Introduction

Are you a Database Engineer willing to take an active role in the support of the databases used by the LHC experiments, LHC accelerator operations team and by CERN's administrative support services? Then join CERN and take part in one of the most incredible scientific experiments in the world!

You will join:

The Database Services (DB) Group which is responsible for all aspects of database service provision at CERN including support or the control and operation of the LHC accelerator and support for the online and offline activities of the LHC experiments as well as support for Administrative Information Services.

More information on the IT Department and Database group is at: http://cern.ch/it-dep/ and http://cern.ch/it-dep/db/ and on the databases at CERN DB blog at: http://db-blog.web.cern.ch/.

Functions

As a Database Engineer in the Database Services (DB) Group, your main activities will consist of:

• Database administration of MySQL, PostgreSQL and InfluxDB databases through multiple product lifecycle environments, from development to mission-critical production systems.
• Database administration of other database technologies of interest for the High Energy Physics community.
• Configuration and support of database platforms: architecture, evolution, migration, upgrades and patches, including monitoring of system health and performance, to ensure high levels of performance, availability, and security.
• Consultancy, assistance and advice to end users as well as database design help.
• Sharing domain and technical expertise, providing technical mentorship and cross-training to peers. 

Master's degree or PhD or equivalent relevant experience in the field of Computing Science or a science discipline (e.g. Physics) with significant computing content or a related field.

Experience:

The successful candidate should have demonstrated experience in following fields:

• Operation of large-scale production database environments.
• Technical and troubleshooting skills with relational and non-relational databases: at least two out of PostgreSQL, MySQL and InfluxDB.
• Performance tuning, query optimisation, replication techniques, clustering, partitioning and security issues.
• Database backups, restores and recovery.
• Knowledge and experience in Open Source database solutions.
• SQL development with ability to write and troubleshoot SQL code (stored procedures, functions, tables, indexes, constraints).

Additional experience in following fields would be an asset:

• Knowledge of High Availability and Disaster Recovery for PostgreSQL and MySQL.
• Database operations experience in an Agile development environment - Exposure to puppet configuration management.
• Experience with containers.

Technical competencies:

• Administration of databases; familiarity with large-scale and high-availability database environments.
• Knowledge of programming techniques and languages; experience with SQL, Unix shell script and Python is required. Knowledge of Perl programming would be an advantage.
• Knowledge of operating system; knowledge of Linux, knowledge of enterprise storage management (SAN or NAS) would be an asset.
• Capturing and analysis of requirements for ICT systems; ability to collect the needs of users and to manage the different phases of a project.
• Architecture and design of ICT systems; ability to design systems that fulfill the requirements and can be maintained efficiently.

Behavioural competencies:

• Solving problems: identifying, defining and assessing problems, taking action to address them.
• Achieving results: delivering high quality work on time and fulfilling expectations.
• Communicating effectively: delivering presentations in a structured and clear way; adjusting style and content to the audience; responding calmly and confidently to questions; ensuring that information, procedures and decisions are appropriately documented.
• Learning and sharing knowledge: keeping up-to-date with developments in own field of expertise and readily absorbing new information; sharing knowledge and expertise freely and willingly with others; coaching others to ensure knowledge transfer.
• Working in teams: building and maintaining constructive and effective work relationships.

Language skills:

• Spoken and written English: ability to understand and speak in professional contexts. Ability to draw-up technical specifications and/or scientific reports and to make oral presentations.
• Ability to understand and speak French or an undertaking to acquire it rapidly. 

Eligibility and closing date:

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success. We welcome applications from all Member States and Associate Member States.

This vacancy will be filled as soon as possible, and applications should normally reach us no later than 15.04.2020

Employment Conditions

Contract type: Limited duration contract (5 years). Subject to certain conditions, holders of limited-duration contracts may apply for an indefinite position.

These functions require:

• Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organization.
• Stand-by duty, when required by the needs of the Organization.

Job grade: 6-7

Job reference: IT-DB-DBR-2020-21-LD

Benchmark Job Title: Computing Engineer

Please make sure you have all the documents needed to hand as you start your application, as once it is submitted, you will not be able to upload any documents or edit your application further