Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer & Team Lead

University of Birmingham; Birmingham; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

University of Birmingham is seeking an enthusiastic leader to head the Systems Team within the AIS group of Advanced Research Computing. You will supervise Research Infrastructure Engineers and own the design, configuration, security, uptime and availability of large-scale computing services including Baskerville NCR.

You will apply a DevOps mindset, leveraging automation, observability, and configuration management tools, while coordinating with researchers, security teams and external vendors

Qualifications

• Proven experience in Linux system administration and operations.
• Hands-on with Git, Terraform, Ansible or Salt, plus observability stacks.
• Strong Bash/Python scripting and effective stakeholder communication.
• Experience leading a small engineering or operations team.

Responsibilities

• Lead a small team of Research Infrastructure Engineers.
• Design, configure, secure, and maintain Baskerville NCR services.
• Adopt a DevOps approach with automation and observability tools.
• Collaborate with researchers, security teams, and external vendors.

Skills

Linux system administration

Bash

Python

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Communication skills

Tools

Git

Terraform

Ansible

Salt

Grafana

Job description

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 theBaskerville 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.

What you will do

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 DevOps-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.

Your skills and experience

• 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.