Computing Fellowship: System Administrator

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.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization.

Job Description

The ATLAS Trigger and Data-Acquisition System Administration team manages the ATLAS online computing infrastructure. This is a mission-critical quasi-realtime heterogeneous computing system composed by roughly four thousand interconnected computers, distributed across an underground cavern and a surface data centre. The system accounts approximately four thousands users.

The System Administration team is responsible for all aspects associated with such a large computing infrastructure, including in particular hardware upkeep and refurbishment, operating system deployment and tuning, operational monitoring and computer security. In addition they guarantee the correct functioning of the core computing infrastructure, consisting of name and time servers, DHCP relays, web servers, MySQL and LDAP clusters, gateways, storage and virtualisation systems.

The selected candidate will be fully integrated in the System Administration team, working and collaborating with the existing experts. She will share all team duties, from the day to day system operation to user support and troubleshooting, including stand-by on-call tasks. In due time the candidate will also take responsibility for specific projects, like the improvement of the monitoring and management tools and the review of the web application deployment mechanisms.

Qualifications

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State;
• You have graduated, or are about to graduate with a university degree (BSc or MSc level in computer science,engineering or another relevant course) and have no more than 4 years’ relevant experience after obtaining your degree;
• Kindly note that experience prior to the latest obtained degree will not be taken into account for the calculation of your overall years of experience.

Essential skills and experience:

• Experience with the administration of Linux operating system;
• Experience with Bash and Python scripting languages;
• Exposure to computer hardware maintenance and troubleshooting;
• Exposure to working in a multi-disciplinary and multi-cultural team.

Desired technical skills:

• Knowledge of computer deployment systems like Puppet;
• Experience with RHEL or CentOS operating systems;
• Experience with computer security measures;
• Experience with user support and troubleshooting.

Please note that CERN Staff members are not eligible to apply for a Fellowship.

Additional Information

CERN would very much like to benefit from your expertise, commitment and passion.  

In return, CERN will provide you with:

• An employment contract for between six months (minimum) up to a maximum of 36 months.
• A stipend ranging from 5,281 to 6,558 Swiss Francs per month (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN’s comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: an installation grant, family, child and infant allowances as well as travel expenses to and from Geneva.
• 2.5 days of paid leave per month.

Your Life @CERN

Get a glimpse of what it’s like to work at CERN: https://careers.cern/benefits and https://careers.cern/our-people

This is how you can apply:

You will need the following documents to complete your application:

• A CV;
• A scanned PDF of your most recent relevant qualification.

We recommend to add two recent letters of recommendation, giving an overview of your academic and/or professional achievements. You can upload these letters at the time of application if you have them to hand. You will also be provided with a link as soon as you have submitted your application to forward to your referees to upload their letters confidentially. Please note this must be done before the closing date.

All applications should reach us no later than 28 January 2021.