Chief Technology Officer (CTO) – DTU Computerome

DTU Afdelingen for IT service; Kongens Lyngby; On-site; DKK 1,200,000 - 1,800,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Leadership role

International research environment

Professional development

Competitive pension

Job summary

DTU Computerome seeks a CTO to lead the technology strategy and platform architecture for Denmark’s national, digitally sovereign HPC and cloud platform. You will head the engineering and DevOps organisation, shaping multi-year roadmaps and partnerships with public authorities and industry.

You will work closely with senior leadership to secure stable, secure, scalable services for researchers and public institutions nationwide. English fluency is required; Danish is an advantage.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in computer science, engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience.
• At least 10 years of experience with large-scale IT infrastructure, including leadership roles.
• Proven experience leading engineering, DevOps or operations teams with people management.
• Deep knowledge of Linux-based infrastructure, virtualization and cloud platforms (OpenStack, Kubernetes).
• Solid understanding of storage, networking and IT security architecture.
• Experience with automation, Infrastructure-as-Code and modern DevOps practices.
• Experience with technical procurement, vendor management and budget responsibility.
• Ability to translate technology into strategy and communicate with management, users and partners.
• Fluency in English; Danish is an advantage.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the technology strategy and multi-year roadmap for HPC, storage, network and cloud platform.
• Lead, develop and recruit DevOps and platform engineering teams.
• Own the overall platform architecture across compute, storage, networking and cloud.
• Ensure stable, secure and scalable operation including incident management and SLAs.
• Drive automation and Infrastructure-as-Code across the organisation.
• Lead technical evaluation, requirements, procurement and tenders.
• Plan capacity, lifecycle and budgets for investments.
• Represent Computerome technically to users, partners and authorities.

Skills

Leadership

Linux infra

OpenStack

Kubernetes

Automation

DevOps

Strategic thinking

English fluency

Education

Master's degree in computer science or engineering

Tools

OpenStack

Kubernetes

Virtualization

Cloud platforms

Job description

Would you like to set the technical direction for Denmark's national, digitally sovereign supercomputing and cloud platform? DTU Computerome is looking for a Chief Technology Officer to lead the architecture, engineering and long-term technology strategy of a platform used by researchers, public institutions and industry across Denmark.

About DTU Computerome

DTU Computerome is a national High-Performance Computing (HPC) and secure cloud platform designed to support sensitive data processing and the hosting of advanced applications and services.

The platform is developed and operated as a fully digitally sovereign infrastructure. Critical research workloads, sensitive data, and digital services for the public sector and Danish industry are hosted within a trusted, nationally controlled environment.

Computerome functions as a general infrastructure and service provider, offering:

• High-performance computing resources for complex workloads
• Secure environments for processing sensitive and regulated data
• Infrastructure for hosting research platforms, digital services and scientific applications
• Flexible environments for innovation, experimentation and development of new digital solutions

Users include research groups from all Danish universities, international research collaborations, public authorities and industry partners. Many rely on Computerome as a stable platform for long-running services, data platforms and research applications.

The infrastructure includes a large-scale Linux-based HPC cluster, a 50 PB high-performance storage system, a custom-built secure cloud environment, and platforms for containerized applications, research services and data workflows. Computerome is physically located at DTU Risø, while the operations and development team is based at DTU Lyngby.

The Job

As CTO, you will own Computerome's technology strategy and platform architecture, and lead the engineering and DevOps organisation that operates and develops it. You will be part of Computerome's management team and work closely with the Director and COO on strategy, investments and partnerships.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Defining and owning the technology strategy and multi-year roadmap for the HPC, storage, network and cloud platform
• Leading, developing and recruiting the DevOps and platform engineering teams, including the five new DevOps engineers currently being hired
• Owning the overall platform architecture and making key design decisions across compute, storage, networking and cloud
• Ensuring stable, secure and scalable operation, including incident management, on-call structure and service levels
• Driving automation, Infrastructure-as-Code and modern DevOps practices across the organisation
• Leading technical evaluation, requirement specification and vendor selection in procurements and tenders
• Planning capacity, lifecycle and hardware refresh, and owning the technical side of investment cases and budgets
• Representing Computerome technically towards users, partners, authorities and national and European infrastructure initiatives

Strategic Focus Areas

Computerome is growing from a research HPC facility into a broader national provider of sovereign compute, data and cloud services. As CTO you will shape how the platform meets that ambition. Key areas include:

• Digital sovereignty: Designing an architecture built on open, European-controllable technologies that reduces dependence on non-European hyperscalers, and ensuring data portability and national control over critical workloads
• AI and GPU infrastructure: Expanding capacity and services for AI, large-scale analytics and GPU-intensive research
• Secure and regulated environments: Strengthening platforms for sensitive personal and health data, in line with GDPR, NIS2, ISO and relevant security standards
• Cloud and platform services: Evolving the secure cloud, container and Kubernetes offerings so that public institutions and industry can host long-running services and products
• Scalability and new capacity: Contributing technically to new datacenter capacity, energy efficiency and long-term infrastructure planning
• Operational excellence: Building monitoring, observability, service management and processes that match the expectations of critical national infrastructure

Your Profile

We are looking for an experienced technology leader who combines deep infrastructure expertise with strategic overview and the ability to build strong teams.

Required qualifications

• A master's degree in computer science, engineering or a related field, or equivalent experience
• At least 10 years of experience with large-scale IT infrastructure, of which several years in a technical leadership role
• Proven experience leading engineering, DevOps or operations teams, including people management and recruitment
• Deep knowledge of Linux-based infrastructure, virtualization and cloud platforms (e.g. OpenStack, Kubernetes)
• Solid understanding of storage, networking and IT security architecture
• Experience with automation, Infrastructure-as-Code and modern DevOps practices
• Experience with technical procurement, vendor management and budget responsibility
• Ability to translate technology into strategy and communicate clearly with management, users and partners
• Fluency in English; Danish is an advantage

It is an advantage if you also have experience with

• HPC environments, job scheduling and parallel file systems (e.g. IBM Storage Scale)
• AI workloads and GPU infrastructure at scale
• Sensitive data environments and compliance (GDPR, NIS2, ISO 27001)
• Public sector procurement, EU tenders or research infrastructure
• European cloud and sovereignty initiatives
• Datacenter design, power and cooling

What We Offer

We offer a key leadership role with real influence on how a national, digitally sovereign computing platform evolves. You will lead skilled colleagues in an international research environment where advanced infrastructure directly enables scientific discovery and digital innovation.

At DTU we emphasize:

• A high level of technical professionalism
• Opportunities for continuous learning and professional development
• The possibility to shape national digital infrastructure
• A collaborative environment with highly skilled colleagues

Salary and Appointment Terms

The appointment will be based on the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC). You are employed as an Academic Officer, Senior Officer, Senior Executive Officer. In addition, supplements can be negotiated in accordance with DTU’s salary structure for academic staff employed in technical-administrative positions at DTU (AC TAP): https://www.inside.dtu.dk/en/human-resources/during-employment/salary/salary-structures

The position is full-time and based at DTU Lyngby with regular presence at DTU Risø.

DTU - For the benefit of society since 1829

DTU is one of Europe's leading elite technical universities. Through research and education at an international top level, we create solutions to the major societal challenges of our time and help secure Europe's global leadership in sustainable technological development. Since Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU almost 200 years ago, our mission has remained the same: We develop and create value through the natural and technical sciences for the benefit of society. DTU has 13,800 students, 1,600 PhD students, and 6,500 employees. We work in an international environment and have an inclusive, stimulating, and informal work culture. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland and collaborates with the best universities around the world.