EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, is one of the most dynamic university campuses in Europe and ranks among the top 20 universities worldwide. The EPFL employs more than 6,500 people supporting the three main missions of the institutions: education, research and innovation. The EPFL campus offers an exceptional working environment at the heart of a community of more than 18,500 people, including over 14,000 students and 4,000 researchers from more than 120 different countries.

Research challenge

The Research Challenge: AI training costs are exploding, largely due to energy and bandwidth inefficiencies in current electrical datacenters.

Our group is developing a novelOptical Circuit Switched (OCS) architecture that drastically reduces power and latency.

We are looking for a Postdoctoral Researcher/Research Engineer with a background in Embedded Systems and Low-Level Programming to design the control logic that powers this new hybrid network.

Your code will directly enable the next generation of energy-efficient AI clusters.

Project scope

• You will bridge the gap between custom optical hardware and standard AI software stacks.
  
  
• Unlike typical high-level networking roles, this project requires "bare-metal" intervention, programming the firmware and drivers that decidehow and when data moves.
  
  

Role & Profile

You will lead the implementation of the system’s data plane, applying embedded design principles to high-performance networking:

• SmartNIC & FPGA Programming: Implement real-time flow steering logic on devices like NVIDIA BlueField, AMD Pensando or similar.
• Driver Development: Develop and optimize Linux kernel modules and userspace drivers (DPDK) to manage flows.
• Hardware/Software Co-Design: Collaborate with optical physicists to translate physical layer constraints into efficient C/C++ control firmware.
• Evaluation: Benchmark the system against standard IP fabrics and publish results in top-tier conferences (SIGCOMM, NSDI, OSDI).

We are looking for a candidate who is comfortable "looking under the hood" of the operating system. You do not need prior experience with optics.

• PhD/Masters in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, or related field.
• Strong proficiency in C/C++ and Linux Systems Programming.
• Experience with Embedded Linux and Kernel drivers.

Bonus Skills (Nice to have):

• Familiarity with Network Interface Cards (NICs) or packet processing (eBPF, XDP).
• Experience bringing up custom hardware boards.

We offer

• A stimulating and international working environment
• Competitive salary and excellent working conditions - more information can be found on our website (https://www.epfl.ch/campus/services/human-resources/en/basic-starting-salary-of-doctoral-assistants-and-postdocs/'))
• Opportunity to perform state-of-the-art research in one of the most dynamic scientific institutions in Europe.
• Opportunity to interact with internationally renowned experts, and with a strong team of postdoctoral researchers and PhD candidates

Informations

Only applications submitted through the online platform are considered. You are asked to supply:

Your CV, a brief statement of interests, and a link to your code portfolio (GitHub/GitLab)

For any further information, please contact: mustafa.yildirim@ epfl.ch



Contract Start Date : 1st March 2026
Activity Rate: 100%
Contract Type: CDD
Duration: 9 months, extendable