Head of Infrastructure

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is a non-profit, Intergovernmental Organisation funded by 29 member states, one associate member state and two prospect member states. EMBL has over 2,000 members of personnel from over 80 nations based across its six sites: Heidelberg (Germany), Hinxton near Cambridge (UK), Grenoble (France), Hamburg (Germany), Rome (Italy) and Barcelona (Spain).

In service of its world-leading life sciences services, training, and research, EMBL-EBI operates a substantial infrastructure estate, comprising 500PB of raw storage, high bandwidth networks, multiple High Performance Computing (HPC) clusters and a large VMWare presence.

The Head of Infrastructure Services leads a multidisciplinary IT team responsible for the operation and evolution of this massive infrastructure. They will build and maintain a service roadmap, adapting to the diverse IT requirements of the scientific teams across EMBL-EBI. This involves building strong internal relationships, both within the IT department and more widely with the teams managing public-facing bioinformatics services.

Specifically, this role will lead the Infrastructure team (currently 18 persons), supported by team leads, covering data centres, high performance computing, network and connectivity, storage and virtualisation. The Infrastructure team is part of the IT and Technical Services (ITS) department, which consists of five teams: Head office, Operations, Infrastructure, Applications and Web Development. The role will entail working closely with leading life scientists and technical users to develop solutions to complex problems and ensure that the infrastructure continues to serve the needs of its users now and into the future.

The Head of Infrastructure is crucial in ensuring operational excellence, efficiency, and continuous alignment of services with the needs of a dynamic research and service delivery organisation.

EMBL-EBI supports hybrid working, and this position requires on-site working for at least 2 days per week.

Your role

Strategic Leadership

• Define the team's roadmap and align this with the rest of IT & EMBL-EBI's mission, defining the technical direction and development of the infrastructure.
• Work with the Head of ITS & the other ITS team leaders to develop and deliver the ITS strategy.
• Foster a service-oriented mindset within the team, prioritising reliable and user-friendly solutions.
  
  

Stakeholder Engagement

• Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders across EMBL-EBI.
• Ensure that services are tailored to meet their specific requirements.
  
  

Technical Excellence

• Oversee the design, implementation and operation of EMBL-EBI IT infrastructure.
• Continuously improve existing solutions to enhance reliability, performance, and adaptability.
  
  

Team Development

• Provide guidance and support to your team, ensuring they have the tools and resources to succeed in their roles.
• Facilitate professional development through training and skills-building activities.
  
  

You have

• A degree in a relevant area or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.
• A proactive and positive problem-solving mindset
• Inclusive leadership skills; actively seek to identify your own biases and consider a range of perspectives to inform decision-making and the way you lead and collaborate with others
• Demonstrate key leadership qualities self awareness, empathy, growth mindset, active listening, empowerment of others and superior communication skills
• Dedication to developing effective relationships across EMBL while demonstrating a commitment to inclusive behaviours
• Previous senior team management experience, providing leadership to a team in the delivery of a large IT infrastructure across multiple data centres.
• Experience building long-term IT service roadmaps with a user community and delivering on those roadmaps.
• Technical understanding of some of the following:
  • High performance computing (HPC)
  • High performance storage, i.e. Lustre, VAST, Weka etc.
  • Large-scale storage, particularly object storage
  • WAN and data centre networking
• Experience with large-scale hardware purchasing, managing large budgets and with long-term economic planning.
• Demonstrated experience building & maintaining professional relationships at all levels within an organisation (i.e. senior management, peers, technical & non-technical staff).
• Great communication skills - able to work with stakeholders to understand needs and communicate technology options and opportunities.
• Works well with other people. Listens, communicates and builds constructive relationships.
• The ability to nurture and maintain a positive team environment.
• Persuade and inspire others towards a common vision or goal.
  

You may also have

• Experience of leading a team in developing or operating IT services at scale (PBs of data, 100s of VMs, 100s of users).
• Familiarity with agile management practices (e.g. Kanban, Scrum) and their role in managing a team and projects.
• Experience providing IT services in an academic or research IT environment.
• Qualification or experience with ITSM (we use ServiceNow).
• Experience in facilitating teams to review current processes and develop new ones to improve operational efficiency, quality and simplification.
• Hands-on experience of bioinformatics tools, analyses and/or public biodata resources.
• Experience working in a diverse and multinational environment.
  
  

Apply now! Benefits and Contract Information

• Financial incentives: depending on circumstances, monthly family/marriage allowance of £272 monthly child allowance of £328 per child. Non resident allowance up to £701per month. Annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Hybrid working arrangements
• Private medical insurance for you and your immediate family (including all prescriptions and generous dental & optical cover)
• Generous time off: 30 days annual leave per year, in addition to eight bank holidays
• Relocation package including installation grant (as applicable)
• Campus life: Free shuttle bus to and from work, on-site library, subsidised on-site gym and cafeteria, casual dress code, extensive sports and social club activities (on campus and remotely)
• Family benefits: On-site nursery, child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances
• Contract duration: This position is a 5 year contract renewable up to 9 years
• Salary: Monthly salary starting at£5,848after tax but excl. pension & insurances) + benefits (Total package will be dependent on family circumstances)
• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Read more on our page for international applicants.
• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL-EBI, we strongly believe that inclusive and diverse teams benefit from higher levels of innovation and creative thought. We encourage applications from women, LGBTQ+ and individuals from all nationalities.
• Job location: This role is based in Hinxton, near Cambridge, UK. You will be required to relocate if you are based overseas and you will receive a generous relocation package to support you.
  
  

To apply, please submit a covering letter and CV via our online system. Applications will close on 13/07/2025.
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