Service Manager / DevOps Engineer (IT-PW-WA-2024-107-LD)

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.

Introduction

You will join the Platforms & Workflows group in the IT department (https://information-technology.web.cern.ch/), where ~40 experienced engineers are responsible for providing a wide spectrum of centrally managed services, such as identity and access management, platforms for developers and researchers, as well as solutions for content authoring and websites hosting.

The Platforms & Workflows group is working for thousands of clients across the whole Organisation (Research and Computing, Accelerator and Technology, HR, Finance and Outreach) and is operating a portfolio of widely known products such as Atlassian Jira, GitLab and Kubernetes as well as purpose-built solutions to fulfil specific scientific or engineering needs. Therefore, working for the PW group provides numerous perspectives for professional growth, being in touch with different technologies and interacting with a diverse community of users.

The Web & Authoring section is a dynamic team of developers and infrastructure engineers supporting platforms for CERN’s project collaboration and websites hosting (https://webservices-portal.web.cern.ch). The section maintains and integrates tools for software engineers and content creators in variety of domains, covering the full spectrum of software life cycle, from issue and code management, through deployment, troubleshooting and maintenance of end-user analytics and documentation. 

Functions

As a Service Manager / DevOps Engineer in the PW group, you will be responsible for the delivery and evolution of the web and application hosting services, based on OKD4, the OpenShift Kubernetes Distribution. These services host several thousands of websites and support a variety of use cases, such as content publication, data sharing, documentation management and internal workflows for numerous teams across the Organization. More specifically, you will take on the following responsibilities:

• Lead the development and operations of the general-purpose and documentation hosting services (Gitops, Helm, ArgoCD, Kubernetes operators, Golang);
• Ensure that the services meet user requirements, provide technical expertise and consulting to the user community, communicate service changes;
• Coordinate infrastructure maintenance and technical evolution with the internal OKD platform team;
• Ensure that the delivered services have adequate backup and recovery strategies;
• Ensure that an appropriate level of infrastructure automation and monitoring is in place;
• Contribute to the vision for service optimizations and evolution.

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

Experience:

For this position, we are looking for someone with:

• Demonstrated experience with Kubernetes container orchestration, DevOps, and GitOps practices.
• Proven experience in operating and optimizing large-scale, mission-critical production services.
• Skilled in dealing with user relations, providing user support, and defining user requirements.

Technical competencies:

• Knowledge and application of software life-cycle tools and procedures: proficiency with Git, GitLab, CI/CD tools, automation and deployment, Helm charts
• Knowledge of programming techniques and languages: bash, Golang, Python
• Administration of computing systems: upgrades, application of security patches, system and data migrations, backup and recovery

Behavioural competencies:

• Solving problems: identifying, defining and assessing problems, taking action to address them. Producing workable and timely solutions that meet requirements.
• Achieving results: having a structured and organised approach towards work; being able to set priorities and plan tasks with results in mind. Delivering high quality work on time and fulfilling expectations.
• Working in teams: working well in groups and readily fitting into a team; participating fully and taking an active role in team activities.
• Communicating effectively: expressing opinions, ideas and suggestions with conviction and in a logical/structured manner; keeping to the point. Delivering presentations in a structured and clear way; adjusting style and content to the audience; responding calmly and confidently to questions. Ensuring that information, procedures and decisions are appropriately documented.
• Learning and sharing knowledge: keeping up-to-date with developments in own field of expertise and readily absorbing new information. Sharing knowledge and expertise freely and willingly with others; coaching others to ensure knowledge transfer.

Language skills:

Spoken and written English: ability to draw-up technical specifications and/or scientific reports and to make oral presentations in English.

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 20.08.2024at 12:00 AM (midnight) CEST.

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:

• Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organization.
• Stand-by duty, when required by the needs of the Organization.

Job grade: 6-7

Job reference: IT-PW-WA-2024-107-LD

Benchmark Job Title: Computing Engineer