Senior HPC System Administrator

Irish Centre for High-End Computing; Galway; Hybrid; EUR 67,000 - 88,000; Full time

Job summary

The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) at the University of Galway is seeking a Senior HPC System Administrator to lead the design, setup and day-to-day administration of compute, storage and network infrastructure for the EuroHPC mid-range system.

You will work with the ICHEC Infrastructure Team and Europe’s largest HPC/AI installations to design new services, improve quality of service and mentor junior colleagues.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate degree in Computer Science, IT Systems or related field.
• Or 10+ years of experience in system administration, software platform or infrastructure engineering.
• Strong Linux server administration and shell scripting skills.
• Experience with virtualization, containers, orchestration (VMs, Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of cloud provisioning, automation tools, and security.
• Familiarity with GDPR-compliant data environments.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship within the ICHEC Infrastructure Team.
• Design, install and configure compute, storage, and networking services.
• Collaborate with EuroHPC teams to enable cross-site access and federation.
• Proactively monitor, diagnose and resolve faults, performance, or security risks.
• Develop tooling and workflows to improve automation and reliability.
• Prepare administration guides and document changes and incidents.
• Participate in multi-level user support and system audits.

Education

Postgraduate degree in Computer Science, IT Systems or related field

Tools

Ansible

SaltStack

Terraform

OpenTOFU

Slurm

MPI

Docker

Kubernetes

Prometheus

Grafana

ELK

Python

Bash

GIT/CI-CD

Job description

Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a full-time, fixed-term position as a Senior HPC System Administrator with the Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) at the University of Galway, Ireland.

The position is available immediately to contract end date 31-Dec-2028, with flexibility to work from our Dublin or Galway offices.

Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC)

ICHEC is Ireland’s national centre for High-Performance Computing (HPC) providing digital infrastructure capabilities and expertise through R&D engagements and skills development programmes to academia, industry and public sector organisations.

With a highly ambitious leading-edge Strategy for Advanced Computing (HPC, Data, AI, Quantum) in Ireland and Europe, ICHEC provides infrastructure services and expertise in HPC and data platforms to for computational sciences, AI, high performance data analytics, Earth Observation, quantum computing and cybersecurity across several sectors including environmental informatics, life sciences, deeptech/material sciences, urban sciences, and other disciplines.

ICHEC works in close partnership with national and international researchers, enterprises and public authorities for joint R&D, skills development, and provisioning HPC and data services to accelerate their digital transformation and green transition.

Salary: Research Fellow salary scale €67,214-€87,743 per annum (subject to the project’s funding limitations), and pro rata for shorter and/or part-time contracts.

The default position for all new public sector appointments is the 1st point of the salary scale.

This may be reviewed, and consideration afforded to appointment at a higher point on the payscale (subject to the project’s funding limitations), where evidence of prior years’ equivalent experience is accepted in determining placement on the scale above point 1, subject to the maximum of the scale. ( Research Salary Scales - University of Galway)

Closing date for receipt of applications is 17:00 (Irish Time) on September 14, 2026. It will not be possible to consider applications received after the closing date.

Interviews are planned to be held during the w/c Sept 28, 2026.

*Please review full job description for further details and essential requirements.

JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Description:

The Senior HPC System Administrator will join a team responsible for the design, setup and day-to- day administration of the compute, storage and network infrastructure supporting the Irish EuroHPC mid range supercomputer: https://www.ichec.ie/caspir-hosting-agreement

You will be working in the ICHEC Infrastructure Team alongside experienced HPC system administrators and as part of the EuroHPC ecosystem will collaborate with some of Europe’s largest installations of HPC and AI infrastructure. As a senior member of the team you will be involved with the design and development of new services and measures to improve quality of service and to mentor and assist junior colleagues.

Duties:

The role supports the delivery of secure, accessible and efficient HPC and data infrastructure resources for users across enterprise, public sector and academic research communities.

Key responsibilities include the following:

• As a senior member of the ICHEC Infrastructure Team, provide technical leadership, guidance and mentorship on management of HPC, Data, AI infrastructures, and work closely with the ICHEC Software Platforms Engineering Team to develop and implement compute and data services.
• Design, install, and configure compute, storage, and networking services using both on- premises and public cloud infrastructure.
• Collaborate with other EuroHPC teams to enable cross-site access and resource federation.
• Proactively monitor, diagnose and help resolve any faults, performance issues or security risks across the infrastructure.
• Design and implement tooling and workflows to continuously improve automation, observability and reliability of the infrastructure platforms.
• Prepare and maintain user and system administration guides, installation procedures, and document technical changes and incidents.
• Participate in multi-level user support activities to assist staff and researchers in effectively utilising the infrastructure.
• Participate in system audits, performance tuning, and incident response.
• Any other duties assigned commensurate to this level of post

This position is for an experienced highly motivated problem-solver, with a creative and analytical mind, who enjoys working in a collaborative team environment focused on providing a high-quality service to users.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

1.A postgraduate degree in Computer Science, IT Systems or related field with 4-6 years full- time postdoctoral research experience, OR have 10+ years of experience in system administration, software platform or infrastructure engineering post primary degree.

2.Strong knowledge of:

• Linux server administration and shell scripting.
• Network setup (physical, L2 and L3 layer on Ethernet and RDMA technology), DNS, firewalls.
• Identity & Access Management (e.g LDAP, SSO, FreeIPA).
• Virtualisation, containerisation & orchestration environments (VMs, Docker, Kubernetes).
• Cloud resource provisioning and management.

3.Experience with configuration automation tools (e.g. Ansible, SaltStack, Terraform, OpenTOFU).

4.HPC specific technology and environments (e.g Slurm, MPI, parallel filesystems).

5.Management of hardware storage subsystems.

1.Proficiency in:

• Python and Bash scripting.
• GIT-style version control and CI/CD approaches

2.Monitoring and logging tools (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK).

3.Container image management, registries, vulnerability scanning

4.Familiarity with GDPR-compliant data environments and secure processing environments.

CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Continuing Professional Development/Training:

Researchers at University of Galway are encouraged to avail of a range of training and development opportunities designed to support their personal career development plans. University of Galway provides continuing professional development supports for all researchers seeking to build their own career pathways either within or beyond academia. Researchers are encouraged to engage with our Researcher Development Centre (RDC) upon commencing employment - see HERE for further information.

We reserve the right to re-advertise or extend the closing date for this post.

University of Galway is an equal opportunities employer.

All positions are recruited in line with Open, Transparent, Merit (OTM) and Competency based