Research Platforms Engineer in Sheffield

The role is part of the Research Platforms team in IT Services at the University of Sheffield, focusing on providing platforms, tools, support and services that enable the university’s world‑leading research. The team manages several research compute platforms, including HPC clusters and cloud (AWS) platforms, to support research across engineering, physical science, health, AI and biosciences.

Main duties and responsibilities:

• Work with the team to deliver and run research IT platforms that meet the diverse needs of university research groups, including HPC compute platforms, high‑performance storage systems, secure data environments and cloud‑based technologies.
• Manage and configure scheduling software and implement policies to allocate resources, enabling research groups to purchase dedicated access.
• Carry out routine maintenance tasks and identify opportunities to improve and automate those tasks on both on‑premise and cloud platforms.
• Monitor performance, availability and security of research platforms and provide regular reports.
• Provide technical guidance to other ITS team members to ensure appropriate platforms are delivered for researchers.
• Assist research groups in migrating activities from legacy clusters to suitable local, regional, national or cloud solutions.
• Develop innovative solutions to lower barriers for users new to high‑performance computing.
• Work with vendors and service providers to procure and maintain infrastructure and services that meet university research needs.
• Perform any other duties consistent with the grade and remit of the post.

Person: The university recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds and beliefs of all staff and students. If your past experience does not match the criteria exactly, we encourage you to apply and reference the application criteria in your statement.

Qualifications and Experience:

• Understanding and experience of HPC and cloud research computing platforms, including job schedulers (e.g. Slurm), virtualisation (e.g. VMWare, AWS EC2), and containerisation (e.g. k8s, Docker Swarm, Podman) – essential.
• Knowledge of multi‑user systems, user account management, authentication and permissions – essential.
• Ability to work within existing admin processes and develop robust automations; knowledge of IaC tools such as Puppet and CloudFormation is a distinct advantage – essential.
• Effective written and verbal communication, report‑writing skills, and ability to produce clear technical documentation – essential.
• Understanding of monitoring and managing physical and virtual computing platforms and infrastructure – essential.
• Understanding of cloud infrastructure and networking to ensure system and data security – essential.
• Ability to assess and organise resources, plan and progress work activities – essential.
• An inquisitive mind and a desire to explore new technologies, techniques and engage with other research computing professionals – essential.

Additional Information:

• Grade: G7
• Line manager: Research Platforms Engineering Lead
• Direct reports: None
• Website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/it-services/about

Recruitment Process: The selection process is expected to take place in May 2026 and will include an application with a CV, an interview and a technical test. Candidates selected for interview will also meet members of the team. We aim to let candidates know if they have progressed to the next stage in the first week of June 2026.

EEO and Disability Support: The University of Sheffield is a disability confident employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria, you will be invited to the next stage of the selection process. A basic DBS check will be required for this role. Possession of a criminal record is not an automatic bar to employment. Each case is considered individually.