DevOps Engineer at NRF National Research Foundation

About the position

Postion Summary:
SARAO seeks to appoint a DevOps Engineer, responsible to automates and supports the tools and processes relating to continuous delivery, integration and deployment for software packages, platforms, operating systems and infrastructure in the Compute Infrastructure Department within the Engineering & Technology Development Division.

Key Responsibilities:

• Maintain and support the DevOps, logging and monitoring stacks employed on current production and lab systems within the Digital Signal Processing Group and Compute Infrastructure GroupDesign and prototype the DevOps, logging and monitoring stacks for future systems and projectsDevelop and integrate the DevOps, Logging & Monitoring stacks as critical components of infrastructure management
• Deploy and integrate the compute infrastructure with other subsystems and infrastructure as requiredManage and maintain the configurations of compute infrastructure systemsCapturing and maintaining the as-built CI configurationWriting technical design and implementation documentationWriting technical memosProvide operational support of infrastructureOccasionally work after hours in the operational support contextContribute to the continuous availability improvement of the infrastructureParticipate in skills development training organized by the organization with the purpose of acquiring new or additional skills, improving current skills, or developments towards domain expertise

Minimum Qualification:

• Bachelors Degree / Advanced Diploma / NQF 7

Minimum Experience:

• 4-6 years

• B
• Tech/B
• Sc (Comp Sci or related field) with 6+ years; ORB
• Eng/B
• Sc Hons (Comp Sci or related field) with 4+ years;

Experience:

• DevOps / System Administrator oriented role, preferably in a high-performance computing environmentSoftware developer / engineer role coupled with further education or training in DevOps and system administration

Knowledge:

• Linux system installation, configuration and administrationPython Programming LanguageContainerisation (e
• g
• , Docker, Podman, LXD, ECS)Orchestration (e
• g
• , Kubernetes, Mesos, Nomad)Infrastructure-as-code (e
• g
• , Ansible, Puppet, Chef)Distributed monitoring and alerting (e
• g
• , Prometheus, Grafana, Elastic)Distributed logging (e
• g
• , ELK stack)Deployment (e
• g
• , MaaS, FAI)Virtualisation (e
• g
• , Openstack, proxmox)Continuous integration (e
• g
• , Jenkins, Buildbot, Github Actions)Distributed Storage (e
• g
• , Ceph, Lustre, MinIO)Knowledge of high-performance computing infrastructureKnowledge of Ethernet networks

Additional Notes:
Desire to continuously learn, problem solve and acquire new skills with cutting edge technologyA clear and methodical approach to problem solvingA high attention to detail, excellent organization skillsGood communication skills, written and verbalAbility to effectively transfer knowledge and skills to other team membersEagerness to develop a technical specialization and expertiseThe NRF website provides more details on the initiatives and activities Applicants should submit a comprehensive CV by registering and apply online through the NRF Recruitment and Selection Portal. Applications should be accompanied by a letter of motivation indicating the applicant·s suitability for the position. The names and contact details of at least three referees should be provided.

Desired Skills:

• Skilled in applied field of position
• Knowledge to be relevant
• Responsible in performing duties

About The Employer:

The National Research Foundation (NRF) is established by an Act of Parliament and mandated to contribute to national development by supporting, promoting and advancing research and human capacity development, through funding and the provision of the necessary research infrastructure, in order to facilitate the creation of knowledge, innovation and development in all fields of science and technology, including humanities, social sciences and indigenous knowledge; and supporting and promoting public awareness of, and engagement with, science. The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) spearheads South Africa's activities in the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope, commonly known as the SKA, in engineering, science and construction. SARAO is a National Facility managed by the National Research Foundation and incorporates radio astronomy instruments and programmes such as the MeerKAT telescope in the Karoo, the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in Gauteng, the African Very Long Baseline Interferometry (AVN) programme in nine African countries as well as the associated human capital development and commercialisation endeavours.