Senior Systems Engineer
WORLD CHANGERS TOGETHER
Job purpose
The Senior Systems Engineer leads advancements in research computing technology, software, storage, instrumentation, visualisation, and data analytics within the College of Science and Engineering's research network. Collaborating with stakeholders, the role holder ensures reliability, security, and efficiency of Research Computing resources. Responsibilities include overseeing system design, lifecycle management, and customisation to meet research project needs while driving continuous improvement efforts. The Senior Systems Engineer is primarily responsible for managing and maintaining the Research Computing Systems, including software library administration, user support, and development.
Main duties & responsibilities
- Lead in the management, monitoring & patching of the HPC clusters ensuring the College’s HPC Infrastructure has overall availability.
- Provide expert support with research-based applications operating across a diverse platform covering a broad range of commercial, open source and custom tools and applications.
- Working with the Principal Engineer, manage multiple complex Research Computing/Cluster-based projects, ensuring timely and budget-friendly delivery for cutting-edge research support.
- Foster strong relationships with Researchers to understand their specific needs and requirements, regularly engaging with researchers to gather feedback, address concerns, and ensure satisfaction with IT services.
- Develop a deep understanding of the subject-specific research needs and software used by researchers within the College.
- Lead in HPC infrastructure development, including capacity planning and software upgrades, while ensuring security compliance and uninterrupted research activities.
- Ensure service accessibility and compliance with relevant legislation, addressing recommendations from audits or compliance bodies, and manage staff effectively to support service delivery.
- Serve as a catalyst for change, leading College, and University IT initiatives, promoting collaborative approaches, and championing the implementation of collective strategies like Research Computing as a Service.
- Any other duties and projects which may from time to time be required by the Line Manager or Head of College IT.
Knowledge and qualifications
Essential
- Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary knowledge and skills in a similar role.
- Or: Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9, (Ordinary Degree, Scottish Vocational Qualification level 4), or equivalent (including professional accreditation with relevant formal training), and experience of personal development in a similar or related role(s).
- Substantial technical knowledge across a range of IT areas with specialist knowledge, such as Linux/Unix enterprise server and storage technology.
- Extensive knowledge of the computing requirements of researchers with a high-level of ability and broad range of data processing needs.
- Significant knowledge of the inner workings of a queuing system e.g. slurm, SGE, PBS.
- Specialist knowledge of scientific computing packages, their installation and operation, e.g. LAPACK, OpenMPI, CUDA.
Desirable
- Relevant professional certifications from recognised technical bodies, e.g. CompTIA Linux+ or RHCP.
Skills
Essential
- Proficient in utilising scripting languages, such as Windows PowerShell/Linux shell script.
- Expert technical problem-solving skills gained over a substantial period of working at higher levels of complexity and influence and enacted quickly whilst under pressure.
- Proficient in organising and maintaining computing resources, managing multiple systems concurrently and in a timely manner to adhere to deadlines.
- Extensive experience of server maintenance and the management, and application of updates to Linux server infrastructure.
- Excellent analytical skills with confidence to challenge and continually improve, diving into the detail as necessary to understand issues (people, process, and technology).
- Highly effective communication and interpersonal skills, demonstrating creative and innovative thinking and influencing senior members of an organisation.
- Solid individual contributor who is highly self-motivated encompassing good workload management skills, with the ability to collaborate with a wider team and support the development of junior staff.
- Ability to build and maintain broad network of business relationships with a good knowledge of customer behaviours, needs and expectations building an environment of trust/integrity.
- Be able to set clear technical requirements to achieve goals, delegate tasks, provide feedback, and be able to lead and motivate a team of professionals.
Desirable
- Able to demonstrate the application of orchestration skills such as Ansible.
- Able to demonstrate the deployment of containerisation technologies such as Docker.
- Able to demonstrate knowledge in languages relevant for research computing such as Julia,
- Python, C, C++, Fortran, R or MATLAB.
Experience
Essential
- Extensive experience in a relevant technical IT role.
- Substantial experience of managing Linux/Unix in a complex heterogeneous environment.
- Proven experience of taking responsibility for actions that can have considerable impact on the user community.
- Significant experience of supporting users with common research applications and compilers.
Desirable
- Experience of providing technical support in a University or Educational Institution.
- Supporting Research in an academic environment.
- Supporting the handling and processing of large data sets.
- Experience of GDPR and the processing of personal and medical data, including imaging data.
How to apply
Full details of the role and how to apply can be found by visiting our website:
The closing date for applications is 30 October 2024
Terms & Conditions
Salary will be Grade 7, £40,247 - £45,163 per annum.
This post is full time (35 hours per week) and open ended (permanent).
As part of Team UofG you will be a member of a world changing, inclusive community, which values ambition, excellence, integrity and curiosity.
The University of Glasgow has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. If you require a Skilled Worker visa to work in the UK, you will be required to meet the eligibility requirements of the visa route to be assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship.
Please note that this post may be eligible to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker visa route if tradeable points can be used under the Skilled Worker visa rules. For more information please visit: [https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa](https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa).
As a valued member of our team, you can expect:
A warm welcoming and engaging organisational culture, where your talents are developed and nurtured, and success is celebrated and shared.
An excellent employment package with generous terms and conditions including 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension - pensions handbook [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/](https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/), benefits and discount packages.
A flexible approach to working.
A commitment to support your health and wellbeing, including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/](https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/).
We believe that we can only reach our full potential through the talents of all. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values. Applications are particularly welcome from across our communities and in particular people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, and other protected characteristics who are under-represented within the University. Read more on how the University promotes and embeds all aspects of equality and diversity within our community [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/](https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/).
We endorse the principles of Athena Swan [https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/](https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/) and hold bronze, silver and gold awards across the University.
We are investing in our organisation, and we will invest in you too. Please visit our website [https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/](https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/) for more information.
Campus development plan
Our Vision
Over the next 10 years, the major investment will expand our campus footprint by 25%, creating a new urban quarter with the University at the heart of a revitalised west end. This is the largest development since the creation of the original campus in 1870.
This is a unique opportunity for a University to extend the boundaries of its historic core in a central city location. It will create:
- New learning and teaching facilities
- Refurbishment and repurposing of existing iconic buildings for specialist uses
- Identification and design of social spaces that support the student and community experience.
The expansion of our Gilmorehill campus into the 14 acre, former Western Infirmary site will transform the West End of Glasgow. The Masterplan for the site will incorporate:
- New learning and teaching facilities supporting our students and making sure they get the best in modern teaching and learning styles and approaches
- Creation of a Research Hub, housing large-scale multidisciplinary projects and incubator space for spin out collaborations with industry. This will encourage further innovation development
- New public cycle and pedestrian routes and a new central square which will link Byres Road to the up-and-coming cultural quarter for the West End, with new links to Kelvingrove and the newly-refurbished Kelvin Hall
- Refurbishment of five listed buildings: The Chapel, the Outpatients building, the Macgregor building, the Tennent Institute and Anderson College
- Commercial opportunities, including a hotel, restaurant, bars and cafes
- The state of the art Learning and Teaching Hub adjacent to the Boyd Orr building on University Avenue will be completed next year.
Find out more
Living in Glasgow
A UNESCO City of Music, a vibrant arts and culture scene, a food-lover’s delight, and a shopper’s paradise. Just some of the highlights of the ‘friendliest city in the world’. As well as that accolade by the Rough Guides poll, Glasgow has also been named a must visit destination by publications including the New York Times, The Guardian, and Wanderlust.
Music
The city hosts an average of 130 music events a week catering for every taste; from rock to rap, and classical to country. Glasgow also has a world class club scene playing host to some of the world’s top DJs.
Shopping
Outside of London’s West End, Glasgow is frequently voted the best place for shopping in the UK. A must-visit destination for any shop-a-holic, it houses high street chains, international designers, and independent retailers. The West End, home to the University of Glasgow, is bustling with vintage fashion, vinyl stores, and second-hand bookshops.
Arts and Culture
Glasgow’s arts scene has gone from strength to strength, and is the base for five internationally renowned performing arts companies including the National Theatre of Scotland and Scottish Ballet. The city has several world-class museums, which are free to the public, and the city’s architecture is a work of art in itself.
Food and drink
You can be in Glasgow and taste the world with its many diverse restaurants, cafes, and bars. And if you’ve yet to sample the delights of haggis and whisky, Glasgow is the place to be.
The City and Beyond
Glasgow has all the opportunities and excitement of a big city but its compact size means you can quickly travel from one vibrant district to the next. You could be relaxing in one of its many parks, before shopping in the quirky West End, and then dancing until the wee small hours in the Merchant City.
And when you fancy getting out of the city you can reach the stunning Loch Lomond in just 30 minutes, climb one of our many breath-taking Munros, play golf at one of Scotland’s many world-class courses, visit one of our ancient castles, or go further North and search for Nessie! Scotland has also just been named the world’s most beautiful country by Rough Guides.
Relocating to Glasgow
Choosing to relocate to Glasgow is a big decision. There are numerous things to be considered, such as the costs of moving, the cost of living, and where exactly to relocate to. We have created two guides to aide you in the decision making process.
Find out more on relocating to Glasgow at the below link:
WORLD CHANGERS TOGETHER
WORLD CHANGING GLASGOW 2025
Our outstanding disciplinary breadth and expertise has enabled us to make world-changing advances in fields as diverse as medicine, physics, linguistics, public policy and global development.
The key to our success is our talented staff and students pushing back at the boundaries of knowledge and understanding together.
Our World Changers Together strategy recognises the fundamental importance of a culture of open cooperation: not just as colleagues and mentors or students and teachers, but as a community of discovery that reaches beyond its walls and draws inspiration and strength from its connections and partnerships worldwide: excellence that's part of something bigger. The strategy is articulated across three themes:
COMMUNITY
- People centred, globally engaged
CONNECTIVITY
- Collaboratively minded, digitally enhanced
CHALLENGES
- Solution focused, impact oriented
Find out more
It is the University of Glasgow’s mission to foster an inclusive climate, which ensures equality in our working, learning, research and teaching environment. We strongly endorse the principles of Athena SWAN, including a supportive and flexible working environment, with commitment from all levels of the organisation in promoting gender equity.
Our values
The future holds innumerable challenges for our sector, our society, and our world. We will have to adapt and change what we do and what we offer if we are to navigate these successfully. Our strategy and approach may evolve as the landscape changes, but our values will remain constant: a fixed point of certainty in uncertain times.
We have identified our values in consultation and partnership with our staff and student community. Living and upholding these values will ensure that we remain true to the spirit of our community and ourselves:
Ambition and Excellence
- We strive for excellence through our work
- We defend academic freedom globally
- We recognise and celebrate shared success
- We have an unrelenting focus on development
Curiosity and Discovery
- We innovate and solve problems together
- We lead by influence and example
- We engage with lifelong learning and personal development
- We learn from our mistakes
Integrity and Truth
- We uphold honesty, integrity and fairness
- We share our work widely and generously
- We do the right thing, not the easy thing - or we don’t do it
- We take responsibility
An Inclusive Community
- We are one Glasgow team, and we care for and respect one another
- We advocate for diversity and believe in variety as a vital part of a healthy university
- We champion education as an engine for social progress
- We practise and advance sustainability