Computing Systems Analyst

The International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) seeks to recruit a Computing Systems Analyst to analyse, develop and implement systems to ensure ILRI’s research computing satisfies the needs of scientists, uses the most up-to-date technologies and achieves international standards for data sharing, archiving and management. This is an international appointment reporting to the Head of the Research Methods Group (RMG) and the Program Leader for Animal Biosciences.   

ILRI works to enhance the roles livestock play in pathways out of poverty in developing countries. ILRI is a member of the CGIAR Consortium, a global research partnership of 15 centres working with many partners for a food-secure future. ILRI has two main campuses in East Africa and other hubs in East, West and Southern Africa and South, Southeast and East Asia. www.ilri.org.

CGIAR is a global agricultural research partnership for a food-secure future. Its science is carried out by 15 research centres that are members of the CGIAR Consortium in collaboration with hundreds of partner organizations. www.cgiar.org.

Key responsibilities:

• Design and lead implementation of the strategy for research computing infrastructure and support, keeping up-to-date with changes and advances relevant to ILRI’s research activities.
• Establish and maintain robust systems for backup of user and application data on the research computing platform.
• Keep up-to-date with applications and services relevant to ILRI’s research activities.
• Manage the installation, configuration and maintenance of scientific applications on the research computing platform.
• Take the lead in establishing and maintaining secure and robust systems to support research data storage, processing, display and distribution.*
• Communicate with researchers concerning updates, opportunities, requirements and changes made to the research computing systems.*
• Develop more effective ways of using and configuring applications and make them available for use across the ILRI campuses.*

*In liaison with ILRI’s ICT team

• Manage the “Research Computing Systems” team within RMG.
• Mentor and assist Bioscience Directorate & Biosciences East and Central Africa (BecA) team members with infrastructure for sequence data capture, processing, storage and analysis.
• Mentor and assist the Animal Biosciences program in making genomic analysis software and hardware available.
• Support Linux systems administration in the Knowledge Management & Information Systems (KMIS) team.
• Maintain and deploy source code customizations to the CGIAR DSpace institutional repository at ILRI
• Contribute to the alignment / development of knowledge and data management systems in other CGIAR centres.

Requirements:

• An MSc in Computer Science or Computer Information Systems or a BSc with comparable experience.
• At least 5 years relevant experience managing Unix systems.
• Significant experience in management of high-performance computing cluster environments, including design and development of systems.
• Significant experience in a scientific computing environment, preferably bioinformatics – applied research preferable.
• Experience in the provisioning and management of virtual machines.
• Experience with scripting for automation, batch processing, etc.
• Knowledge of relational databases and database-driven applications.

Post location: The position is based at ILRI’s Headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.

Position level: The position is Research Associate level (4A) dependent on qualifications and experience.

Duration: 3 years with the possibility of renewal, contingent upon individual performance and continued funding.

Terms of appointment: Base salary from USD 36,000 per annum depending on skills and experience.

ILRI offers a competitive international remuneration and benefits package which includes: 15% Pension, Medical insurance, Life insurance and allowances for: Education, Housing, Relocation, Home leave, Annual holiday entitlement of 30 days + public holidays.

*Benefits and salary are tax free subject to compliance with tax regulations of country of citizenship.

Applications: Applicants should provide a cover letter and curriculum vitae; names and addresses (including telephone and email) of three referees who are knowledgeable about the candidate’s professional qualifications and work experience to be included in the curriculum vitae. The position title and reference number: REF: CSA/RMG/10/13 should be clearly indicated in the subject line of the cover letter. All applications to be submitted online on our recruitment portal: http://ilri.simplicant.com/ on or before 31 October 2013.

To find out more about ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org

To find out more about working at ILRI visit our website at http://www.ilri.org/ilricrowd/

ILRI is an equal opportunity employer. Suitably qualified women and developing country citizens are particularly encouraged to apply.