Head of Research Computing Platforms

Location: The Francis Crick Institute, Midland Road, London

Short summary

The Head of Research Computing Platforms will be part of the Information Technology Office (ITO) team and report directly to the Crick CIO. They will work closely with Crick scientists at all levels of the Institute to collaboratively plan and manage platforms that support the current and future needs of the Crick scientific community.

Key Responsibilities 

The Crick has recently installed the second wave of its scientific computing infrastructure, which currently provides 25PB of high-performance storage (with offsite backup and long-term archive) and over 12,000 cores of general-purpose compute, and multiple GPU clusters (H100, A100, L40) to support the varied needs of the organisation.

Specific objectives include, but are not limited to: 

• Understand the scientific and research requirements of the Crick’s scientific programmes to advise and work in partnership with researchers and the ITO team to deliver scientific computing platforms appropriately to meet their scientific program needs.
• Work with the scientific community, formally, by continuing to develop the existing governance structures, and informally, to provide process for allocation of research computing platform resources (storage and compute)
• Continued development of the strategy for sustainable growth of the Crick’s scientific computing platforms.
• Develop the Crick’s strategy for world class data lifecycle management technology solutions and best practices.
• Take the lead in developing a strategy for business continuity and disaster recovery of the scientific data and systems, ensuring that it reflects the needs of researchers.
• Establish an external advisory panel, to validate the Crick’s strategies in points 3, 4 and 5, above, and to provide feedback and review of the quality of its implementation.
• Liaise with external groups to develop and/or leverage shared infrastructure for the benefit of Crick researchers and wider collaborations. 

About us

The Francis Crick Institute is a biomedical discovery institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental biology underlying health and disease. Its work is helping to understand why disease develops and to translate discoveries into new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat illnesses such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, infections, and neurodegenerative diseases.

An independent organisation, its founding partners are the Medical Research Council, Cancer Research UK, Wellcome, UCL, Imperial College London and King’s College London.

The Crick was formed in 2015, and in 2016 it moved into a new state-of-the-art building in central London which brings together 1500 scientists and support staff working collaboratively across disciplines, making it the biggest biomedical research facility under in one building in Europe.

The Francis Crick Institute will be world-class with a strong national role. Its distinctive vision for excellence includes commitments to collaboration; developing emerging talent and exporting it the rest of the UK; public engagement; and helping turn discoveries into treatments as quickly as possible to improve lives and strengthen the economy. 

• If you are interested in applying for this role, please apply via our website.
• The closing date for applications is 08/12/2024
• All offers of employment are subject to successful security screening and continuous eligibility to work in the United Kingdom.

Advert information