System Engineer (RCS-SIS-OA-2018-49-LD)

  • Contract

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. Find out more on http://home.cern.

Job Description

Introduction

Are you a skilled system engineer, mastering Linux, configuration management, web application system architecture with strong Python knowledge, who likes to work in agile teams on open source products? Then you can make science go faster by bringing the INSPIRE high-energy physics digital library [http://inspirehep.net] to its next level. We help 50'000 scientists worldwide every day to: find information across million of scientific articles; seamlessly populate their scientific profile; explore connections between ideas through our graph of tens of million citations. CERN, take part!

You will join the Research and Computing Sector, where the Scientific Information Services supports scientists at CERN and beyond to find the information they need. Our Open Access section builds and operates infrastructures to make articles and data freely available.

Functions

As System Engineer in the Open Access Section, You will take responsibility for the smooth operation and evolution for the INSPIRE service.

Together with other senior members of the team, you will be re-launching an entire new service built on modern technologies (ElasticSearch, RabbitMQ, Flask, Celery, Redis, OpenStack, Docker); you will architect innovative crowd-sourcing services to allow our users to create connections across the information in our database; you will first-hand operate and develop new solutions; and most important you will support and mentor the junior developers at the core of the team.

 As a System Engineer you will more specifically:

  • Manage project-wide requirements in collaboration with the product manager and other senior engineers, articulating technical solutions, and setting priorities.
  • Take responsibility for the continuous delivery of the service: from continuous integration, to automatic deployment on staging environment, to deployment in production.
  • Maintain the service by monitoring and measuring availability and performance.
  • Lead and coach junior software engineers to deliver and integrate specific INSPIRE components.

Qualifications

Master's degree or equivalent relevant experience in the field of: information technologies or a related field.

Experience:

  • Solid engineering experience in Python.
  • Deep understanding of the Linux internals, including Kernel, Memory, Process, Threads Track-record monitoring system’s health, performance and log aggregation.
  • Experience in one of the following configuration management systems: Puppet, Chef, Ansible, or Salt.
  • Experience with Cloud infrastructure such as: OpenStack, Kubernetes or OpenShift.
  • Demonstrated ability operating and maintaining web applications with technologies like: HAproxy, nginx, RabbitMQ and PostgreSQL.

 The following are considered as an asset but are not mandatory:

  • Experience of Python web frameworks such as: Flask or Django.
  • Familiarity with complex (open source) projects and an Agile development approach.
  • Exposure to architectural patterns of a medium web application (e.g. efficient algorithms, well-designed APIs, and security).

Technical competencies:

  • Knowledge and application of software life-cycle tools and procedures.
  • Knowledge of programming techniques and languages.
  • Development of application software.
  • Architecture and design of ICT systems.
  • Production Service Maintenance.
  • Design and selection of methods and tools.

Behavioural competencies:

  • Achieving results: driving work / projects along and seeing them through to their conclusion; taking appropriate corrective actions and adapting work / project plans if necessary.
  • Demonstrating accountability: taking responsibility for own actions and decisions Working conscientiously and reliably; delivering on promises.
  • Learning and sharing knowledge: taking steps to expand knowledge in other areas of expertise beyond own field; being receptive to others' ideas and building on them; thinking "out of the box" and proposing fresh ideas, insights and methodologies.
  • Working in teams: building and maintaining constructive and effective work relationships; working well in groups and readily fitting into a team; participating fully and taking an active role in team activities; debating at the table and engaging in constructive confrontation of ideas.

Language skills:

  • Spoken and written English, with the ability to draw-up technical specifications and/or scientific reports, and/or to make oral presentations.
  • Knowledge of French or the willingness to acquire it rapidly would be an advantage.

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. (https://careers.cern/content/member-states).

This vacancy will be filled as soon as possible, and applications should normally reach us no later than 30.09.2018.

Employment Conditions

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

These functions require:

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

Job grade: 6-7

Job reference: RCS-SIS-OA-2018-49-LD

Benchmark Job Title: Computing Engineer

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