Head of Core Infrastructure

**The role**:
ECMWF has an opening for a Head of Section position in the Computing Department. The position is located at our Bologna duty station, with occasional attendance at our Reading offices also expected.

The Head of the Core Infrastructure Section is part of the Computing Department and ECMWF’s senior management team. In this role as part of the Computing Department management they are shaping the future strategic direction of the Computing Department and are taking responsibility for cross-cutting strategic topics as needed. They will lead three teams which focus on ECMWF core infrastructure operations (see details about ECMWF below). The three teams are:

- ** The Networks and Security team, **located in Reading and Bologna, providing the network support for the Bologna datacentre as well as Reading, Bologna and Bonn offices. The team is also responsible for cybersecurity coordination of the organisation.
- ** The Storage and Servers team**, located in Bologna and Reading, responsible for the storage and general purpose servers of ECMWF, particularly for our data archive, one of the largest meteorological archives in the world containing more than 0.5 Exabyte of data.
- ** The Engineering team**, located in Bologna, responsible for the mechanical and electrical aspects of ECMWF’s Bologna datacentre. The datacentre is a key facility supporting the Centre’s 24/7 time-critical production services.

Also within the remit of the role will be conducting periodic reviews of relevant operational policies and procedures associated with the core infrastructure and ensuring information is appropriately recorded to support future audits.

**About ECMWF**:
ECMWF is the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. It is an intergovernmental organisation created in 1975 by a group of European nations and is today supported by 35 Member and Co-operating States, mostly in Europe. The Centre’s mission is to serve and support its Member and Co-operating States and the wider community by developing and providing world-leading global numerical weather prediction. ECMWF functions as a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions and holds one of the largest meteorological archives in the world. The success of its activities relies primarily on the talent of its scientists, strong partnerships with its Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies such as machine learning across its operations.

ECMWF is a multi-site organisation comprising of three duty stations - its headquarters based since its creation in Reading, UK, a data centre and offices in Bologna, Italy, and offices in Bonn, Germany. ECMWF has a hybrid organisation model which allows its staff to mix office working and teleworking. This generous and flexible model provides our staff with considerable flexibility to spend time outside or away from their duty station and decide how they wish to manage their professional working time at ECMWF. ECMWF is an organisation that values the whole being and understands and values the need for flexibility in the way its staff work.

**Main duties and key responsibilities**:

- Leadership in a 24/7 operational infrastructure and scientific production environment
- Managing ECMWF’s core infrastructure, ensuring that it is consistently available to support ECMWF’s activities
- Delivering the services to users within agreed service levels and KPI’s and within authorised budgets
- Ensuring effective communication with stakeholders in matters relating to core infrastructure operations and development
- Short
- and long-term planning for the continued development of the core infrastructure - ensuring operational efficiencies and resiliency capabilities based on future service requirements identified by Section Heads across the organisation
- Having a strong understanding of appropriate technology roadmaps to inform and justify the service enhancements and budgetary proposals
- Ensuring that comprehensive maintenance and development plans, and operational policies and procedures for the ECMWF Bologna datacentre are prepared and implemented accordingly
- Ensuring an effective risk identification and management plan is in place, together with a clearly defined and effective business continuity plan
- Ensuring the effective management of the ECMWF’s Italian regulatory, compliance, commercial and administrative obligations and relationships arising from its data centre operations

**What we are looking for**:

- Full understanding of data centre operations in 24/7 critical operational setup
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with a proactive and constructive approach
- Highly organised with the capacity to work on a diverse range of tasks to tight deadlines, reflecting our mission-critical time dependent product delivery
- Flexibility, with