Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer & Team Lead - IT Services - 107907 - Grade 9

Central IT Services at the University of Birmingham use complex, large-scale architectures based on Unix, Linux, Windows and cloud technologies, coupled with advanced storage solutions.

These need to be configured and maintained to the highest possible standards of reliability, performance and quality.

Business continuity and high service levels are demanded equally for mission-critical research services as well as for those relied on for teaching, learning and administration.

Advanced Research Computing (ARC) builds and runs (or buys-in) a range of specialist services for researchers, collectively known as BEAR (Birmingham Environment for Academic Research).

Aimed at all disciplines, BEAR covers an increasingly broad spectrum of needs, ranging from the traditional HPC through storage and archiving solutions to collaboration and analytics tools.

ARC also delivers Baskerville; a leading GPU accelerated National Compute Resource (NCR) and supports researchers using specialist regional and national services.

Together with the national supercomputer ARCHER2 (Tier 1) and Birmingham’s own BEAR infrastructure, these supercomputers form a powerful resource for research.

Within ARC, the Architecture, Infrastructure and Systems (AIS) group is responsible for the design, planning, installation and running of hardware systems and associated services that underpin both University and national services.

AIS works in partnership with ARC’s Research Software Group and Research Engagement and Data Group to provide a sector leading environment for computationally and data intensive research, catering for all academic disciplines.

AIS currently operates ‘at-scale’ research storage systems, supercomputing (including HPC and HTC), high speed networking and private cloud infrastructures and is constantly evolving and growing to get the best advantage from the latest innovation in technology.

Funded by the Baskerville NCR project, this role is a senior technical leader within Advanced Research Computing (ARC) where the Principal Research Infrastructure Engineer and Team Lead acts as one of the University’s foremost experts in research infrastructure. In collaboration with other Principal RIEs and the AIS Group Leader, the post holder is responsible for the strategic design, development, implementation and operational oversight of critical research platforms, spanning high performance computing (HPC), high throughput computing (HTC), cloud services and large-scale research storage systems. These services underpin a wide range of computationally and data-intensive research activities across the University and its collaborators.

In addition to providing deep technical leadership, the role includes line management and development of a small team within AIS, ensuring the delivery of robust, scalable and high-performance infrastructure aligned with institutional and national research priorities.

The post holder will work closely with colleagues across ARC and the wider University to ensure these critical systems evolve to meet emerging research needs, maintaining the highest standards of reliability, performance and innovation.

• Lifecycle Management of Research Infrastructure: Lead the renewal, upgrade, expansion and continuous enhancement of the BEAR infrastructure and associated services (including HPC, HTC, cloud, storage and networking), balancing strategic development with the demands of day-to-day operations. This includes services supporting University, regional, national and research council–funded programmes.
• Operational Leadership and Service Reliability: Oversee the secure, reliable and high-performance operation of ARC’s research infrastructure and services, ensuring protection of research data and delivery against institutional and contractual commitments. Act as an escalation point for complex technical queries and major incidents, and serve as a key technical contact for external partners.
• Team Leadership and Management: Line manage and develop a small team of Infrastructure Engineers within the AIS group, setting direction, allocating resources, and fostering a high-performance, inclusive and collaborative team culture.
• Architecture, Integration and Service Development: Provide technical leadership in the design and integration of BEAR services across HPC, HTC, cloud (public and private) and storage platforms, ensuring interoperability with University systems and alignment with evolving research needs.
• Strategic Design and Financial Planning: Design major components of research infrastructure in line with ARC and University strategy, including planning and managing multi-year investment across compute, storage, cloud and networking. Ensure full lifecycle costing, including operational and environmental considerations.
• Expert Technical Leadership and Advisory Role: Act as one of the University’s lead technologists in research infrastructure, providing expert advice to senior committees, academics, PIs and researchers. Contribute to funding proposals and support novel and complex research use cases.
• External Engagement and Supplier Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with internal and external stakeholders, including technology suppliers and research partners. Represent the University in national and international forums, influencing sector direction and engaging with emerging technologies.
• Innovation, Evaluation and Benchmarking: Evaluate, benchmark and adopt new and emerging technologies to enhance BEAR services. Secure access to pre-commercial and early-access programmes to ensure competitive advantage and continuous innovation.
• Collaboration and Knowledge Sharing: Work closely with ARC colleagues and wider IT teams to maximise the value of infrastructure investments. Share expertise, mentor team members and provide technical leadership across domains.
• Project Leadership and Delivery: Lead and deliver complex infrastructure and research technology projects, including those involving cutting-edge or experimental technologies. Manage resources effectively to achieve successful outcomes.
• Technical Specification and Risk Management: Develop detailed technical specifications for major infrastructure implementations, considering performance, cost, sustainability, risk and long-term operational impact.
• In addition to University provided training and development, you will undertake personal and professional development as required, ensuring skills and knowledge are up to date so that the role is performed to the required level.
• Actively manages equality, diversity and inclusion through monitoring and evaluation and actively challenging unacceptable behaviour.
• Supports the University’s sustainability agenda through resource efficient working.
• Any other duties commensurate with the grade.

• Educated to degree level or equivalent qualification with substantial relevant professional experience in a technical role.
• Demonstrable professional development through a series of progressively more demanding and influential roles.
• Evidence of literacy and numeracy appropriate to the role.

• Authoritative and advanced technical expertise in research computing infrastructure, with:
• Proven experience in the design and delivery of specialised, large-scale, leading-edge infrastructure supporting computationally and/or data-intensive research.
• Substantial experience across the lifecycle (design, implementation, operation and support) of at least one of:
• High Performance Computing (HPC) systems.
• Large-scale (multi-petabyte), high-performance research storage systems and data services.
• High-speed, low-latency networking supporting data-intensive workloads.
• Private cloud infrastructure (such as OpenStack).
• Substantial experience as a Linux system administrator.
• Experience with automation and DevOps (including versioning, CI/CD, configuration management and infrastructure as code).
• Broad and comprehensive understanding of core IT domains including compute, storage, networking, security, identity and access management, software and application environments, and data science/research workflows.
• Experience with public cloud platforms for research workloads (desirable).
• Experience operating national or international research infrastructure or supporting external research communities (desirable).

• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to: document complex technical solutions clearly; Influence senior stakeholders and technology leaders; and convey complex concepts to non-expert users.
• Demonstrated capacity to solve complex technical problems and make sound independent judgments.
• Strong organisational and planning skills, with the ability to manage and prioritise both personal workload and that of a team.
• Proven ability to lead, mentor and develop more junior technical staff (team leadership experience desirable; line management experience advantageous).
• Proven ability to work collaboratively within multidisciplinary teams to deliver high-quality services.
• Strong customer focus, with the ability to engage effectively with researchers and understand evolving research requirements.
• Commitment to structured delivery and support practices, using established methodologies and tools (e.g. Agile, ITIL, configuration management, version control).

Leadership and Responsibility

• Ability to exercise a high degree of independent professional responsibility, discretion and initiative.
• Ability to apply expert knowledge strategically to meet the evolving needs of the University’s research mission.
• Evidence of self-motivated learning and continuous professional development, maintaining awareness of emerging technologies and industry trends.

• Experience of championing Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in own work area.
• Ability to monitor and evaluate the extent to which equality and diversity legislation, policies, procedures are applied.
• Ability to identify issues with the potential to impact on protected groups and take appropriate action.

Informal enquiries to Jon Wakelin, email: j.wakelin@bham.ac.uk

View our staff values and behaviours here

Use of AI in applications: We want to understand your genuine interest in the role and for the written elements of your application to accurately reflect your own communication style.

Applications that rely too heavily on AI tools can appear generic and lack the detail we need to assess your skills and experience.

Such applications will unlikely be progressed to interview.

We believe there is no such thing as a 'typical' member of University of Birmingham staff and that diversity in its many forms is a strength that underpins the exchange of ideas, innovation and debate at the heart of University life.

We are committed to proactively addressing the barriers experienced by some groups in our community and are proud to hold Athena SWAN, Race Equality Charter and Disability Confident accreditations.

We have an Equality Diversity and Inclusion Centre that focuses on continuously improving the University as a fair and inclusive place to work where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

We are also committed to sustainability, which is a key part of our strategy.

You can find out more about our work to create a fairer university for everyone on our website.