Deadline for applications: 29/11/2026

Application process open*

The Cyprus Institute (CyI) is a European non-profit, Science- and Technology-oriented Educational and Research Institution, based in Cyprus and governed by an acclaimed Board of Directors. The research agenda of the CyI is pursued at its five Research Centres, namely:

• The Computation-based Science and Technology Research Centre (CaSToRC)
• The Science and Technology in Archaeology and Culture Research Centre (STARC)
• The Energy Environment Water Research Centre (EEWRC)
• The Climate and Atmosphere Research Centre (CARE-C)
• The Science and Technology Driven Policy and Innovation Research Centre (STeDI-RC)

Considerable cross-centre interaction is a characteristic of the Institute’s scientific ethos.

Driven by a mission to advance the common good, CyI is establishing a comprehensive national AI capacity, positioning itself as a key driver of digital transformation through DiGiNN, a one-stop shop co-funded by the European Commission and the Deputy Ministry of Research, Innovation, and Digital Policy to support the AI-based digital transformation of Cypriot SMEs and the public sector, and its High-Performance Computing Facility (HPCF) that was appointed as the national AI Infrastructure.

The Cyprus Institute invites applications for highly motivated professionals to apply for 2 positions of Research Technical Scientist-Computer/Software Engineer (Junior, Mid-level or Senior positions according to the candidate's qualifications and experience) on a full-time basis (100% FTE) for its premises at the Nicosia Campus.

These roles will support the joint operation of the HPCF and DiGiNN, engage in a diverse matrix of activities across a unified value chain, manage access to the latest hardware, including NVIDIA B200 and RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell nodes. The candidates will get involved in diverse areas ranging from supporting "standard" users adopting state-of-the-art open-weights models to assisting high-level research units in complex, research-driven engineering. They will also act as the technical engine for DiGiNN’s "Test Before Invest" services, directly impacting the digital maturity of Cyprus. Moreover, they will orchestrate and deliver technical training, contributing to the national upskilling mandate.

The European Digital Innovation Hub in Cyprus, DiGiNN, is a strategic consortium acting as a national "one-stop-shop" to accelerate the digital transformation of Cypriot SMEs and the public sector. Co-funded by the EU and the Cypriot government, it provides a set of free services ranging from ‘testing before invest’ services (AI, HPC, Cybersecurity) and digital skills training to investment support and ecosystem networking.

The CyI High-Performance Computing Facility (HPCF) provides advanced computing ICT services and supports the activities of CyI and its Research Centres. The HPCF is the national supercomputing facility for Cyprus and provides compute and data resources to the research and innovation community of Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean region.

The following positions are open:

• Research Engineer – 1 position
• Systems Engineer – 1 position

Position Specific Responsibilities/activities:

(a) Research Engineer (AI/ML) - Junior, Mid-level, Senior depending on experience, level of responsibility and autonomy

Engineering and delivery

• Turn AI prototypes (TRL 5–6) and open-weights models into working, scalable pilot systems on the HPCF's AI infrastructure.
• Prepare and check client data for training, fine-tuning and evaluation.
• Run and optimise fine-tuning and training jobs on NVIDIA B200 and RTX PRO 6000 nodes, using SLURM and Apptainer containers.
• Build LLM and ML applications for client use cases, such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), document processing and computer vision.
• Wrap models as secure inference services (e.g., REST APIs) for client test applications.
• Build and maintain automated pipelines for training, evaluation and deployment.
• Benchmark models and services for accuracy, latency, throughput and cost, and confirm that pilots meet the agreed requirements.
• Write deployment guides, software and container specifications, and handover documentation so clients can take pilots forward.

Research and evaluation

• Track, test and compare new open-weights models, fine-tuning methods and serving tools, and advise the team on what to adopt.
• Support CyI research groups with research-driven engineering on GPU and HPC resources.
• Contribute to EU and national projects, including technical reports, proposals and, where relevant, publications.

Clients and training

• Scope client AI use cases together with DiGiNN partners and say honestly when data or a use case is not ready.
• Onboard DiGiNN clients to the HPCF: support access applications, set up environments and containers, and run first jobs.
• Advise clients on where and how to run their workloads.
• Design and deliver hands-on training (workshops, tutorials, documentation) for SMEs, public-sector users and researchers.
• Handle client data securely and in line with GDPR.

(b) HPC Systems Engineer (Junior, Mid-level- depending on experience, level of responsibility and autonomy)

• Infrastructure Management: Manage installation, configuration, and maintenance of HPC hardware, servers, and storage systems
• System Monitoring: Monitor health infrastructure to ensure high availability and performance; respond to alerts
• Technical Support: Provide technical support to users, troubleshooting hardware, software, and connectivity issues across varying levels of complexity
• OS Administration: Administer Linux operating systems, including provisioning, patching, updates, and security hardening
• Documentation: Maintain comprehensive and accurate documentation of system configurations, inventory, and operational procedures
• Advanced Support: Collaborate with the team on the deployment and management of virtualization, container technologies, and network configurations

The successful candidates will work in an international, multi-disciplinary and pluri-cultural context and in collaboration with major European research institutes.

Note: Depending on the level of experience relevant to the position acquired after completing their degree, the selected candidates will be offered positions that match their specializations and qualifications.

Position Specific Required Qualifications:

Applicants to all positions must hold at least a BA/BSc in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or in a related technical discipline or a BSc in Physical Science, or Engineering combined with work experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Software Development, or related technical experience. In general:

1. Junior Computer/Software Engineer: no additional experience required, however an additional year of relevant work experience will be considered an advantage
2. Mid-level Computer/Software Engineer: additional 2-years relevant work experience
3. Senior Computer/Software Engineer: additional 4 years of relevant work experience

For the purposes of the above, a relevant Master’s degree (MSc/MEng) will be counted as equivalent to one (1) year of relevant work experience, and a relevant PhD as equivalent to four (4) years of relevant work experience.

Additional Specific qualifications required:

For Junior Research Engineer

• Good Python, plus basic shell scripting and Git.
• Understanding of core machine learning concepts, and hands-on experience with at least one ML framework (e.g., PyTorch), from work, coursework, a thesis or projects.
• Comfortable on the Linux command line, with basic familiarity with containers (e.g., Docker).
• Ability to help under supervision, turn research prototypes into deployable solutions.
• Clear technical writing, for documentation and user guides.
• Awareness of GDPR and of handling client data securely.
• Eagerness to learn GPU computing, model deployment and HPC, with training and support from the team.

For Mid-level and Senior Research Engineer

All of the Junior requirements, plus:

• Strong Python and software engineering practice: testing, code review, version control and maintainable code.
• Hands-on experience training or fine-tuning deep learning models on GPUs, including LLMs (e.g., LoRA/QLoRA or full fine-tuning).
• Experience deploying ML or LLM models as services (e.g., FastAPI, vLLM, NVIDIA Triton) and measuring their performance.
• Solid experience with containers and with running workloads on shared Linux systems, such as HPC clusters (SLURM, Apptainer) or Kubernetes.
• A track record of turning research prototypes or proofs of concept into working systems.
• Ability to turn a client's business or R&D need into a scoped, testable use case.

For Senior Research Engineer, in addition:

• Experience leading technical workstreams or client engagements from scoping to delivery.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers.
• Working knowledge of GDPR and of EU AI Act obligations relevant to deploying AI systems.

Soft skills (All Levels):

• Communication: Ability to explain technical concepts (compute needs, model performance, costs) clearly to non-technical clients, management and public-sector stakeholders.
• Client focus: A consultative approach to turning broad business needs into scoped, testable use cases, and to managing expectations honestly when data or a use case is not feasible.
• Teaching and mentoring: Patience and enthusiasm for training and supporting users with very different levels of experience.
• Teamwork: Ability to work effectively across a multi-partner consortium and closely with the HPCF operations team.
• Organisation: Ability to manage several client engagements in parallel and meet project deadlines and reporting requirements.
• Integrity and attention to detail: Careful handling of confidential client data and a habit of clear, complete documentation.
• Languages: Excellent written and spoken English.

For Mid-level Systems Engineer:

• Linux/Unix Administration: Proficiency in Linux OS management (installation, package management, file systems, permissions).
• Hardware Proficiency: Experience with server hardware components, diagnostics, assembly, and troubleshooting.
• Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python) for system task automation.
• Networking: Solid understanding of networking concepts

Position Preferred Qualifications:

For Junior Research Engineer

• Experience with LLM fine-tuning (e.g., LoRA/QLoRA) or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Experience with REST API frameworks (e.g., FastAPI) or basic model-serving tools.
• Internship, thesis or project experience using GPUs or HPC resources.
• Exposure to a public cloud platform (AWS, Azure or GCP) or relevant certifications (e.g., NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute).

For Mid-level and Senior Research Engineer: experience in several of the following:

• Distributed training: multi-GPU and multi-node training (e.g., PyTorch DDP, FSDP, DeepSpeed), GPU profiling and memory optimisation.
• Inference optimisation: quantisation, batching and cost-per-inference analysis for LLM serving.
• LLM applications and evaluation: RAG, agents, evaluation frameworks and benchmark design.
• ML lifecycle tooling: experiment tracking, model registries and data versioning (e.g., MLflow, DVC).
• Automation: CI/CD and continuous training pipelines.
• Kubernetes: Kubernetes-based ML platforms (e.g., Kubeflow), including scheduling, security and scaling of containerised workloads.
• Operations: logging and monitoring for latency, throughput and error rates (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana), and infrastructure as code (e.g., Ansible, Terraform).
• Security: API development with security hardening for production environments.
• Later-stage delivery: engineering support at TRL 7–8, or work in an HPC centre, research infrastructure or technology-transfer setting.
• Research output: publications, open-source contributions or EU-funded project experience.
• Certifications: e.g., NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute, Certified Kubernetes Application Developer, cloud ML specialty.

For Junior Systems Engineer:

• Linux/Unix Administration: Proficiency in Linux OS management (installation, package management, file systems, permissions).
• Hardware Proficiency: Experience with server hardware components, diagnostics, assembly, and troubleshooting.
• Scripting & Automation: Proficiency in scripting languages (e.g., Bash, Python) for system task automation.
• Networking: Solid understanding of networking concepts

For Mid-level Systems Engineer

• HPC/Cluster Environment: Experience working in High-Performance Computing environments or server clusters,
• Monitoring Tools: Familiarity with system monitoring tools (e.g., Nagios, Prometheus, Grafana). DevOps & Tools: Knowledge of version control (Git), configuration management (Ansible) and containerization technologies (Docker, apptainer).

Please click here for the positions’ detailed job description, including general responsibilities, requirements and other details related to the position.

Duration of appointment:

The initial period of the appointment will be for a duration of 24 months with the possibility of renewal, depending on performance and availability of funds.

Remuneration details:

Salary Band: CYI3 (Junior Specialised), CYI4 (Specialised), CYI5 (Senior Specialised)

Position’s Starting Salary: CYI3.1 - €30,361.11, CYI4.1 - €37,688.69, CYI5.2 - €44,516.94

Benefits:

Among other benefits, the Cyprus Institute offers flexible and remote work, additional paid leave for supporting staff work-life balance, provident fund membership and group medical and life insurance membership.

Application

Applications can be submitted through The Cyprus Institute Exelsys Platform (https://bit.ly/3HDLRTw), by following the instructions provided. Applicants should submit:

1. A curriculum vitae, including a short letter of interest/vision statement (where applicable),
2. List of three (3) referees (including contact information)

All documentation should be in English and in PDF format.

For further information, please contact Marianna Taliadorou ([email protected]). Please note that applications which do not fulfil the required qualifications and do not follow the announcement’s guidelines will not be considered.

*Recruitment will continue until the application process is marked as closed.

The Cyprus Institute is an Equal Opportunities Employer, certified from the Cypriot Ministry of Labor, and also an HRS4R accredited Institution adhering to the European Commission’s “Charter & Code”, principles for recruitment and selection.

Contact person: Marianna Taliadorou

Reference number: CYI_RE_26_24