Deadline for applications: 20th September 2026. The position will remain open to applicants until it is filled

Contract: Full-time, 4 years (2+2), competitive salary. Start date flexible, with preference for the earliest possible start.

To apply: Please send your CV to lourdes@iaa.es and sse@iaa.es 

The SKA Observatory (SKAO) is building two next-generation radio telescopes. They will produce such unprecedented volumes of data that their scientific exploitation requires a global, distributed network of computing and data centres. These centres, known as SKAO Regional Centres (SRCs), act as data and science hubs that enable access to and analysis of SKAO data by the international community. The Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC, Granada, Spain) [1] leads the development of the Spanish SKA Regional Centre with support from its Severo Ochoa programme. The Spanish SRC (espSRC) was the first centre to be accredited as a node of the international SRC Network, currently formed by nine nodes located worldwide. This position offers the opportunity to apply cutting-edge computing skills to the most ambitious astrophysics project of the decade.

The espSRC is urgently seeking a motivated System/IT engineer with experience in computer system administration and cloud services to fill in an IT position: the successful candidate will be the sysadmin of the espSRC computing cluster and will join the espSRC team led by Lourdes Verdes-Montenegro, the coordinator of the Spanish participation in the SKA project.

The position is based at the IAA-CSIC in Granada, a historic, vibrant city at the foot of the Sierra Nevada and a short drive from the Mediterranean coast. The successful candidate will be involved in this international project working as part of a multidisciplinary team of astronomers and engineers with a wide expertise in Distributed Computing Infrastructures, Cloud Computing, Data Science and Radio Astronomy. S/he will be the sysadmin of the espSRC computing cluster, a cloud platform (based on OpenStack) which provides computing services based on Virtual Machines and a Kubernetes cluster, and storage service based on a Ceph system.

Role:
The successful applicant will join the espSRC at the IAA-CSIC (Granada, Spain) led by Lourdes Verdes-Montenegro, the coordinator of the Spanish participation in the SKA project. The  responsibilities of the position will include:

• Maintaining the current computing and storage infrastructure of the espSRC at the IAA-CSIC
• Contributing to carry out the expansions of the computing infrastructure of the espSRC: identify technical requirements, support hardware procurements, and the platform expansion
• Deploying tools and services on the espSRC platform
• Providing technical user support

Qualifications:
Candidates must hold a PhD or MSc degree in computer science or related fields (e.g. physics, mathematics). We are looking for proactive candidates with good communication skills in English and expertise in several of these aspects:

• System administration and application deployment (using e.g Ansible)
• Linux environment, bash scripting
• Cloud platforms: Openstack, Ceph, containers and orchestrators (e. g. Kubernetes)
• Distributed Computing Infrastructures
• Source Control Systems (e.g. GIT)

In addition to the above, knowledge of the following topics would be a distinct advantage:

• Deployment and customization of JupyterHub
• Software development in Python
• Development and deployment of web services and web applications
• Astrophysics domain software

Early applications are strongly encouraged, as applications may be reviewed before the deadline.

Equal Opportunities: 

espSRC Team fosters a collaborative, inclusive, and dynamic work environment, with members from diverse scientific, social and cultural backgrounds. IAA-CSIC is committed to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals regardless of gender identity, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, or nationality, and provide reasonable accommodations for candidates with specific needs.

Additional information:

[1] The Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) is a research centre of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the largest public research institution in Spain and one of the most prestigious in Europe. Recognised as a Severo Ochoa Centre of Excellence, the IAA-CSIC stands out for its scientific leadership, its strong ability to attract international talent, and its impact on frontier research.At the IAA-CSIC, cutting-edge research is carried out in theoretical and observational astrophysics, cosmology, solar physics, exoplanets, galaxy formation and evolution, astronomical instrumentation, data science, and scientific computing, with active participation in major international research infrastructures. All of this takes place in a collaborative, innovative, and highly international environment that offers exceptional opportunities for both professional and personal development.

[2] The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an international effort, classified as a Landmark within the ESFRI roadmap since 2016. The SKA-related efforts involve more than 1000 scientists and engineers from 20 countries and 270 institutions across 5 continents, sharing the goal of building a multi-purpose radio-observatory operating at centimetre and metre wavelengths that will both be the largest scientific infrastructure on Earth, and the largest generator of public data. The SKA Observatory (SKAO) has the potential to make revolutionary contributions to Astrophysics, Astrobiology, and Fundamental Physics. Since 2011, the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (IAA-CSIC) has coordinated Spain’s participation in this project, working in close collaboration with the scientific community, engineers, industry, and government ministries. Spain is now a full member of the SKAO, culminating several years of effort by the Spanish community.