Cloud Infrastructure Analyst

The role

ECMWF in the recent years has embarked on a journey to provide high quality on-premises Cloud Computing services to its Member States by providing state-of-the-art compute and object storage resources available in close proximity to the meteorological data archive and the existing HPC facilities.

The cloud platform is based on two separate OpenStack Clusters with approximately ten-thousand cores and two CEPH storage clusters of approximately six petabytes each. On these systems ECMWF runs a number of operational services such as the European Weather Cloud (http://europeanweather.cloud) and the new version of the Copernicus Data Stores (http://cds.climate.copernicus.eu) as well as many other internal and external projects.

As well as the OpenStack clusters many of the virtual machines and processes that are critical to the delivery of our daily weather forecasts are run on 24x7 supported virtualization platform based on VSphere. We also run a number of Kubernetes clusters for own use as well as for the use of third-party organizations.

ECMWF is now looking for a qualified Cloud Infrastructure Analyst to help support the Cloud platforms that power both services.

About ECMWF

ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is an intergovernmental organisation created in 1975 by a group of European nations and is today supported by 34 Member and Co-operating States, mostly in Europe. The Centre’s mission is to serve and support its Member and Co-operating States and the wider community by developing and providing world-leading global numerical weather prediction. ECMWF functions as a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions and holds one of the largest meteorological archives in the world. The success of its activities relies primarily on the talent of its scientists, strong partnerships with its Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies such as machine learning across its operations.

Over the years, ECMWF has also developed a strong partnership with the European Union, and for the past seven years has been an entrusted entity for the implementation and operation of the Climate and the Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the EU Copernicus Programme, as well as a contributor to the Copernicus Emergency Management Service. The collaboration does not stop there and include other areas of work, including High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools. It is enabling ECMWF to now provide data and products covering weather, climate, ait quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

ECMWF has recently become a multi-site organisation, with its headquarters based since its creation in Reading, UK, its new data centre open in 2021 in Bologna, Italy, and new offices, also in Bonn, Germany.

Copernicus is the European Union (EU) flagship Earth-observation programme. The Copernicus programme ensures operational monitoring of the atmosphere, oceans, and continental surfaces, and provides reliable, validated information services for a range of environmental and security applications. Based on the exploitation of space based and in situ observations and models, Copernicus provides information services for land, marine, atmospheric and climate monitoring, as well as emergency management and security.

For details, see www.copernicus.eu/.

The Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) service provides consistent and quality-controlled information related to air pollution and health, solar energy, greenhouse gases and climate forcing, everywhere in the world. For details, see www.atmosphere.copernicus.eu/

The Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) service provides authoritative information about the past, present and future climate, as well as tools to enable climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies by policy makers and businesses. For details, see www.climate.copernicus.eu/

Main duties and key responsibilities

The incumbent will work initially as a member of the Cloud Infrastructure team in support of Copernicus activities in all aspects related to the evolution, release, and deployment of our on-premises OpenStack and Vsphere Cloud environments.

Responsibilities:

• Monitor, manage and optimize our on-premises Cloud solutions based on OpenStack and VSphere, including optimizing performance
• Collaborate with other sections and departments at ECMWF to ensure proper integration with our Cloud environments
• Use automation tools to efficiently manage our Cloud environments
• Liase with vendors, external partners and provide support to users for the collaborative support of our Clouds
• Working closely with Development teams in identifying and finding solutions to problems
• Participate in a 24/7 on-call system

What we are looking for

• Ability to communicate with and understand complex requirements
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, listening to and respecting the views of others
• Good analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive approach
• An interest in identifying, investigating and resolving technical problems
• The ability to work under pressure and with limited supervision
• The flexibility to adapt to changing organisational priorities and user needs
• Dedication and enthusiasm to work in a small team

Education and experience

• University degree, or equivalent, in a discipline related to IT, science or mathematics
• Strong background in Linux based systems
• Strong background in OpenStack, vSphere, Ceph , vSAN and/or other Cloud technologies is a strong requirement with demonstratable experience.
• Experience in configuring and scripting automation tools such as Ansible and Terraform Experience with monitoring/visualizing stacks like ELK, Grafana, Prometheus/InfluxDB, Fluentd or similar would be advantageous.
• Understand the complexities of the underlying IP fabric and related technologies which power a high bandwidth system would be advantageous. 
• Understanding and deploying Kubernetes would be an asset Experience with Veeam Backup and Recovery would be advantageous

Knowledge and skills

We encourage you to apply even if you don’t feel you meet precisely all these criteria.

Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and interviews will be conducted in English. A good knowledge of one of the Centre’s other working languages (French or German) is an advantage but not required.

Other information

Grade remuneration

The successful candidate will be recruited at the A2 grade, according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations and the annual basic salary will be EUR 73,201 net of tax. ECMWF also offers a generous benefits package, including a flexible teleworking policy. The position is assigned to the employment category STF-PL as defined in the ECMWF Staff Regulations. Full details of salary scales and allowances available on the ECMWF website at www.ecmwf.int/en/about/jobs, including the ECMWF Staff Regulations and the terms and conditions of employment.

Starting date:              As soon as possible

Length of contract:   Approximately four years to 30 Sept 2028 (with the possibility of further extensions)

Location:                    The position will be based at ECMWF’s duty station in Bologna, Italy

As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organisation model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking.

Successful applicants and members of their family forming part of their households will be exempt from immigration restrictions.

Videoconference interviews (via Microsoft Teams) are expected to take place during end May/June 2024.

Who can apply

Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button below.

At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment as key for our success. We are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of the countries that are part of our community, in an environment that nurtures equality and inclusion.

Applications are invited from nationals from ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States, as well as from all EU Member States.  In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy.   Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases. 

ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.