Your role

EMBL-EBI is at the forefront of research and services in the life sciences. Our IT & Technical Services department's Operations team plays a crucial role in supporting this mission by maintaining and developing a range of critical services.

We are seeking a dynamic and experienced Senior Site Reliability Engineer to join our small IT Operations team.

This role is essential for ensuring the availability, reliability and efficiency of EMBL-EBIs service portfolio, which supports our scientific and research communities. This team has a broad remit, so a background in running, maintaining and enhancing a wide range of services in a medium-sized Enterprise environment would be advantageous.

You have

• Identity Management: Actively participate in upgrading and standardising our Authentication and Authorisation Infrastructure for managing thousands of internal and virtual accounts. Experience with Active Directory, Entra-ID, Redhat IDP would be advantageous.
• Email Systems: Initially focus on understanding, upgrading, and maintaining our email systems, including Postfix, Cyrus, Roundcube, and Mailman. Experience of migrating to and running O365 mail would be an advantage.
• Service Management: Jointly support and develop services such as Transfer Services, software-defined object storage, authentication and authorisation infrastructure, and the Request Tracker ticketing system.
• Monitoring Systems: Help maintain and evolve the distributed Check_mk monitoring system and support the development and growth of a wider monitoring strategy.
• Orchestration Infrastructure: Become fluent in the orchestration infrastructure (Gerrit, Foreman, RPM repositories, Puppet) used to deploy, update and maintain over 3,000 servers.
• Core Modules Maintenance: Maintain and improve core Puppet modules like NTP and SSSD, and manage templates for new RedHat OS versions.
• Documentation: Provide thorough documentation and Standard Operating Procedures to support our Service Desk team and enhance user service experiences.

You may also have

• Education: A degree (or equivalent level of qualification) in a relevant technical subject.

• Experience: Proven experience in systems management and operations, infrastructure engineering, or site reliability engineering.

• Technical Skills: Strong proficiency with Linux at scale, email systems (Postfix, Cyrus, Roundcube, Mailman, O365), and orchestration tools (Puppet, Foreman).

• Problem-Solving: Excellent problem-solving skills and a proactive attitude towards continuous improvement.

• Team Player: Ability to work collaboratively in a multicultural, multi-disciplinary team and a willingness to share knowledge and learn from others.

• Initiative: A self-starter who can take responsibility for tasks and can bring the team along.

You have

• At least 5 years of hands-on experience with Linux production systems in on-prem and potentially cloud hosting environments

• Experience with postfix mail systems.

• Experience with orchestration and automation.

• A strong sense of responsibility and ethics.

• Experience with 389 directory server or OpenLDAP.

• Puppet expertise

• You are comfortable with tcpdump, strace and log parsing at scale.

• Experience reviewing Python, Bash and Puppet code created by other team members.

• You are used to taking on high-level responsibilities and guiding others.

You might also have

• A desire to contribute to scientific research from an IT perspective.

• Experience within a high-performing team.

• ITSM experience (we use the ServiceNow platform).

Apply now! Benefits and Contract Information

• Financial incentives: depending on circumstances, monthly family/marriage allowance of £272 monthly child allowance of £328 per child. Non resident allowance up to £556 per month. Annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances

• Hybrid working arrangements

• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)

• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition to eight bank holidays

• Relocation package including installation grant (as applicable)

• Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)

• Family benefits: On-site nursery, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances

• Contract duration: This position is a 3 year contract renewable up to 9 years

• Salary: Monthly salary starting at£3,229 or £3,612after tax but excl. pension & insurances) + benefits (Total package will be dependent on family circumstances)

• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Read more on our page for international applicants.

• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ and individuals from all nationalities.

• Job location: This role is based in Hinxton, near Cambridge, UK. You will be required to relocate if you are based overseas and you will receive a generous relocation package to support you.

To apply, please submit a covering letter and CV via our online system. Applications will close on 27/04/2025.

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