Context And Mission
The Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is seeking a Systems Engineer to join the Operations Department, within the System Administration team.
The selected candidate will contribute to the administration, operation, and continuous improvement of Linux-based infrastructures, HPC clusters, and core IT services that support the daily activities of the center. This role is key to ensuring the reliability, performance, and scalability of BSC’s computing and service platforms.
The primary project for this position will be the systems administration of the BSC Trusted Research Environment (TRE) infrastructure, which enables processing of sensitive research data (including GDPR-regulated personal and health data) for AI and research workloads.
Key Duties
* Install, configure, maintain, and troubleshoot core IT services of the center, including email systems, web services, databases, and server infrastructure.
* Administer, optimize, and maintain storage subsystems and backup solutions, ensuring data integrity, availability, and efficient resource utilization.
* Manage and support HPC environments, including configuration, monitoring, and performance tuning of Linux-based supercomputing clusters.
* Administer and maintain cloud platforms (OpenStack, OpenNebula, oVirt), ensuring their reliability, scalability, and integration with existing infrastructure.
* Monitor system performance and proactively identify and resolve issues to minimize downtime and improve service quality.
* Collaborate with other technical teams to support research and operational needs, ensuring alignment between infrastructure and user requirements.
* Contribute to documentation, automation, and continuous improvement of system administration processes and tools.
* Contribute to the systems administration of the BSC TRE platforms, including secure compute environments, isolated network zones (ingress/egress, DMZ), internal package mirrors, and supporting services for sensitive data processing.
* Support the implementation and operation of security controls aligned with applicable frameworks (such as ISO 27001 and ENS) in coordination with the security and data management teams.
* Participate in technical meetings, workshops, and project-related activities, including occasional travel when required.
Requirements
* Education
o Degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related field.
* Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience
o Hands-on experience in Linux system administration in production environments.
o Experience in administering HPC environments based on Linux, including job schedulers, cluster management, and performance considerations.
o Good Knowledge and experience managing complex IT infrastructures.
* Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience
o Good level of English, both written and spoken, in technical and collaborative environments.
o Experience with IT services security design, configuration and management is a plus.
o Familiarity with monitoring tools, scripting Bash, Python), and DevOps practices will be highly valued.
o Experience working in research or high-performance computing environments is an advantage.
o Familiarity with information security management frameworks (ISO 27001, ENS) and their application to infrastructure operations is a plus.
o Experience configuring or operating restricted-network or air-gapped environments (DMZ zones, internal package mirrors such as Harbor, PyPI, CRAN, npm; jump servers; multi-hop VPN) is highly valued.
o Experience with container orchestration platforms (Kubernetes) in production environments is a plus.
o Familiarity with identity and access management (LDAP, OIDC, MFA), audit logging, and SIEM tools is valued.
o Experience with encryption at rest and key management (LUKS, HSM, KMS) is a plus.
o Familiarity with Trusted Research Environment concepts and reference frameworks (SATRE specification, Five Safes), or experience operating regulated data environments (GDPR, health data), is highly valued.
* Competences
o Proactive attitude with strong sense of ownership and responsibility.
o Good organizational and time management skills, with the ability to handle multiple tasks and priorities.
o Team-oriented mindset with effective communication skills to collaborate across technical teams.
o Problem-solving approach with attention to detail and commitment to service reliability.
o Comfort working in cross-functional teams that include security, legal/DPO, and data management roles, where some operational decisions are constrained by regulatory or compliance requirements.
Conditions
* The position will be located at BSC within the Operations Department
* We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, flexible working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
* Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
* Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
* Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
* Starting date: 01/07/2026