senior computing systems engineer

The University of Surrey is one of the UK’s leading public research universities. Join 2,500 staff and 17,000 students in an inspiring, innovative and diverse environment to make a positive impact through free-thinking and hard work.

Our IT Services team is plugged in to the whole University, and our digital transformation work underpins the University’s renewed strategy. IT is growing our digital transformation capability, improving student experience, and helping increase our research impact, all while maturing how we operate and creating the type of working environment that we want to work in. It’s a vibrant and exciting time to join a great and well-respected team at the heart of the University’s strategic plans, working in a collaborative and diverse culture which brings out the best in our teams across the University.

We seek a Senior Research Computing Systems Engineer to work within the Research Technology team. The role offers an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic team within a complex scientific computing environment, which increasingly relies on large scale compute and bleeding-edge technology to meet the needs of our research departments. We operate a flexible, hybrid style remote working policy.

You will be part of a close-knit and enthusiastic team, and one which has embraced the "infrastructure as code" approach to systems automation. You will have the opportunity to work across a wide range of predominately Linux based systems, including large-scale storage, HTCondor compute pools, HPC and general IT infrastructure components such as directory services. You will play a leading role in their provisioning, configuration, security, on-going operation, monitoring, and continuous improvement. You will be using tools such as Ansible, Chef and Docker to manage our services across on-premises hardware, Cloud and Virtual platforms.

You will have the opportunity to take the lead on architecting, and developing significant new research technology investments, and the post holder will be expected to use their experience and expertise to inform critical technology choices.

Good working knowledge of Linux systems and high performance computing is essential, whilst experience with Ansible or Chef would be an advantage as would as experience in working with one or more programming language. Experience of working with research groups to support computationally intensive research would also be very desirable. The ideal candidate for this role is someone who has experience working in Higher education or a scientific computing environment, has an enthusiasm for solving problems, is always seeking to improve things and has an appetite to always be learning something new. We offer training and good opportunities for career progression.

The University of Surrey is committed to providing an inclusive environment that offers equal opportunities for all. We value everyone in our community and are seeking to increase the diversity. Therefore, we particularly encourage applications from under-represented groups, such as people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic groups and people with disabilities.

In return we offer a generous pension, relocation assistance, flexible working options including job share and blended home/campus working locations (dependent on work duties), access to world-class leisure facilities on campus, a range of travel schemes and supportive family friendly benefits including an excellent on-site nursery.

Please apply online with a full CV and covering letter.