System Administrator (Storage and Virtualisation) - IT Service (AIT)

The Research Solutions IT group at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) is currently looking for a Linux administrator ideally with an academic background and experience with software development and teaching.

An important goal of our group is to enable tighter collaboration with relevant research departments at DTU, for example, to supervise student projects on contributions to open-source software we are using. While the main task of this position is administrating and maintaining our storage system, we are also setting up environments for students to experiment with open-source software and code changes. In the longer term we are planning to supervise Bachelor/Master projects and potentially develop courses about effective use of large-scale Storage-, HPC-, cloud- and data management systems, including contributions to relevant open-source projects in this area. This position will be part of paving the ground towards offering these services in the future.

About us

As part of our IT infrastructure for research at DTU we operate a ceph storage cluster and an opennebula private cloud instance. The storage cluster has a total raw capacity of 13PB distributed over 1000+ disk drives of different types. Our private cloud environment consists of 20 general access virtualisation servers and 10 project specific restricted access servers. The number of restricted access servers for research projects is expected to grow considerably in the future.

The ceph storage cluster provides software-defined storage to two major installations at Risø, the HPC cluster Sophia and our private cloud ONE. Besides maintaining these two production installations we plan to set up test clusters as a staging environment for updates, for our own developments and also for external ceph developers to debug problems and test patches on a physical test installation. A future goal is to offer bachelor- and master projects related to code development for ceph and opennebula using these test clusters.

About the position

You will be part of an efficient and well-functioning team of 20 IT specialists, who work purposefully and professionally to help research at DTU with good IT solutions. We emphasise a structured, methodical and conscientious approach to the tasks with a high degree of understanding of the users' needs.

We are working preferentially with open-source solutions and your primary tasks will be:

• maintain our ceph storage cluster (full-stack)
• help with maintaining our opennebula installation
• help HPC users with effective utilisation of the ceph file system
• deploy and maintain test clusters
• develop, support and possibly supervise bachelor- and master projects (optional)
• develop and maintain our ansible automation playbooks
• develop and maintain our administration scripts
• documentation and user support

The position will include a period of education to get started. The length will depend on your initial experience with Linux and cluster administration. It will be possible to attend courses by relevant providers. Prior experience is not a hard requirement but an advantage that will be considered together with other skills.

What we are looking for - personal traits

• Curiosity wrt. Research Solutions' IT infrastructure and other projects that in time morphs into sympathetic insight.
• You are interested in open source software development.
• You are interested in programming in general.
• You are able to learn self-motivated and independently and pursue new knowledge as needed.
• Openness and collaborative skill (e.g. humility & will to compromise).
• Effort-dedication to document own as well as collaborative work.
• Keep track of tasks and quickly reaching out when stuck.
• A patient and user-friendly attitude.

What we are looking for – professional experience

• You have experience with Linux as an operating system.
• You (ideally) have some contributions to publicly available open-source projects as reference.
• An academic background is an advantage, including experience in teaching and project supervision. Please detail the highest level prior experience.
• You are interested in software defined storage, HPC and virtualisation in linux. Please detail the most relevant prior experience as user and/or administrator.
• If you have a Ph.D. or higher academic degree, please include references for up to 3 collaborative research papers (journal or preprint). A University degree is an advantage but not a hard requirement.
• Experience with automation tools like ansible is an advantage. Please mention examples if applicable.
• Experience with different programming languages (including C/C++) is an advantage. Please state your level of experience and provide references to relevant projects you contributed to if applicable.
• You speak excellent English. You either speak Danish or are learning the language.

What we offer in return

As our new colleague you will be part of a team that works in a dedicated and professional way to support research in- and outside DTU with excellent IT solutions. We emphasise a structured, methodological and conscientious way of working with a high level of understanding of user needs.

We work with challenging and exciting technologies on one of the leading technical universities in Europe. The team is actively supporting research in the field of sustainable energy technologies in Europe.

We place emphasis on a high level of professionalism among our staff, so skills development is an integral part of our organisation.

We offer great flexibility in the position. This does not only apply to work hours and -location, but also to a high degree of self-leadership. As is typical for academic environments, we encourage administrators to take ownership of and responsibility for the services offered and grant a large degree of freedom about decisions regarding how and with what components to provide a service.

Salary and appointment terms

Salary and employment terms in accordance with the LC/CO10-Joint Agreement and the organization agreement for IT employees (Prosa) in the service of the state or the collective agreement with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (AC).

The position is a full-time position. Starting date is as soon as possible and according to mutual agreement.

The workplace is DTU Risø Campus.

Application and contact

Please submit your online application no later than 10 April 2024 (23:59 Danish time)

. Open the “Apply now” link, complete the form and attach your motivated application, CV and exam certificates. 

If you would like additional information about the position, please contact Head of Section, Research Solutions Michael Rasmussen, +45 4084 2047, micrdtu.dk

Applications received after the deadline will not be considered.

All interested candidates irrespective of age, gender, race, disability, religion or ethnic background are encouraged to apply.

Technology for people

DTU develops technology for people. With our international elite research and study programmes, we are helping to create a better world and to solve the global challenges formulated in the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Hans Christian Ørsted founded DTU in 1829 with a clear mission to develop and create value using science and engineering to benefit society. That mission lives on today. DTU has 13,500 students and 6,000 employees. We work in an international atmosphere and have an inclusive, evolving, and informal working environment. DTU has campuses in all parts of Denmark and in Greenland, and we collaborate with the best universities around the world.