Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer & Team Lead

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual to lead the Systems Team within our Architecture, Infrastructure and Systems (AIS) group. The AIS group is part of the University of Birmingham'sAdvanced Research Computing, one of the UK's largest research computing teams, with around 50 FTEs. AIS designs and operates its own data centres, network, private cloud, storage, backup, archive and HPC services, including national services such as the Baskerville National Compute Resource (NCR) andCLIMB, a private cloud for microbial bioinformatics.

This position is funded by UKRI to support the Baskerville NCR Supercomputer and has a fixed end date of 31/3/2031.

You will lead a small team of Research Infrastructure Engineers and be responsible for the design, configuration, security, uptime and availability of several large-scale research computing services, most notably the Baskerville NCR supercomputer.

You will take a Dev Ops-based approach to service design, using a range of automation, observability and configuration management tools. You will collaborate with researchers, security teams and external vendors to ensure our services are robust, secure and responsive to the needs of the research community.

• Deep experience in Linux system administration.
• Practical experience with tools such as Git, Terraform, Ansible or Salt, and Grafana or a similar observability stack.
• Hands-on experience with Bash and Python.
• Domain knowledge in one or more of the following areas: HPC, storage or private cloud technologies.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to effectively manage relationships with key stakeholders, including vendors, academics, senior leadership and peers across the sector.
• The ability to lead a team of Research Infrastructure Engineers, providing guidance, support and mentoring to both junior and senior team members.

The closing date for applications is Sunday 27 September.