Team Leader – Service Reliability

The role

We are in search of a team leader for the Service Reliability team at ECMWF.

In this role, you will lead a team of five skilled and self-sufficient analysts who provide many of the services which are essential to delivering reliable operations for the organisation. You will line-manage and coach members of the team as well as support service development and collaborations with other groups in ECMWF. This position is also the Configuration Manager for ECMWF, responsible for maintaining an accurate picture of ICT systems and services.

About the Team

The Service Reliability Team provides solutions for some of the most essential supporting services of ECMWF operations. The scope includes observability (logging, monitoring, tracing), identity and access management (centralised authentication and authorisation), configuration management (CMDB and DCIM), and secure remote shell access for end-users. There is a strong focus on self-service and enabling autonomy for the many analysts internally who consume these services.

The team sits within the newly formed Application Delivery Section of the Computing Department. The Application Delivery Section provides many platforms and services that enable ECMWF teams to consume computing resources at different levels (PaaS, SaaS) and to consistently deploy applications with different levels of support to a high degree of quality and reliability, both within ECMWF’s own data centre and third-party Cloud environments.

Responsibilities 

• Line-manage members of the team
• Lead and support service innovations within the Service Reliability team
• Contribute to strategic planning within the Computing Department and ECMWF
• Undertake the role of Configuration Manager for ECMWF
• Establish a close support culture with different sections and departments at ECMWF to collaboratively find optimal solutions for existing and new services
• Support the Section Head and other members of the Senior Management Team with technical expertise and reporting information
• Occasional participation in a 24/7 remote on-call rota in the relevant areas, if required
• Optionally, become a member of ECMWF’s Change Management Board

About ECMWF 

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) is a world-leader in weather and environmental forecasting. As an international organisation we serve our members and the wider community with global weather predictions and data that is critical for understanding and solving the climate crisis. We function as a 24/7 research and operational centre with a focus on medium and long-range predictions, holding one of the largest meteorological data archives in the world. The success of our activities builds on the talent of our scientists and experts, strong partnerships with 35 Member and Co-operating States and the international community, some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, and the use of innovative technologies and machine learning across our operations. ECMWF is a multi-site organisation, with a main office in Reading, UK, a data centre/supercomputer in Bologna, Italy, and a large presence in Bonn, Germany. 

ECMWF has also developed a strong partnership with the European Union and has been entrusted with the implementation and operation of the Destination Earth Initiative and the Climate Change and Atmosphere Monitoring Services of the Copernicus Programme. Other areas of work include High Performance Computing and the development of digital tools that enable ECMWF to extend provision of data and products covering weather, climate, air quality, fire and flood prediction and monitoring.

ECMWF is a multi-site organisation, with a main office in Reading, UK, a data centre/ supercomputer in Bologna, Italy, and a large presence in Bonn, Germany. We appreciate the need for flexibility in the way our staff work. We adopted a hybrid work model that is widely used by staff across ECMWF – allowing everyone to work in the office working as well as remotely up to 10 days/month, including away from the duty station.

See www.ecmwf.int for more info about what we do.  For additional details, see www.ecmwf.int

What we’re looking for

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills 
• Strong analytical problem-solving and technical curiosity
• Able to coach and mentor staff within the team 
• Dedication and enthusiasm to lead and work in a team 
• Ability to work efficiently and complete a diverse range of tasks in a timely manner
• Ability to manage the work of a team to achieve objectives in a timely manner
• Highly motivated to deliver technical innovation and an excellent user experience

Education 

• University degree (EQF Level 6) or equivalent industry experience

Experience 

• Managing a team’s service portfolio to be coherent and delivered with quality
• Developing and managing work plans for others
• Line management of individuals
• Drafting clear and concise business cases for procurement or service development
• Working with internal and external stakeholders at all levels of an organisation

Technical Knowledge and Skills

• Observability, monitoring, logging and analytics, tracing applications
• Web and Server Authentication and Authorisation applications and protocols
• Application Performance Monitoring
• NOSQL (MongoDB), SQL (PostgreSQL or MySQL)
• Programming (any language) or scripting (Python, Ruby, Perl, Go)
• Automation toolchain (Terraform, Ansible, or similar)
• Cloud Native and Containers (Kubernetes, Helm, Docker)
• Linux system administration

Please provide clear examples which demonstrate your knowledge and experience in the space provided on the application form.

Candidates must be able to work effectively in English and interviews will be conducted in English. A good knowledge of one of the Centre’s other working languages (French or German) is an advantage but not essential.

Other information 

Grade remuneration:  The successful candidates will be recruited at the A3 grade, according to the scales of the Co-ordinated Organisations. The position is assigned to the employment category STF-C  as defined in the ECMWF Staff Regulations. Full details of salary scales and allowances available on the ECMWF website at . 

Starting date:  October 2024

Length of contract: 4 years with possibility of extension 

Location: Reading, UK or Bologna, Italy

Candidates are expected to relocate to the duty station location. As a multi-site organisation, ECMWF has adopted a hybrid organisation model which allows flexibility to staff to mix office working and teleworking, including away from the duty station (within the area of our member states and co-operating states).

Interviews will be conducted by videoconference (MS Team).

Who can apply 

Applicants are invited to complete the online application form by clicking on the apply button below. 

At ECMWF, we consider an inclusive environment as key for our success. We are dedicated to ensuring a workplace that embraces diversity and provides equal opportunities for all, without distinction as to race, gender, age, marital status, social status, disability, sexual orientation, religion, personality, ethnicity and culture. We value the benefits derived from a diverse workforce and are committed to having staff that reflect the diversity of the countries that are part of our community, in an environment that nurtures equality and inclusion. 

Applications are invited from nationals from ECMWF Member States and Co-operating States: 

Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Montenegro, Morocco, the Netherlands, Norway, North Macedonia, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom. 

In these exceptional times, we also welcome applications from Ukrainian nationals for this vacancy.  

Applications from nationals from other countries may be considered in exceptional cases.