Location: Terceira Island, Azores, Portugal – Headquarters of the AIR Centre

Contract Duration: 2 years

 

The Atlantic International Research Centre (AIR Centre) has a vacancy for an IT specialist. You will be joining a dynamic and multidisciplinary team and work in the diverse and emerging fields of satellite Earth Observation (EO) and Data science. As an IT specialist, you will work with a blend of technical, scientific, industrial activities. You will have the opportunity to work in a unique HPC infrastructure in the Azores. AIR Centre has a datacentre in Angra do Heroísmo, with a core network at 100Gbps that ingest data directly from satellites and process it in near real-time to a volume of 300GB per day, which is then indexed and stored, and made available via RESTful APIs. With a high-availability modern software-defined object storage cluster with 100TB capacity in NVMe drives, the AIR Centre host web-servers through which services are delivered. We follow an API-first service-oriented architecture, with some micro-services. Among other opportunities for professional development, we encourage contributions to open-source projects.

Tasks and Responsibilities

The ability to carry out at least three of the following, with the willingness to develop competencies on the other, with the support of paid training:

• Configure and maintain Ubuntu servers, including security (ufw, and explore more comprehensive options).
• Configure and maintain LAN, including setup of VLANs, access points and the physical infrastructure.
• Configure and maintain SQL (MySQL and PostgreSQL + PostGIS) and NoSLQ databases.
• Maintain software-define object storage (MinIO, Ceph).
• Configure and maintain Docker containers and their orchestration with Kubernetes.
• Configure and maintain hypervisor type 1 with KVM.
• Configure and maintain open-source hypervisors type 2.
• Setup webservers with NGINX.
• Assist with the configuration of, and maintain, CI/CD pipelines.
• Write and maintain configuration and data-handling scripts.

Qualifications and Required Skills:

• Minimum of three years’ experience with production environments.
• Minimum of one year’s experience with continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Linux, configure and maintain:
  • Ubuntu server 20x LTS: experience ≥ 3 years.
  • Passive security: experience ≥ 1 year.
  • Open-source hypervisor type 2 (host): experience ≥ 1 year.
  • Web servers: experience ≥ 1 year.
  • Hypervisor Type 1 (bare metal) with KVM: experience is welcome.
• Docker containers: experience ≥ 2 years.
• Kubernetes’ experience is welcome.
• Experience with Open Stack is welcome.

Working Place:

The EO Lab is a dedicated unit of the AIR Centre, located in the TERINOV Technological Park (Terceira island, Azores) and is established as ESA_LAB@Azores, a laboratory to set-up an institutional link between academia, high-tech enterprises, research institutions and European Space Agency to explore innovative applications of space technologies of observation in the Atlantic area.

The EO Lab contributes to maximizing the integration of a distributed space ecosystem, extending the use of space technologies and applications to support societal challenges, public demands and policies in the Atlantic space and contributing to a better knowledge of understudied areas. It is also a laboratory to test procedures and methods to connect peripheral regions into globally competitive technological sectors by supporting research, innovation and entrepreneurship. The aim is to set-up a collaborative framework to identify, consolidate, sustain, stimulate, promote and build capacity for existing, new and future EO-based services of use for Atlantic Ocean countries.

The AIR Centre is a geographically distributed network that aims to improve the development of large-scale joint initiatives, projects, and integrated actions, taking advantage of synergies of existing and connected distributed infrastructures, institutions, and resources in the Atlantic region with particular attention to both sides of the tropical and South Atlantic areas. Its main purpose is to strengthen research and innovation cooperation among the Atlantic countries to address the challenges of developing a more integrated and connected sustainable blue-economy in the Atlantic basin. It focuses on enhancing scientific and technological collaboration between public and private entities in a wide range of areas related to the marine and maritime environment, based on a network with the capacity to attract scientists and technology-based companies. It aims to accelerate the generation and flow of knowledge of excellence and its valuation in the field of blue economy, including aspects such as climate change, food and energy security, circular economy, maritime technologies and the conservation of marine natural resources.

We pursue the use and management of the marine and oceanic environment in a more intelligent, sustainable, and inclusive way. The United Nations agenda for 2030 is an important reference for the AIR Centre, which works to achieve its objectives, developing effective, viable capacities, knowledge, and technologies for the region. It aims to improve the mutual understanding and collaboration of countries, regions and entities connected by the Atlantic Ocean, by strengthening cooperation with the European Union and by harnessing the capabilities of its outermost Atlantic territories. Ultimately, it seeks to materialise the benefits of the blue economy in the Atlantic, promoting the skills, knowledge, and technological solutions necessary to address social and economic challenges.

The AIR Centre can reach directly a significant segment of the main stakeholder institutions in a fast and efficient way, accelerating the connectivity and interaction of the Atlantic region. This way, it has a unique capacity to effectively influence the lives of the Atlantic population.

Application Process:

Interested candidates should send a single PDF file (please name it: Name_EOLAB.PDF), to recruitment@aircentre.org containing:

1. Motivation Letter
2. Detailed CV
3. Contacts of 2 references

The deadline for application submission is November 15^th, 2023. Selected candidates will be invited for an interview, via videoconference.