HPC and Data Platform Engineer (Research Fellow)

Applications are invited from suitably qualified candidates for a full-time specific purpose position as Platform Engineer (Research Fellow) at the Irish Centre for High End Computing (ICHEC), University of Galway. The position is available immediately, 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 2021-2025, ICHEC provides infrastructure services and expertise in HPC and data intelligence to develop efficient platforms, solutions and services based on technologies including AI, high performance data analytics, Earth Observation, quantum computing and cybersecurity across several sectors including environmental sciences, healthcare, agriculture, energy, financial services and ICT.

ICHEC works in close partnership with a number of 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.

For more details reach out to our Centre Infrastructure Manager, Niall Wilson or visit www.ichec.ie.

Job Description:

The successful candidate will be involved in the technical design, development, and operation of a range of new platform services to leverage and complement the main National HPC service. These new platform services will seek to provide a coherent and standardised set of tools and services for the internal development of new application-level services and will leverage significant in-house infrastructure to address requirements in areas including data services, training platforms, hybrid HPC-quantum computing, AI and big data analytics. The role will involve working in close collaboration with the broader ICHEC team as well as with national and international academic, industry and public sector partners.

The successful candidate will

• be responsible for leading the development of platform services on which a diverse set of data and compute services can be developed in turn;
• work closely with other ICHEC Programmes & Activities, particularly National HPC and Data Services, Climate Informatics, Earth Observation, Health Informatics, Artificial Intelligence and Quantum Computing;
• collaborate with national and international research/industry partners on the deployment and testing of emerging hardware and software platforms;
• work in conjunction with members of the ICHEC Infrastructure Group in building, securing and operating new platforms to a high service level.
• This is a role for a highly motivated problem-solver, with a creative and analytical mind to build new platforms, services and solutions that will have a positive impact on the ability of ICHEC to support end user requirements.

Qualifications/Skills required:

Essential Requirements:

1. An MSc. with 10+ years of experience in a domain relevant to research computing or equivalent (15+ years) professional experience.
2. Robust knowledge and experience of platform infrastructure and services including:
   • DevOps and CI/CD pipeline tools (GitLab)
   • Building and deploying applications as containers (Docker, Singularity)
   • Container orchestration (Kubernetes)
   • Working with IaaS platforms to deploy production services (AWS, OpenStack)
   • System configuration management tools (Ansible, SaltStack)
   • Networking services (DNS, Load Balancer, Proxy, Firewall)
   • Identity and Access Management (LDAP, OAUTH, RBAC)
3. Experience in technical leadership with excellent communication and organisational skills.

Desirable Requirements:

1. Experience with the deployment and management of Identity Management systems.
2. Knowledge of integrating HPC with artificial intelligence or quantum computing software stacks.
3. Exposure to Agile/PRINCE2 project management frameworks.

Salary: Research Fellow Scale point 1 to point 8 (€60,412 - €78,865) per annum pro rata for shorter and/or part-time contracts. Appointment on this range will be dependent on qualification and experience.

Start date: Position is available immediately.

Further information on research and working at University of Galway is available on Research at NUI Galway. 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 www.nuigalway.ie/rdc for further information.

For information on moving to Ireland please see www.euraxess.ie Further information about ICHEC is available at www.ichec.ie

Informal enquiries concerning the post may be made to recruit@ichec.ie

To Apply:
Applications to include a 1-page motivation letter, CV (max. 3 pages), and the contact details of three referees should be sent, via e-mail (in a single PDF only) to recruit@ichec.ie

Please put reference number University of Galway 064-23 in subject line of e-mail application.

Closing date for receipt of applications is 30th March 2023

Due to the University closure related to COVID-19, interviews may have to take place virtually and start dates may need to be delayed

All positions are recruited in line with Open, Transparent, Merit (OTM) and Competency based recruitment. National University of Ireland, Galway is an equal opportunities employer.

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