Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer & Team Lead

Salary: Full time starting salary is normally in the range £58,225 to £67,468 with potential progression once in post to £87,974

Hours: Full Time

Contract Type: Fixed Term contract up to March 2031

Role Summary

Funded by the Baskerville NCR project, this role is a senior technical leader within Advanced Research Computing (ARC) where the Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer and Team Lead acts as one of the University’s foremost experts in research infrastructure. In collaboration with other Principal RIEs and the AIS Group Leader, the post holder is responsible for the strategic design, development, implementation and operational oversight of critical research platforms, spanning high performance computing (HPC), high throughput computing (HTC), cloud services and large-scale research storage systems. These services underpin a wide range of computationally and data-intensive research activities across the University and its collaborators.

In addition to providing deep technical leadership, the role includes line management and development of a small team within AIS, ensuring the delivery of robust, scalable and high-performance infrastructure aligned with institutional and national research priorities. The post holder will work closely with colleagues across ARC and the wider University to ensure these critical systems evolve to meet emerging research needs, maintaining the highest standards of reliability, performance and innovation.

Main Duties

• Lifecycle Management of Research Infrastructure: Lead the renewal, upgrade, expansion and continuous enhancement of the BEAR infrastructure and associated services (including HPC, HTC, cloud, storage and networking), balancing strategic development with the demands of day-to-day operations. This includes services supporting University, regional, national and research council–funded programmes.
• Operational Leadership and Service Reliability: Oversee the secure, reliable and high-performance operation of ARC’s research infrastructure and services, ensuring protection of research data and delivery against institutional and contractual commitments. Act as an escalation point for complex technical queries and major incidents, and serve as a key technical contact for external partners.
• Team Leadership and Management: Line manage and develop a small team of Infrastructure Engineers within the AIS group, setting direction, allocating resources, and fostering a high-performance, inclusive and collaborative team culture.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Qualifications, Experience

Qualifications and Experience

• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification with substantial relevant professional experience in a technical role.
• Demonstrable professional development through a series of progressively more demanding and influential roles.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy appropriate to the role.

Technical Expertise

• Authoritative and advanced technical expertise in research computing infrastructure, with: 
  • Proven experience in the design and delivery of specialised, large-scale, leading-edge infrastructure supporting computationally and/or data-intensive research.
  • Substantial experience across the lifecycle (design, implementation, operation and support) of at least one of: 
    • High Performance Computing (HPC) systems.
    • Large-scale (multi-petabyte), high-performance research storage systems and data services.

Informal enquiries can be made to Jon Wakelin at j.wakelin@bham.ac.uk

To download the full job description and details of this position and submit an electronic application online please click on the 'Apply' button above.

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