At AstraZeneca, we treat Scientific Computing as a strategic asset that underpins our advances in science. Leading-edge research strategies critically depend on elite computing capabilities and high-energy engineering teams supporting them. The Scientific Computing Platform (SCP) is AstraZeneca's innovative computing environment designed to tackle today's and tomorrow's in-silico challenges. It focuses on a platform concept, building capabilities and services around central building blocks. At its heart, it uses compute environments, a classical InfiniBand/Slurm HPC cluster, an Openstack private cloud, and various public clouds for elasticity and scale. To exploit these resource pools most efficiently, the SCP deploys strong DevOps tooling and cloud-native technologies, aiming to adjust and adapt according to changing requirements and follow the science. The engineers and architects in the SCP team are key to continuously delivering and supporting this critical capability.
Accountabilities
We are looking for a highly motivated, ambitious, and independently working Scientific Computing engineer to join our global team. If you combine a DevOps way of working with a strong enterprise-ready service attitude, problem-solving skills, excitement for technology, and interest in accelerating science, then you are in good company.
You will be engaged in a variety of activities stretching from daily operations and development, exciting technology exploration, and strategic project delivery. You will own parts of the platform, drive its operational excellence, prioritize the development backlog, and craft the roadmap. Whether your interest is more operations or development-focused, classical HPC or cloud computing, in hardware or applications, our team operates the whole stack. Everyone on the team takes responsibility for our success.
Based in one of the science hub sites, you will become a trusted partner to our Science community, ensuring that we deliver technology at the highest standards to enable and push their work to the next level. Translating their needs into efficient solutions and applying engineering excellence to make science successful will be your daily reward.
We operate the SCP as a single global team with shared responsibilities. You will join an agile and hardworking team of technologists who share excitement for High-Performance & Big Compute, modern technology stacks, and their application in science to change the lives of patients. To us, teammates are people who have humility, feel accountable for their work (and their teams), as well as the ability and willingness to be a leader of something.
Living and breathing technology is a key factor enabling us to keep pace with the life-changing ideas of AstraZeneca's scientists.
Essential Skills/Experience
Demonstrated expertise and 10+ years of hands-on experience operating, crafting, or engineering large-scale computing environments, with a main focus on High-Performance Computing (HPC) while having experience in DevOps practices.
Demonstrable ability to drive innovative computational solutions and leverage emerging technologies within the Life Sciences domain, particularly in the Pharmaceutical Industry or Biotech sectors.
Nice to have experience in administering large-scale cluster and server computing environments, utilizing related software such as Slurm, LSF, and Grid Engine.
Hands-on experience collaborating within DevOps teams and applying agile methodologies to streamline operations and development processes.
Providing comprehensive scientific software support for end-users, including configuration, installation, tuning, and maintenance.
Proficiency in operating and managing virtualized private cloud resources, specifically with OpenStack.
Solid understanding of Linux system administration, the TCP/IP stack, and storage subsystems.
Knowledge in administering large-scale parallel filesystems, including GPFS and Lustre.
Proven track record of using configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Salt, Puppet) and technology frameworks within IT operations.
Experience in developing and managing relationships with third-party suppliers.
Proficient in scripting and tool development for HPC and DevOps platforms using Bash and Python.
Desirable Skills/Experience
Familiarity with operating and configuring public cloud computing infrastructure, such as AWS, Azure, or GCP.
Experience in managing virtualized private cloud environments, particularly with OpenStack.
Knowledge of container technologies (e.g., LXD, Singularity, Docker, Kubernetes).
Demonstrated development experience across multiple programming languages, tools, and technologies (e.g., Java, C++, Python, Ruby, Perl, SQL, AWS).
Familiarity with HashiCorp tools like Terraform, Vault, Consul, and Nomad.
Experience in platform engineering, software engineering, and machine learning best practices, including version control, continuous integration (CI), continuous development (CD), containerization, and shell scripting.
Bachelor's degree required; emphasis on Computational, Physical, or Biological Science, Engineering, or related fields preferred. A Master's or Ph.D. is a plus.
Solid understanding of analytic products and scientific computing software relevant to pharmaceutical R&D.
Excellent written and verbal communication, teamwork, and collaboration skills.
When we put unexpected teams in the same room, we unleash bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing medicines. In-person working gives us the platform we need to connect, work at pace and challenge perceptions. That's why we work, on average, a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesn't mean we're not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.
At AstraZeneca, our work has a direct impact on patients by transforming our ability to develop life-changing medicines. We empower the business to perform at its peak by combining cutting-edge science with leading digital technology platforms and data. Join us at a crucial stage of our journey in becoming a digital and data-led enterprise. Make the impossible possible by building partnerships and ecosystems while driving scale and speed to deliver exponential growth. Here you'll find countless opportunities to learn and grow while working on innovative technologies.
Ready to make a difference? Apply now!
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AstraZeneca embraces diversity and equality of opportunity. We are committed to building an inclusive and diverse team representing all backgrounds, with as wide a range of perspectives as possible, and harnessing industry-leading skills. We believe that the more inclusive we are, the better our work will be. We welcome and consider applications to join our team from all qualified candidates, regardless of their characteristics. We comply with all applicable laws and regulations on non-discrimination in employment (and recruitment), as well as work authorization and employment eligibility verification requirements.