Computing Fellowship: IT Contact and Virtual Machines Operator in CMS

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.

Within the Programme, we are looking for a Scientist or Software Engineer to join CERN.

CERN is the host laboratory of the CMS experiment and many of the critical computing services reside in the computing centers of the laboratory. To support the central operations of the experiment, we are looking for a scientist/engineer to be the contact between CMS and the CERN IT department, who administers the virtual machine infrastructure used by the central services of the experiment, and provides backup support for the management of the CERN Virtual Machine File System, CVMFS, content of CMS.

The successful applicant is expected to administer all computing resources requested by CMS and provided by CERN IT, to organize the provisioning of new computing and storage resources, and to maintain the base OS configuration on these machines. The machines are of paramount importance as they host critical services vital to the operation of the computing infrastructure of the experiment. The successful applicant is expected to maintain excellent relations with the CERN-IT staff, attend regular meetings and follow up on all coordination issues.

At CERN, CMS uses large disk and tape storage as well as compute resources provisioned through a private Openstack based cloud infrastructure. The successful candidate will administer such resources, a task that requires a high level of responsibility, excellent organizational and communication skills, and willingness to assist and help colleagues.

You will take part in all aspects of the devops process, specifically:

• Administer all computing resources requested by CMS and provided by CERN IT;
• Cultivate relations with the CERN IT professionals, also attending regular meetings and follow up on all coordination issues;
• Maintain quotas for users and groups on common CMS storage at CERN and coordinate these with computing management, as well as detector and physics groups;
• Curate an inventory of machines and document their configuration needs;
• Develop new and enhance existing tools for automation of tasks otherwise requiring manual interventions;
• Provide assistance and consultation on setup and configuration to users and groups less familiar with Linux system administration.

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 Linux system administration and service configuration;
• Knowledge of shell scripting;
• Knowledge of system administrator tools e.g. Puppet;
• Team spirit;
• Fluent in English and excellent communication skills.

Other desired skills:

• Experience in Cloud systems, Openstack in particular;
• Initial experience in ticketing systems and computing service support;
• Knowledge of batch and storage systems, e.g. tape, disk.

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

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

Find out more here: https://hr-dep.web.cern.ch/content/life-cern

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 2 August 2020.