System Administrator

Company Description

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature.

Job Description

Introduction

Are you a skilled and experienced System Administrator and Computing Engineer? Do you want to contribute to the unique challenge of making all CERN particle accelerators function in an efficient and synchronised manner? Join CERN's Controls Software & Services group, to work on the computing infrastructure needed to run the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Take Part

The 24/7 availability of core control system services is critical to the surveillance and operation of CERN's particle accelerators, enabling the organisation to fulfil its central mission. To ensure the robustness and scalability of those services and to open the door to multi-data-centre high-availability techniques to reinforce business continuity, the services are progressively being migrated to a new on-premises Kubernetes infrastructure, backed by modern network storage and DevOps technologies.

Our team helps make this a success through the development and evolution of this computing infrastructure needed as a core element of the accelerator complex controls.

You will have the opportunity to contribute and influence the evolution of this complex and challenging infrastructure, imprinting your remarkable engineering skills on mission-critical solutions for CERN, which will serve for the coming decades.

You will join:

• The BE Department, responsible for the beam generation, acceleration, diagnostics, controls and performance optimization for the LHC and its injector accelerators.
• The CSS Group, responsible for providing and supporting the controls software and infrastructure used to operate and maintain these particle accelerators 24 hours a day.
• The ISA Section, a dynamic and quality-oriented agile team, responsible for the CERN Accelerator control system computing infrastructure and system administration.

Functions

As a Computing Engineer specialised in System Administration, you will join a passionate team and take an important role in the operation of the CERN accelerator control system infrastructure. Furthermore, you will participate in numerous strategic projects for the future in terms of operating systems and container and orchestration technology.

In particular, you will:

• Perform system administration tasks for the Linux computers connected to the accelerator control system (control room consoles, data centre servers, real-time embedded platforms and virtual machines).
• Communicate with end-users to understand their needs and help translate these into appropriate solutions.
• Investigate, diagnose, and resolve operational problems in collaboration with end-users ranging from equipment specialists to operations teams.
• Participate actively in the strategic evolution of the accelerator control system infrastructure towards container technology hosted upon Kubernetes.

In particular:

• Provide containerisation mechanisms and tools for software development teams (base images, registry, security aspects).
• Contribute to the planning and migration of the infrastructure from bare metal to a clustered container orchestration platform.
• Advance, improve and upgrade the control system Kubernetes platform and associated services to follow technology evolution and adapt to the needs of users of the controls environment.
• Collaborate closely with engineers from the IT Department responsible for the general CERN IT infrastructure.
• Mentor and supervise junior engineers.

Qualifications

Master's degree or equivalent relevant experience in the field of Computer Science or a related field.

Experience:

Proven experience in the operation of medium to large-scale distributed computing infrastructures, including:

• Linux operating system.
• High-performance and high-availability commercial server platforms.
• Container technologies (such as Docker and Podman).
• Administration of an on-premise Kubernetes infrastructure and associated services (e.g. ArgoCD, Hashicorp Vault and Prometheus) with an awareness of architectural concerns and management of the lifecycles of the involved services, including upgrades and integration with network storage.
• Diagnostic and monitoring solutions for the aforementioned technologies, with the awareness of security aspects to be considered in their deployment.
• Configuration management tools such as Ansible, Puppet, or similar and a version control system such as Git.
• Interest in software failure analysis, diagnostics, and validation in a Linux environment.

Technical competencies:

• Knowledge of operating systems: linux-based support and maintenance.
• Architecture and design of ICT systems: control & data acquisition system, distributed?applications and services.
• Knowledge of programming techniques and languages: system configuration, monitoring, Python and Java environments.
• Knowledge of communication technologies and protocols.
• Installation, operation and maintenance of control systems.

Behavioural competencies:

• Working in Teams: working well in groups and readily fitting into a team; participating fully and taking an active role in team activities.
• Achieving Results: having a structured and organised approach towards work; being able to set priorities and plan tasks with results in mind.
• Learning and Sharing Knowledge: keeping up-to-date with developments in own field of expertise and readily absorbing new information.
• Demonstrating Flexibility: adapting quickly and resourcefully to shifting priorities and requirements.
• Communicating Effectively: demonstrating a pro-active approach to resolving differences; addressing issues of conflict constructively.

Language skills:

Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.

Additional Information

Eligibility and closing date:

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We welcome applications from all Member States and Associate Member States.

This vacancy will be filled as soon as possible, and applications should normally reach us no later than at 23:59 CET.

Employment Conditions

Contract type: Limited duration contract (5 years). Subject to certain conditions, holders of limited-duration contracts may apply for an indefinite position.

Working Hours: 40 hours per week

Job Flexibility: Fully Onsite

This position involves:

• Stand-by duty, when required by the needs of the Organization.

Job grade: 6-7

Job reference: BE-CSS-CSA LD

Field of work: Software Engineering and IT

Benchmark Job Title: Computing Engineer

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