Created in 2005 by the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia) and the University of Barcelona, IRB Barcelona is a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence—a seal that was awarded in 2011.

The institute is devoted to conducting research of excellence in biomedicine and to transferring results to clinical practice, thus improving people’s quality of life, while simultaneously promoting the training of outstanding researchers, technology transfer, and public communication of science. Its 28 laboratories and 8 core facilities address basic questions in biology and are orientated to diseases such as cancer, metastasis, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and rare conditions.

IRB Barcelona is an international centre that hosts 400 members and 45 nationalities. It is located in the Barcelona Science Park. IRB Barcelona forms part of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) and the “Xarxa de Centres de Recerca de Catalunya” (CERCA).

Under the INVESTIGO Programme, IRB Barcelona is seeking an enthusiastic Junior Linux System Administrator (HPC) to join its Information Technology Services Department, providing technical support to computational and research data management tasks performed by IRB Barcelona researchers.

The Information Technology Services (ITS) Department provides IT services to the whole organisation and develops digital transformation projects with the aim to facilitate the operations of the organisation and the accomplishment of the goals of its research community. To fulfil this mission, the ITS Department offers a broad spectrum of IT services, solutions and support, particularly high performance computing (HPC) services.

DUTIES: 

• To answer user questions and solve HPC technical problems by telephone, email, and onsite. Tasks include issue troubleshooting, following user's issue tickets through to resolution, documenting resolutions, working with application and system owners or researchers to identify advanced solutions.
• To install and configure HPC applications, studying and improving HPC applications performance.
• To develop and present user training in HPC.
• To administer a heterogeneous group of linux systems, both standard infrastructure and HPC systems.
• To Install and configure new hardware and software.
• To be responsible for documenting the configuration of the systems.
• Transversal support and participation in other tasks/projects in the ITS team.

SELECTION CRITERIA:

Required conditions for candidates to meet, as this position belongs to the INVESTIGO Programme:

• Before the starting of the labour relationship with the institute, the candidate must be registered as a job seeker in the “Servei Públic d'Ocupació de Catalunya” and has to be unemployed.
• Not having previous labour relations with the IRB Barcelona within a period of 6 months, before the beginning of the contract.
• Only applicable for candidates under 30 years old (before the start of the employment contract).
• To have the specific studies related to the field, which give the candidate the competencies and skills required for the position: Applicants must hold at least a bachelor degree or an advanced specific vocational training “PFII”. Candidates holding a Msc. or a PhD. are also eligible and welcome to apply.
• Availability to join the IRB Barcelona by the 1st of September 2023.

EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS:

Must Have – Required: 

• Experience: No previous experience in a similar position is required.
• Knowledge:
  • Bachelor in Computer Science, Telecommunications Engineering, or similar. Candidates with an advanced specific vocational training “PFII” in the related field.
  • Good knowledge of Linux operating systems, including scripting and programming skills (Shell, Perl or Python).
  • Basic computer architecture knowledge.
    
• Skills:
  • Excellent writing and verbal communications skills in English and Spanish
  • Strong organizational, planning and multitasking capacities
  • Teamwork skills

Desirable:

• Knowledge:
  
  • HPC managers (Slurm, SGE, LSF, etc.)
    
  • High performance storage (BeeGFS, gpfs, luster, Weka, Pure Storage, DDN, etc.)
    
  • Object storage (AWS S3, Cloudian, Ceph, etc.)
    
  • Low latency networks (Infiniband, RoCE)
    
  • Compilation of optimized software inside containers (Docker or Singularity) or via modules (easybuild)
    
  • Knowledge of accelerators (GPUs, FPGA, RISK-V, etc.)
    
  • AI frameworks such as Tensor Flow or PyTorch

WORKING CONDITIONS & ENTITLEMENTS:

• Working conditions: two year contract linked to the INVESTIGO Programme, to allocate young people in search of a job in the research field, under the framework project “Pla de Recuperació, Transformació i Resiliència”. Employed in compliance with Spanish legislation and regulations under a full-time contract. Employees receive the benefits of the Spanish Social Security system covering sickness, maternity/paternity leave and injuries at work.
  
• Estimated annual gross salary: 24.875€. Salary might be negotiable based on experience and qualifications.
  
• International Environment: The opportunity to join a prestigious, diverse and inclusive international research institution and to become a member of our administration team.
  
• Benefits: Continuous training in a high-quality environment with unique professional career opportunities.

HOW TO APPLY & SELECTION PROCESS:

Applications for the above opening should include a Full CV, in the Anonym Curriculum Vitae format where name, age, gender and any other personal reference, are not included.

• Deadline for applications: 26/06/2023 (If no suitable candidate is found, the deadline will be extended) 
• Number of positions available: 1
• Selection process:
  • Pre-selection: Will be based on CV (anonym format), experience and required conditions met from the INVESTIGO Programme.
  • Interviews: Short-listed candidates will be interviewed.
  • Job offer: Will be sent to the successful candidate after the interview. 

Note: The strengths and weaknesses of the applications will be provided upon request.