A Developer position in the field of Formal Methods and Model Based Design


Fondazione Bruno Kessler (FBK) is a private research institution devoted to excellence in research in numerous disciplines and designated to the role of keeping the Autonomous Province of Trento in the mainstream of European and international research. Each research area is assigned to a specific research center, of which there are twelve totals. Information regarding the research centers, their activities and production is available at http://www.fbk.eu/research-centers.

Workplace 

The FBK Center for Digital Industry focuses its research on digital technologies for the various domains in industry (e.g., aerospace, railway, automotive, energy, agriculture, manufacturing, etc.) by creating applications for critical systems, adaptive and autonomous systems, advanced perception, diagnostics and prediction systems. It is involved in multiple European research projects and collaborates with numerous institutions and multinational companies on strategic projects with a high innovation content – including the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Italian Railways Network (RFI).

The position is opened by the Formal Methods for System and Software Research Unit (FM Unit) of the Digital Industry Center of FBK. The FM Unit consists of about 35 people, including researchers, post-docs, PhD students, master students, and programmers. The Unit carries out basic and applied research, tool development and technology transfer in the field of formal methods and model-based design for complex embedded systems.

FBK actively seeks diversity and inclusion in the workplace and is also committed to promoting gender equality. To promote the inclusion of disabled staff as per law 68/99, the Foundation is available and interested in evaluating the applications received for technical-scientific domains that do not correspond exactly to this call.

Job Description
The Formal Methods for System and Software Research Unit is looking for a software developer in the field of the design, verification and deployment of systems for the railways domain. The FM Unit supports domain experts with:

  • the development of methodologies and tools to design, model, implement, simulate, test, configure, deploy and maintain software systems that control trains and devices operations from sidetrack and from onboard to operate according to the national and international regulations;
  • the design and development of software systems that run onboard or sidetrack. 
 
The successful candidate is expected to actively contribute to the model-based design research line and to the development of software tools or systems. The candidate will participate in the activities of various industrial projects such as, for example, the ACC project funded by Rete Ferroviaria Italiana.
The successful candidate may contribute to the following tasks: 
  • Software design and implementation of new features in the existing tools;
  • Software design and implementation of software systems that run onboard or sidetrack;
  • Testing of new and existing features within the CI infrastructure;
  • Structure and write documentation.

Job requirements

The ideal candidate shall have:

  • Bachelor degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science or IT Engineering;
  • Good programming skills in languages like Java, Python, C++ or C;
  • Hands-on experience with git and software development and debugging environments;
  • Oral and written proficiency in English;
  • Ability to work both independently and in a team environment;
  • Strong relational and communication skills;
  • Good organizational and problem-solving skills.

Furthermore, the following elements will be positively evaluated:

  • Experience in programming plugins for Eclipse;
  • Experience with GEF and/or JavaFX;
  • Experience with ECore models;
  • Experience with model-based-design environments and languages like Scade, SDL, SysML, Stateflow, etc. 
  • Open-source projects which the candidate has authored or contributed to;
  • Background knowledge and/or previous experience in the following areas:
    • Software engineering 
    • Satisfiability and constraint solving 
    • Model Checking or other formal verification techniques 
    • First-order logic and SMT solvers 
    • Formal analysis of hybrid systems 
    • Runtime verification and diagnosis 
    • Formal safety assessment.

Employment

Type of contract: Fixed-term contract
Working hours: Full time (38 h per week)
Start date: February 2026
Duration: 12 months, with the possibility of extending the contract
Workplace: Povo, Trento
Gross annual salary: about € 29.873,76, plus objectives achievements bonus 
Benefits: flexi-time, company subsidized cafeteria or meal vouchers, internal car park, welcome office support for visa formalities and for research in accommodation, accommodation etc., supplementary pension and health fund, social security (SANIFONDS), family-work balance, free training courses, support on bank account opening, discount on public transport, sport, language course fees, counseling and psychological support service. More info at https://www.fbk.eu/en/work-with-us/

Application
Interested candidates are requested to submit their application by completing the online form (https://jobs.fbk.eu/). Please make sure that your application contains the following attachment (in pdf format):

  • Detailed CV 
  • Cover Letter (explaining your motivation for this specific position).


Application deadline: 07/01/2026

Please read our Recruitment Regulations before completing your application. For further information or technical issues regarding the application, please contact the People Innovation for Research Department  at jobs@fbk.eu.