Site Reliability Engineer

Are you a Site Reliability Engineer looking for more than your next technical role? 

At EMBL-EBI, you’ll help build and evolve the platforms that make vital scientific data accessible to researchers around the world, while developing your skills, broadening your technical expertise and building a long-term career in infrastructure engineering.

We’re looking for an engineer with a solid foundation in Kubernetes, Linux, automation and production services who is keen to take the next step. You’ll join a team investing in its future, with opportunities to take on increasing responsibility as your skills and experience grow.

About the Team

You’ll join the Applications Group, working within the Web Applications Platform Team. Led by David Ocaña, Head of Applications – Web Hosting & DB, the group sits at the intersection of IT infrastructure and scientific services, helping teams deliver the web applications and databases that underpin EMBL-EBI’s research resources.

Our platforms support services used by the global scientific community, including resources such as Ensembl, UniProt and Expression Atlas. With billions of requests handled each month, reliability, scalability, security and performance are fundamental to what we do.

We’re continuing to evolve our web hosting platform, moving towards a more consistent, container-based approach built around Kubernetes and greater automation. Working closely with colleagues across Infrastructure and Operations, you’ll help shape how these platforms are designed, managed and improved.

This is an exciting time to join us. As the team develops its technical direction and strengthens its approach to Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), you’ll have the opportunity to contribute ideas, learn from experienced colleagues and help establish the practices that will support our services into the future.

Just as importantly, we want to invest in your development

This role is designed for someone who has established their technical foundations and is ready to grow. As you build expertise and demonstrate increasing ownership, there is scope to progress towards a senior engineering role, with greater autonomy and opportunities to guide colleagues, and potentially towards a more strategic coordination role over time. Your development will be supported by practical experience, collaboration and the opportunity to take on progressively more complex challenges.

What you’ll do

You’ll help build, operate and improve the platforms that host EMBL-EBI’s public-facing scientific web services. This is a hands-on engineering role where you’ll develop your expertise in production infrastructure, automation, monitoring and service reliability, while contributing to a team-wide programme of continuous improvement.

Your responsibilities will grow with you: from delivering reliable technical solutions and improving day-to-day operations to taking greater ownership of projects, helping shape engineering practices and supporting the wider team as your experience develops.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Build and maintain our hosting platform: Contribute to the administration and evolution of our on-premises Kubernetes-based web hosting environment.
• Improve reliability and performance: Help ensure production services remain available, resilient, secure and responsive under demanding workloads.
• Automate and simplify operations: Develop and improve automation, configuration management and deployment processes to reduce manual effort and improve consistency.
• Develop our monitoring capabilities: Work with tools such as Prometheus and Elasticsearch to improve infrastructure monitoring, observability and insight into service performance.
• Support our delivery ecosystem: Help maintain and improve supporting technologies, including GitLab CI/CD and related tooling.
• Champion SRE practices: Apply and develop approaches that improve service reliability, operational efficiency, documentation and continuous improvement.
• Collaborate across teams: Work with colleagues in Applications, Infrastructure and Operations to solve problems, share knowledge and deliver improvements.
• Grow your technical ownership: Take increasing responsibility for tasks and projects, contribute to prioritisation and, as your experience develops, help guide technical decisions and support colleagues.

You will have

We’re looking for someone with a sound technical foundation, a practical approach to problem-solving and the curiosity to keep learning.

• A degree in Computer Science, or equivalent demonstrable professional experience.
• Around three years’ relevant experience designing, deploying or operating production infrastructure or large-scale web hosting services.
• Hands-on experience deploying and administering Kubernetes in an on-premises or cloud environment.
• Strong Linux administration skills, ideally with Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) or a related distribution.
• Experience with infrastructure automation and configuration management, using tools such as Ansible, Puppet or Terraform.
• Practical experience with Git, CI/CD pipelines and scripting or programming, ideally using Python.
• Understanding of infrastructure monitoring, production service management and approaches to improving reliability.
• A proactive, growth-oriented mindset, with a strong commitment to continuous learning, developing technical expertise, taking ownership and embracing opportunities to grow and progress within the team.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to organise competing priorities, document work clearly and share knowledge within a multidisciplinary team.

You may also have

You don’t need to tick every box, but additional experience in the following areas would be an advantage:

• Kubernetes certifications such as CKA, CKAD or CKS.
• Experience with public cloud platforms, particularly AWS or Google Cloud.
• Familiarity with automation and orchestration tools such as Jenkins or Rundeck.
• Knowledge of web application security principles and practices, including OWASP guidance.
• Experience working in Agile teams and contributing to iterative service improvement.

We value engineers who take ownership, communicate openly, support their colleagues and are enthusiastic about learning. You’ll bring your own expertise and perspective, while being willing to share knowledge, explore new approaches and help the team become even better at what it does.

Working Pattern: This role offers a hybrid working arrangement, with the requirement of working a minimum of 2 days on site per week, including one designated team day to support collaboration and connection.

Contract length: Initial 3-year fixed-term Staff Member contract, renewable to 9 years. Our target start date is December 2026 – January 2027.

Salary: Grade 5 - Monthly salary from £3,452.05 after tax, plus generous benefits and financial allowances based on individual circumstances. Excluding 12.99% personal pension and insurance contributions.

Next steps: Please submit an up- to-date CV and supporting cover letter outlining your transferable skills and experience and motivation for applying. 

*** We plan to advertise the role for up to four weeks, with a scheduled closing date of Tuesday, 8th December. However, if we receive a strong field of applications within the first two weeks, we may close the vacancy earlier. The advert will remain open for a minimum of two weeks, making Tuesday, 24th November the earliest possible closing date. We therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible. ***

Where Can I Find Out More?

• Meet the Applications Group – Find out more about the team responsible for EMBL-EBI’s web applications, databases and cloud adoption, and the work led by David Ocaña.
• Explore EMBL-EBI’s IT Infrastructure – Discover the infrastructure, private cloud platforms and technologies that underpin our scientific computing services.
• Discover EMBL-EBI and our scientific mission – Learn how our work in data-driven biology supports researchers and scientific discovery around the world.

Why join us

Do something meaningful
At EMBL-EBI you can apply your talent and passion to accelerate science and tackle some of humankind's greatest challenges. EMBL-EBI, part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, is a worldwide leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. We provide the global research community with access to publicly available databases and tools which are crucial for the advancement of healthcare, food security, and biodiversity.
 

Join a culture of innovation
We are located on the Wellcome Genome Campus, alongside other prominent research and biotech organisations, and surrounded by beautiful Cambridgeshire countryside. This is a highly collaborative and inclusive community where our employees enjoy a relaxed atmosphere. We are committed to ensuring our employees feel valued, supported and empowered to reach their professional potential.  Watch this video to see how EMBL-EBI makes an impact.

Enjoy lots of benefits:

• Financial incentives: Monthly family, child and non-resident allowances, annual salary review, pension scheme, death benefit, long-term care, accident-at-work and unemployment insurances
• Flexible working arrangements - including hybrid working patterns 
• 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 public holidays
• Relocation package including installation grant (conditions apply)
• 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, 10 days of child sick leave, generous parental leave, holiday clubs on campus and monthly family and child allowances
• Benefits for non-UK residents: Visa exemption, education grant for private schooling, financial support to travel back to your home country every second year and a monthly non-resident allowance.

For detailed information please visit our employee benefits page here. 

What else you need to know

• International applicants: We recruit internationally and successful candidates are offered visa exemptions. Please take a look at our International Applicants page for further information.  
• EMBL is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we apply DORA principles to our recruitment and performance assessment processes here.
• Diversity and inclusion: At EMBL, we believe that diverse teams drive innovation and scientific excellence. We encourage applications from candidates of all genders, identities, nationalities and/or any other diverse backgrounds.
• How to apply: To apply please submit a cover letter and a CV through our online system. Applications will close at 23:59 CET on the date shown below. We aim to provide a response within two weeks after the closing date.

Closing Date