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Jobs
CS-214 is a hands-on class, and its success hinges on the quality of the support that our students get throughout the semester. We are recruiting 15 to 20 passionate assistants to join the course team.
Perks of the job
- Real responsibilities
- On-the-job training and mentoring
- Fuzzy feelings from helping other EPFL students
- There may be pizza
- đź’°
Junior / Senior assistants
We plan to have two types of SA positions in Fall 2024: junior student assistants with typical SA responsibilities (Ed questions, office hours, and lab support), and senior student assistants with a higher time commitment and additional responsibilities (course development, infrastructure, planning, etc.). All senior assistants will be matched with PhD mentors to aid in the transition to high-responsibility roles.
We encourage students with previous SA experience to apply for senior assistant positions. Don’t be shy!
Application process
Please submit your application by filling this short application form.
Final hiring decisions are expected by June 23rd. Applications received before June 9th will receive preferential consideration. Applicants not known to the course team may be invited to sit a brief interview.
Available positions
Senior SA: Course quality engineer (1–2 SAs, 10–12 hr/wk)
In addition to exercise and lab sessions, you will be in charge of monitoring and improving quality in all aspects of the course, focusing on labs, exercises, and lectures.
Your typical week
- 5h labs and exercise sessions
- 1h labs and exercise session report
- 2h exercise reviews
- 2h lab reviews
- 1h lecture review
- 1h staff meeting
Your responsibilities
- Attend exercise and lab sessions, gather SA and TA feedback, and summarize it in a weekly report covering common mistakes and misunderstandings, student feedback, and course issues.
- Produce detailed reviews of all labs, exercises, and lecture slides before they are released.
- Summarize student feedback from Moodle polls.
- Work with professors and TAs to implement improvements.
Your profile
You are details-oriented and uncompromising, proud of your work, and you never settle for “good enough”.
Senior SA: Grading infrastructure engineer (1 SA, 10–12 hr/wk)
In addition to lab and exercise sessions, you are in charge of maintaining and improving the course’s grading infrastructure.
Your typical week
- 6h labs and exercise sessions
- 4h CI and infrastructure development
- 1h lab and exam VM preparation
- 1h infrastructure monitoring
Your responsibilities
- Attend exercise and lab sessions
- Develop and improve the course’s CI and autograding infrastructure
- Prepare autograding VM images for the labs, exam dry runs, and the final exam
- Assist SAs and TAs in integrating their labs into the autograding infrastructure
- Address student issues with auto-grading
Your profile
You are looking for experience in DevOps. You know your way around command line tools, shell scripts, Unix systems, version control, and CI scripting.
Senior SA: Course development engineer (2 SAs, 10–12 hr/wk)
In addition to lab and exercise sessions, you are in charge of creating new content for the course.
Your typical week
- 6h labs and exercise sessions
- 6h labs or exercises development
Your responsibilities
- Attend exercise and lab sessions (flexible schedule depending on development workload)
- Propose two to three new exercises each week
- Develop one new lab during the semester
Your profile
You are passionate about writing and pedagogy. You have an excellent command of English, and you are an expert in Scala and functional programming. You have experience with collaboration platforms (merge requests, code reviews) and teamwork.
Senior SA: Assistant production manager (1 SA, 10–12 hr/wk)
In addition to lab and exercise sessions, you are in charge of preparing weekly duty rosters, keeping track of course deadlines, and generally identifying staffing issues before they become a problem.
Your typical week
- 6h labs and exercise sessions
- 2h Moodle updates
- 2h duty roster
- 1h deadline tracking
- 1h staff meeting
Your responsibilities
- Attend exercise and lab sessions (especially last-minute substitutions).
- Prepare the course weekly duty roster (rota) and ensure that SAs are available.
- Prepare the course team calendar, keeping track of all deadlines and deliverables.
- Gather materials from the staff and upload them to Moodle; post weekly polls; create assignments.
- Remind everyone of deadlines and coordinate with professors and head TAs to make sure that everything is on track.
Your profile
You are organized, punctual, and detail-oriented. You care for processes, organization, and things running smoothly.
Senior SA: Media manager (1 SA, 8–10 hr/wk)
In addition to lab and exercise sessions, you are in charge of recording, editing, and uploading lectures.
Your typical week
- 6h: labs and exercise sessions
- 4h: lecture recording, editing, and uploading + online questions
Your responsibilities
- Attend exercise and lab sessions.
- Answer student questions online.
- Set up video equipment for recording.
- Set up the course’s Zoom feed and monitor issues and questions online.
- Edit and upload recordings to mediaspace.
Your profile
You are interested in developing your AV skills. You care about the students’ online learning experience, and you are available to attend course lectures.
Junior SA: Lab assistant (5 SAs, 8 hr/wk)
You are the course’s front line. You help students during in-person lab and exercise sessions and in online forums by giving them guidance and hints about labs and exercises and answering questions about lectures.
Your typical week
- Course review, exercise and lab prep: 1h
- Exercise and lab sessions: 6h
- Ed questions: 1h
Your responsibilities
- In-person: Attend weekly exercise and lab sessions
- Online: Help students on Ed, escalating to senior SAs and TAs as needed
- Online: Organize additional online help sessions before significant course deadlines
- For MS students: Participate in midterm dry-runs and exam grading
- Participate two SA training sessions in the semester (2h each)
- As needed, volunteer to participate in senior SA activities (if interested in moving to a senior SA job in future years)
Your profile
You are passionate about teaching, pedagogy, and helping students succeed. You are ready to contribute to the course’s quality in the long run and potentially interested in becoming a senior SA in future years. You speak excellent French.