The Gaia group at the ICCUB offers a Cloud Engineer position at the Institute of Cosmos Sciences (ICCUB) of the University of Barcelona in the project SPACIOUS, funded by Horizon Europe. The engineer will be part of the Gaia-UB group (https://gaia.ub.edu/) with about 25 scientists and engineers of the Gaia mission.

The SPACIOUS project aims to boost the scientific exploitation of ESA missions’ data by developing a computational framework for astrophysical research that requires Big Data and Data Mining technologies to be addressed, with special focus on the Gaia and Euclid missions.

The position offered will be devoted, on one hand, to contribute to the definition and implementation of a virtualized data mining environment for massive datasets such as the Gaia data releases or the forthcoming Euclid ones, in collaboration with project partners such as the University of Edinburgh or the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. On the other hand, it will work on the definition and deployment of the data mining environment in a commercial cloud service, such as Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services, aiming at running there large-scale proof-of-concept tests (or “scientific challenges”) on real mission data. The position will also provide technical support to test users.

Applicants must hold a higher education degree, by the time the contract starts, related to computer engineering or physics-related fields. We will strongly value knowledge and experience in virtualization and containerisation (such as Docker and Kubernetes), cloud computing platforms (either private, educational, research or commercial), Big Data techniques and data mining frameworks (such as Apache Hadoop, Spark or Kafka). Good English language skills. Experience with the preparation of scientific documentation. Strong written and verbal communication skills.
 

Employment conditions:

The position is offered for 2.5 years. The contract is expected to begin around July 2024.

Gross salary per year: 33.545,30 €. This includes social security and public healthcare benefits, covering spouse and children.

Offer starting date: 1 October 2024

Additional Information

Eligibility criteria

The selection is carried out by means of an evaluation of curriculum vitae and letter of motivation including experience and interests (10). 

The minimum score to pass is five (5) points. The assessment criteria are as follows: 

• Suitability of the candidate to the main function to be carried out. 
• Curricular experience 
• Professional knowledge and skills 

The tribunal, in its constitutive session, assesses the CVs of the candidates presented.

Selection process

A resolution of adjudication is issued to the person who, having passed the selection procedure, obtains the highest score and publishes the prioritised list of applicants who have passed the selection process.

Additional comments

Duration of the contract of employment: 12 months, renewable up to 31/12/2026.

The candidate proposed for hiring must accept the job offer within 5 working days from the date of notification of the selection. 

Priority will be given to people with disabilities (Law 89/2015 of June 2, reserve of quota 2% in favour of people with disabilities in companies of 50 or more people).

Be aware that the starting date sets in this offer is an estimate date. The official starting date will depend on the bureaucratic time that will take the preparation of the labour contract and presentation of the necessary documents to be hired by the selected candidate.

For additional information regards this offer, please, contact: Dr. Lola Balaguer: lbalaguer@fqa.ub.edu 

Applicants should provide:

● curriculum vitae
● letter of motivation including experience and interests (2 pages max).

Applications should be done using this link before September 9th, 2024.

Inquiries about the application submission can be directed to Lola Balaguer (lbalaguer@fqa.ub.edu).
For inquiries about the scientific or technical aspects, please contact Xavier Luri (xluri@fqa.ub.edu).

About the Institute of Cosmos Sciences:

Relevant to the offered position, researchers of the institute have broad interests, including galactic dynamics, open and globular clusters, stellar physics, star formation, models of galaxy formation and evolution, the Large Magellanic Clouds, computational astrophysics, data analysis, cloud computing.
The Institute of Cosmos Sciences is a research institute of the University of Barcelona. It is an interdisciplinary center dedicated to fundamental research in the fields of cosmology, astrophysics, and particle physics. In addition, the institute has a strong technology program through its participation in international collaborations in observational astronomy and experimental particle physics.

As part of the University of Barcelona, the ICCUB is a recipient of the European Commission’s HR Excellence in Research (HRS4R) Award, which recognises, among other achievements, respect for equal opportunities and the capacity to attract talent in a positive working environment that promotes the pursuit of successful research careers. The ICCUB respects the principles of open, transparent, merit-based selection. We strongly encourage women and underrepresented minorities to apply. For additional information please see the Diversity, equity and inclusion Commission.
The ICCUB is located in Barcelona, considered the 8th World's Best Cities 2022: one with near- perfect weather year-round, miles and miles of beaches, iconic parks, striking architecture and colorful neighborhoods that march to their own beat—artistic, sophisticated, bohemian. Moreover, it is a pole of attraction for the technology sector, a top choice to establish a company in this sector, and it hosts some of the world's major technological events, such as the Mobile World Congress and the Smart City Expo. In addition, Barcelona and its metropolitan area is a leading destination on the map of global technological ecosystems and
has infrastructures such as science parks, universities and the 22@ district.

SPACIOUS is a Horizon Europe HORIZON-CL4-2023-SPACE-01-71 project funded under grant agreement no. 101135205