Find a job 
Featured Companies 
Featured Universities 
For Companies At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead high-performance computing infrastructure to accelerate scientific discovery and innovation.
- Company: Join AstraZeneca, a leader in life-changing medicines and cutting-edge technology.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, supportive culture, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in healthcare by driving technological advancements in HPC.
- Qualifications: Experience in HPC infrastructure, cloud services, and mentoring engineering teams.
- Other info: Dynamic environment with a focus on collaboration and continuous improvement.
The predicted salary is between 36000 - 60000 ÂŁ per year.
Location: Cambridge
Salary: Competitive
Overview
Introduction to role: Are you ready to lead high-performance computing infrastructure that accelerates discovery and brings life-changing medicines to patients faster? This is your opportunity to set the direction for a mission-critical platform that underpins data science, computational biology and AI/ML workloads across the enterprise. You will steer a modern HPC environment spanning on-premises and cloud, enabling scientists to run at scale and speed while maintaining reliability and cost efficiency. Do you thrive at the intersection of engineering rigor and scientific impact, where your decisions unlock faster insights and smarter experimentation?
In this hands-on leadership role, you will be empowered to take ownership, challenge the status quo and orchestrate new possibilities—partnering closely with researchers, pushing boundaries in hackathons and ensuring our platform evolves with the demands of cutting-edge science.
Accountabilities
- Platform Roadmap: Define and own the strategic roadmap for the HPC infrastructure, aligning capacity, architecture and capabilities to scientific priorities and business outcomes.
- Operational Excellence: Drive continuous improvement of platform stability, efficiency and performance; set clear metrics and ensure reliability for large-scale workloads and time-critical studies.
- Hybrid Delivery: Lead delivery across on-premises and cloud environments, optimizing for speed, scalability and cost while ensuring seamless user experience.
- Scientific Partnership: Work with scientific users to understand their needs and translate them into robust solutions, enabling faster models, simulations and analyses.
- Technology Foresight: Scan the horizon to identify emerging technologies that keep the platform innovative and competitive, and guide timely adoption.
- Backlog Leadership: Prioritize the team’s work based on scientific impact, balancing quick wins with longer-term investments to maximize value.
- People Development: Mentor and coach engineers, build capabilities and foster a high-performance, collaborative engineering culture.
- Incident Leadership: Investigate and resolve complex operational incidents, lead root-cause analysis and implement preventative improvements that strengthen the platform.
Essential Skills/Experience
- Defining the roadmap for the platform’s HPC infrastructure
- Drive continuous improvement of the stability and efficiency of the platform
- Ensuring delivery of team objectives, both on-premises and in the cloud
- Working with scientific users to understand their needs, and develop solutions
- Horizon scanning, identifying the future technologies needed to stay innovative
- Prioritising the work backlog for the team according to scientific needs
- Mentoring and coaching engineers
- Investigating and resolving complex operational incidents
Desirable Skills/Experience
- Experience with HPC schedulers and workload managers (e.g., Slurm, PBS, Grid Engine) and job orchestration at scale
- Hands-on knowledge of cloud-based HPC services and architectures (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP), hybrid networking and cost optimization
- Containerization and orchestration for scientific workloads (e.g., Docker, Singularity, Kubernetes)
- Infrastructure as Code and automation (e.g., Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD), plus strong scripting skills in Python and Bash
- Performance tuning and profiling of compute and storage, including GPUs, accelerators and parallel filesystems (e.g., Lustre, Spectrum Scale)
- Workflow management tools (e.g., Nextflow, Snakemake) and data pipelines supporting AI/ML and bioinformatics
- Robust approach to reliability engineering, observability and security/compliance for sensitive research data
- Proven stakeholder engagement across research, engineering and product teams, with the ability to balance speed, quality and sustainability
Why AstraZeneca
Here, technology and science move together with purpose. You will join a community of entrepreneurial self-starters who experiment boldly—through hackathons, collaborations with leading academics and partnerships across the enterprise—to deliver digital capabilities that scale fast and unlock the potential of research. We value kindness alongside ambition, expect high standards and back them with investment, so your contribution directly fuels our progress toward a truly data-led organization that changes lives.
Next steps
So, what’s next? Complete your application before the below closing date.
Closing Date: 15-Feb-2026
Date Posted: 03-Feb-2026
We welcome your application regardless of characteristics. We offer reasonable adjustments/accommodations to help all candidates to perform at their best. If you have a need for any adjustments/accommodations, please complete the section in the application form.
Technical Lead (HPC Infrastructure) - SCP in Cambridge employer: AstraZeneca
Contact Detail:
AstraZeneca Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land Technical Lead (HPC Infrastructure) - SCP in Cambridge
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to current employees on LinkedIn or at industry events. Ask them about their experiences and the company culture. This can give you insider info and might even lead to a referral!
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for interviews by practising common questions related to HPC infrastructure. Think about how your past experiences align with the role's requirements. We want to see your passion for tech and science shine through!
✨Tip Number 3
Showcase your problem-solving skills! Be ready to discuss specific challenges you've faced in previous roles and how you tackled them. This is your chance to demonstrate your hands-on leadership style.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in being part of our mission to drive scientific innovation.
We think you need these skills to ace Technical Lead (HPC Infrastructure) - SCP in Cambridge
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application: Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight your experience with HPC infrastructure and cloud environments. We want to see how your skills align with our mission to accelerate discovery in life-changing medicines.
Showcase Your Leadership Skills: As a Technical Lead, we’re looking for someone who can mentor and guide others. Share examples of how you've led teams or projects in the past, especially in high-pressure situations. This will help us see your potential impact on our engineering culture.
Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, keep it straightforward. Use bullet points where possible and avoid jargon unless it's relevant. We appreciate clarity, as it reflects your ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to submit your application directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your details and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy to do!
How to prepare for a job interview at AstraZeneca
✨Know Your HPC Stuff
Make sure you brush up on your knowledge of high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure. Be ready to discuss specific technologies like Slurm, AWS, or Kubernetes, and how they relate to the role. Showing that you understand the technical landscape will impress the interviewers.
✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills
As a Technical Lead, you'll need to demonstrate your ability to mentor and guide a team. Prepare examples of how you've successfully led projects or developed team members in the past. This will highlight your capability to foster a collaborative engineering culture.
✨Understand Scientific Needs
Familiarise yourself with the scientific applications of HPC. Be prepared to discuss how you would work with researchers to translate their needs into effective solutions. This shows that you can bridge the gap between technology and science, which is crucial for this role.
✨Prepare for Incident Management Scenarios
Think about past incidents you've managed and how you resolved them. Be ready to discuss your approach to root-cause analysis and preventative measures. This will demonstrate your operational excellence and reliability engineering skills, which are key for maintaining platform stability.
