Lead IT Engineer

Location

Kidlington, Oxfordshire | United Kingdom

Job description

Job Description

We have an exciting opportunity for a dynamic experienced Lead IT engineer to join our team and help us make fusion energy a reality. You will be responsible for the IT team within First Light Fusion and collaborate closely with other leads in the Security and HPC teams reporting to the Head of IT, Security and Facilities to ensure that in implementing changes all aspects are covered. The lead engineer is responsible for managing the company’s core IT technology from planning, implementation, and ongoing support operations.

The ideal candidate would either have a specialty in storage systems or networking (the other specialty will be recruited separately as a senior role), and a broad understanding of endpoint management, workstations and servers. The role encompasses both Windows and Linux based systems and an in depth understating of both operating systems is essential. The goal is to ensure IT systems and people are effective and functioning within the limits of budget, time and specifications of the company. This role is a hands-on leadership position where the candidate will be involved in both planning, management and implementation of systems.

Responsibilities will include:

• Oversee IT technology operations, hardware implementation, user support, project planning and delivery.
• Devise and establish IT policies and systems to support the implementation of business needs .
• Analyze the business requirements of all departments to determine their technology needs.
• Proactively manage the IT estate to identify and resolve issues before impacting the business. Additionally identify the need for upgrades, or new systems when required.
• Plan IT expenditure and meet budget requirement.

Essential

• Proven experience as IT Lead or similar role.
• Deep understanding of IT management across Linux and Windows.
• Broad understanding of endpoint management across multiple sites and hundreds of endpoints.
• Experience in meeting IT budgets.
• Excellent organizational and leadership skills.
• Outstanding communication abilities.
• BSc in computer science, engineering, or relevant field experience.

Either – Specialty in storage solutions implementation with specifically with regards to site-to-site replication, performance, and backup strategies. Knowledge of HPC specific file systems e.g. Lustre a bonus.

Or – Speciality in networking implementation with regards to multi-site operations, covering both wired and wireless setup. Knowledge of low latency high HPC networking a bonus.

Desirable

While the skills listed here are desirable, we are able provide training and support specific areas where needed.

• Experience in a R&D/Laboratory rapidly changing environment.
• Experience in using Ansible for configuration control.
• Previous data centre management experience.
• Experience of transitioning from a start-up company to scale.
• Background knowledge of HPC and Security.

Benefits

• Very competitive salary
• 25 days annual leave (increasing to 28 with time in service) + bank holidays
• 8% employer pension contribution without matching requirements
• Relocation support
• Flexible working
• Generous share options scheme
• Free lunch and soft drinks
• Enhanced maternal / paternal leave
• Enhanced sick leave

Our commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion

We are a small company with a huge mission. The only important aspect for the team, and for each individual, is the contribution they can make. Our selection process and requirements for career progression disregard gender, gender identity, race, disability, colour, religion, and all other aspects of diversity that make us all humans. Diverse teams have been proven to be better and we strongly believe it. We’re not perfect but we strive to be.

First Light Fusion

We are a lean, focused and agile company researching energy generation by inertial confinement fusion. We spun out from the University of Oxford in June 2011 and are based near Oxford. First Light continues to work closely with the academic community, both in the UK and internationally. The company is well-funded by both institutional investors and private individuals.

Inertial confinement fusion for energy generation is a well-established research field and is being pursued in many laboratories worldwide, perhaps most notably in the US at the National Ignition Facility. We are exploring a number of alternative research directions that harness the same fundamental physics, with the prime focus being power generation. Our work to-date has included theoretical analysis, detailed numerical simulation, and experimental validation. We have an increasingly clear vision of the pathway to a power plant.

We really believe fusion will be solved in the 2020s. If it’s solved by us, fantastic, if it’s solved by someone else, still great.

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Salary