Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon conducts cutting-edge international research for a changing world: Around 1,000 employees contribute to the tackling of climate change, the sustainable use of the world's coastal systems and the resource-compatible enhancement of the quality of life. From fundamental research to practical applications, the interdisciplinary research spectrum covers a unique range.

Institute of Materials Physics

The Institute of Materials Physics operates instruments on large-scale equipment for structural investigations of materials and works on the development and characterization of novel lightweight materials for high-temperature applications, for example in aircraft turbines and automotive engines. Hereon has a unique infrastructure for complementary materials research with photons and neutrons.

Scientist (Postdoc) as research software engineer

JobID: 935 – 2025/WP 2
Location: Hamburg
Application deadline: January 18th, 2026

Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon operates an outstation at DESY in Hamburg to provide access to highly brilliant synchrotron radiation within its German Engineering Materials Science Centre (GEMS). At the PETRA III synchrotron radiation source, Hereon jointly operates the High Energy Materials Science Beamline (P07/HEMS), the White Beam Engineering Materials Science Beamline (P61A/WINE), the lmaging Beamline (P05/IBL), and the Nanofocus Endstation of Micro‑ and Nanofocus X-ray Scattering Beamline (P03/MINAXS), along with supporting laboratories (https://gems.hereon.de).

The techniques offered at our diffraction beamline P61A have a strong focus on engineering materials science. The unique flux at high photon energies promotes novel applications of scanning diffraction techniques, fast in-situ measurements as well as high spatial resolution. In addition, high-speed radiography techniques are also available. The high flux enables scans with tens of thousands of points within a short time, yielding large amounts of data that need to be visualized and analysed instantaneously during a beam time. Additionally, the varied possibilities at the beamline generate datasets with varied structures, requiring different analysis approaches.

We are looking for a person who is motivated to develop efficient analysis solutions for the P61A data in Python. You can build on the existing analysis solution (P61A Viewer) and improve and extend it wherever required. You will work with the P61A team and our user community to identify the scientific analysis requirements and develop the necessary algorithms. You will also develop and document a graphical user interface which handles large processing tasks efficiently and uses multiprocessing and GPU acceleration where necessary. At the same time, the software must be lean enough to run not only on powerful computing clusters but also on the user's laptop during a beamtime.

The position is full-time (39 hours/week) and initially limited to two years.

Equal opportunity is an important part of our personnel policy. We would therefore strongly encourage qualified women to apply for the position.

• develop a software for the analysis of energy-dispersive diffraction data from the white-beam beamline P61A which is capable of handling large amounts of data efficiently
• include an efficient graphical user interface for fast sorting and viewing of large data sets
• include peak identification and fitting capabilities
• implement metadata handling in data acquisition and leverage the metadata to automate the analysis of complex multi-dimensional data sets
• discuss and document requirements for the software together with our staff and external users of the beamline
• work together with our staff to find out which resources can be shared for the project
• documentation of the software

Required qualifications:

• university degree in physics, materials science or a related discipline
• excellent programming skills in Python, including experience with object-oriented programming and testing
• experience with development of scientific analysis software
• excellent communication skills
• excellent oral and written English skills

Qualifications considered as an asset:

• experience with larger software projects
• experience with the development of graphical user interfaces
• experiences with documentation and the development of tutorials
• experience with diffraction experiments at synchrotrons or other sources
• good German language skills

For questions, contact Dr. Peter Staron (peter.staron@hereon.de).

• an exciting and varied job in a research centre with around 1,000 employees from more than 60 nations
• a well-connected research campus (public transport) and best networking opportunities, subsidy for the Deutschlandticket if certain conditions are met (job ticket)
• individual opportunities for further training
• social benefits according to the collective agreement of the public service and remuneration up to pay group 13 according to TV EntgO Bund
• an excellent technical infrastructure and modern workplace equipment
• 6 weeks holiday per year; company holidays between Christmas and New Year's Day
• very good compatibility of private and professional life; offers of mobile and flexible work
• family-friendly company policy with childcare facilities, e.g. nursery close to the company
• free assistance program for employees (EAP)
• corporate benefit
• a varied offer in the canteen on campus

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