong understanding of Operating Systems, Distributed Systems, Cloud Computing, and/or Machine Learning Systems
- Strong research methodology and analytical skills
- Excellent programming skills in C/C++ or another systems programming language
- Experience with systems performance profiling and optimisation
- Ability to rapidly develop and test research prototypes
- Interest in heterogeneous computing and CPU/NPU-based infrastructure
- Strong technical writing and documentation skills
- Excellent communication and teamwork skills
Preferred Qualifications:
- PhD in Operating Systems, Distributed Systems, Machine Learning Systems, or a related field
- Research publications in top-tier conferences such as OSDI, NSDI, EuroSys, SoCC, NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR
- Experience developing, deploying, and maintaining large-scale cloud production systems
- Experience with scalability, reliability, performance optimisation, and distributed infrastructure
- Strong background in systems research and translating research into working prototypes
- Experience working with heterogeneous computing or AI infrastructure
Key Words:
- Research Scientist
- Research Engineer
- Systems Researcher
- Computer Systems
- Systems Infrastructure
- Operating Systems
- OS
- Distributed Systems
- Cloud Computing
- Machine Learning Systems
- AI Infrastructure
- Data Centre Infrastructure
- C
- C++
- Systems Programming
- Performance Optimisation
- Profiling
- Heterogeneous Computing
- CPU
- NPU
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Distributed Computing
- Scalability
- Reliability
- Systems Research
- Rapid Prototyping
- OSDI
- NSDI
- EuroSys
- SoCC
- NeurIPS
- ICML
- ICLR
- PhD
- Edinburgh