Full time: 35 hours per week (part-time work may also be considered)

Fixed term: 12 months

Opportunity:

The College of Informatics is looking for a Senior Researcher to be hired to work within the Impact Processor Oriented Programming (EHOP) project. Emphasis will be placed on the ongoing design, implementation, and evaluation of the WasmFX extension to WebAssembly. There will also be opportunities to participate in other aspects of the EHOP project.

WebAssembly (abbreviated as Wasm) is a portable, low-level bytecode, supported by all major web browsers. WasmFX is an extension of Wasm with effect processors developed as part of the EHOP project. It provides a unified goal to enable programming language implementers to directly support a range of first-class control features such as async/wait, lightweight threads, and generators.

WasmFX has full official specifications. It is in the process of being standardized by the WebAssembly Community Group (the de facto standardization committee for WebAssembly). There are implementations in the official reference compiler as well as the Wizard and Wasmtime runtimes. Development is also underway for implementation in the Chrome web browser.

The job holder will be primarily responsible for systematically evaluating the effectiveness of WasmFX using Wasm engines with WasmFX support (including Wizard and Wasmtime) as well as developing and evaluating backends for research and industrial strength programming languages ​​(including C, Kotlin, Links and OCaml), through the design and implementation of appropriate standards. They will work closely with the developers of these engines and languages, and this research will inform the future design of Wasm engines and WasmFX backends as well as the official Wasm standard.

Your skills and qualities for success:

• PhD in Computer Science or related field
• Strong background in programming language theory including formal type systems and their semantics.
• Extensive experience in implementing programming languages ​​and their practical design considerations.
• Experience in the practice of software measurement and improvement, and in implementing and delivering applied software systems, for example in an industrial or research context.
• Significant experience in building production software systems, including in industrial contexts.

Apply before: 10/23/2025, 23:59