Senior DevOps Engineer/Computer Scientist

General information
Offer title: Senior Devops Engineer_Computer Scientist
Reference: TEC-IT-24-5
Number of positions: 1
Workplace: via E.Amaldi 5/7, Loc. S.Stefano a Macerata - Cascina (Pisa)
Date of publication: 17 October 2024
Type of Contract: “Tecnologo” (Technologist)
Contract Period: One-year contract, with the perspective of a permanent contract upon expiry
Expected date of employment: The earliest possible
Proportion of work: Full time
Remuneration: 70.316,40 € annual gross (Liv.IIIa Fascia 9)
Desired level of education: Master’s degree in technical or scientific fields
Experience required: Proven experience in DevOps Engineering or related roles, strong expertise in Python development and experience with Git for version control, experience in configuration management tools.
Missions
The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer / Computer Scientist to join its Information Technology Department.
Activities
The selected candidate will focus on DevOps and computing infrastructure management within the scope of the International Gravitational Waves Network (IGWN) (EGO/Virgo, LIGO, KAGRA). This role is a critical part of our mission to streamline software development processes, ensure reliable infrastructure, and support the effective operation of our distributed computing systems. This position not only requires hands-on technical expertise but also offers the opportunity to grow into coordination responsibilities. The transition to a more coordination-centered role will be contingent upon the candidate’s demonstrated experience, capabilities, and readiness to take on such responsibilities.
Key Responsibilities:

• Strategic Coordination: Collaborate with international teams to align computing policies, and architectures across LIGO, Virgo, and KAGRA, with the potential to take on strategic roles.
• Lead the evolution of computing infrastructure, ensuring scalability, reliability, and alignment with long-term research goals, contingent upon the candidate’s progress and experience.
• DevOps Engineering: Manage and automate deployment processes, focusing on scalability, security, and reliability, while also mentoring teams to improve overall DevOps practices.
• Collaborate with development teams to optimize the software development lifecycle, focusing on automation, monitoring, and continuous improvement.
• Ensure the availability of dedicated software environments using package management tools such as pip or conda.
• Interface with the underlying distributed, large-scale computing infrastructure tailored to the requirements of the International Gravitational Waves Network (IGWN).
• Software Support: Provide software support to scientists and researchers, including developing and maintaining software for specific purposes.
• Diagnose and resolve software issues that may arise during commissioning and operations.
• Data Management and Processing: Supervise and maintain low-latency data distribution via Apache Kafka to ensure data availability and investigate any issues.
• Participate in the setup and maintenance of dedicated low-latency clusters and ensure the efficient operation of data analysis pipelines.
• Quality Assurance and Best Practices: Implement and promote best practices in software development, configuration management, and DevOps within the team.
• Maintain and improve tools and processes that support code quality, security, and performance, with an opportunity to influence broader policy and standards as experience accumulates.

Skills

• Master’s degree in technical or scientific fields;
• Proven experience in computing infrastructure management or related roles;
• Strong expertise in Python development and experience with Git for version control;
• Experience in configuration management tools;
• Good knowledge of the English language;
• No criminal convictions.

Other skills
One or more of the following will be an asset:

• Experience with software development supporting tools such as CMake and/or Meson build tools;
• Basic knowledge of Italian and/or French;
• Familiarity with the Conda package and environment manager;
• Experience with the GitLab collaborative toolchain, including Continuous Integration (CI) and Continuous Deployment (CD);
• Experience with platforms for real-time data streaming such as Apache Kafka;
• Knowledge of distributed platforms enabling high-availability deployments of services via orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes;
• Expertise in Python performance monitoring and optimization;
• Experience in C/C++ programming.

Work Context
The European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) is seeking a Technologist to join the Virgo Information Technology Department.
EGO is an international consortium, founded by INFN and CNRS to foster European collaboration in gravitational-wave research. EGO is located in Cascina, near Pisa - Italy, and hosts and operates the gravitational-wave detector Virgo, a 3 km-long laser interferometer (ITF). The Virgo project involves the participation of about 130 institutions with more than 800 scientists, engineers and technicians from France, Italy, the Netherlands and other 13 European countries.
EGO welcomes applications from all suitably-qualified candidates, irrespective of gender, disability, marital or parental status, racial, ethnic or social origin, color, religion, belief, or sexual orientation.
Selection procedure
Only candidates who meet the above essential required qualifications and experience are admitted to the selection procedure. The evaluation of the candidates admitted to the procedure is assigned to a Selection Board appointed by the Director of EGO. The Selection Board will determine the evaluation criteria in the first meeting. The first phase of the selection will be based on a review of the Application Forms and other documents received in line with the above-mentioned essential and desired requirements. Only candidates who have obtained the minimum score established by the Selection Board in the first meeting will be able to access to the second phase of the selection, which will consist of an interview. During the interview the Selection Board will verify the knowledge of the English language, the knowledge of computing infrastructure management or related roles, the knowledge in Python development, the knowledge with Git for version control the knowledge in configuration management tools, and the other desired qualifications and experience.
At the end of the interviews the Selection Board will draw up a ranking of the candidates who obtained at least the minimum score established during the first meeting.
The completion of the hiring is subject to Italian law D.Lgs. 81/08 art.41 “Sorveglianza Sanitaria”.
The EGO Consortium has the free right not to proceed with the recruitment.
Privacy policy
Controller: European Gravitational Observatory - email:
Responsible for data - email:
Under Article 13 of UE Regulation (EU) 2016/79 of the European Parliament and of the Council, required personal data will be exclusively collected and treated for purposes strictly connected to the selection procedure also with the use of computerized procedures, according to current law and regulations concerning the implementation of this kind of activity.
Providing such data to EGO is necessary for the evaluation of participation requirements and of the holding of titles; failure to provide these data may compromise such evaluation.
Data will be kept only for the period required by the selection, evaluation and audit procedures.
EGO guarantees each person the right of access to personal data, as well as the rectification, or erasure or restriction of them, as well as the right to object to their processing; such requests shall be addressed to .
Applicants have to:
Candidates can send their CV and the EGO Application Form (to be found here ) together with a cover letter and eventual reference letters, to quoting the reference number of this vacancy notice.