Cloud Infrastructure Architect

Join to apply for the Cloud Infrastructure Architect role at LifeArc. Are you passionate about making life science life changing and delivering impact for patients? We want to hear from you.

About the role: The role reports into the Data Platform Lead and will form part of a growing platform-aligned Technology team who will drive the evolution and execution of our recently Board-approved Digital, Data and Technology Strategy. The purpose of this key role is to partner with and enable the expansion of the Data Science (DS) activities and their strategic impact for LifeArc through the provision of data platform capabilities.

The role responsibilities include:

• Working within the newly created Data Platform team and in a matrix with data scientists and Therapeutic Platform subject matter experts for specific projects.
• Specialist compute support for Data Science projects, including High Performance Compute (HPC).
• Technical lead enabling LifeArc’s Trusted Research Environments (TRE), and contributing to roadmap design, adoption, implementation and management.
• Supporting the Architecture evolution by driving design and delivery of multi-environment and potential multi-cloud compute capability development and maturity.
• Technology analyst supporting the adoption of TREs to support DS team activities, and management of TREs.
• Technical design and implementation of infrastructure technology architecture.
• Specialist compute support for bioinformatics, cheminformatics and patient impact centred AI and ML model activities of the DS team.
• Alignment of compute capacity to support the building of LifeArc’s Data Platform.
• Implement and administer TREs, in line with Data Management Plans, the scientific needs of the DS team and aligned with the LifeArc Data Platform strategy.
• Key member of cross-functional team, including technology colleagues and data scientists, and leads the provisioning of storage and high-performance compute with necessary, associated governance, orchestration and automation.
• Evaluate and recommend data services and technologies to deploy data architecture and meet the enterprise and scientific needs of LifeArc.
• Ensure data platform solutions are reliable, secure, and compliant with regulations and policies.
• Work towards implementing design principles such as achieving a single version of the truth for key data assets across the LifeArc architecture.
• Working in close partnership with the Data Governance Council, who will be developing policies, procedures and standards to maintain data quality and compliance in parallel with this initiative.
• Platform service performance management – set up continuous monitoring of data platform(s) performance, security, resilience and cost-efficiency.

Education & experience required (essential):

• Experience in working as an IT analyst/Administrator of complex and/or niche IT systems.
• Experience as a Linux support analyst/system administrator.
• History of working with Cloud computing (Azure preferred), containerisation (Docker), orchestration (Kubernetes) and Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Terraform).
• Technical support of HPC.
• Working for Architects to deliver change in IT infrastructure.
• Previous experience of delivering compute support with any kind of regulated environment, containing confidential/highly sensitive data.
• Practical Data Warehouse/Data Lake experience (ideally including Snowflake).
• Experience as IT support specialist in a 1st/2nd Line position.
• Understanding of data security best practices and disaster recovery planning.
• Familiarity with data science and AI/ML approaches that the data platform infrastructure and environments will enable.
• Experience contributing to data sharing agreements and Data Protection Impact Assessments.

Skills & abilities:

• Collaboration and matrix working - engages with multiple teams and stakeholders to align goals and manage interdependencies.
• Decision making and problem solving - analyses available information and makes data-driven decisions independently in familiar situations.
• Cloud and infrastructure management - manages cloud-based platforms, optimizing performance and security.
• Enterprise architecture and system integration - designs and maintains modular, scalable architectures.
• Cybersecurity and compliance - implements security controls, risk assessments, and compliance audits.
• Learning agility and versatility, able to ‘roll up sleeves’ and operate independently to add value in a small team.

About us: LifeArc is a not-for-profit life science organisation, leading the way for change in rare diseases in the UK and supporting promising initiatives in global health. We seek out research in areas of unmet need that has great potential, providing support to help it become breakthroughs that change lives.

What we can offer you: Focused on finding life changing solutions for underserved patients, our people thrive in an inclusive, and supportive environment that prioritises their health and wellbeing. Our multidisciplinary approach guarantees our people growth opportunities, while our culture of innovation and collaboration drives the impact we make delivering on our purpose of ‘putting patients at the centre of everything we do’. We are dedicated to creating a diverse, flexible, equitable and happy work environment so our colleagues can thrive as their truest selves. We act with courage, curiosity, care & commitment to deliver quality & excellence for our patients and each other. Join us, and you’ll be given the scope to develop your professional skills and experience in a safe, supportive and challenging environment.

Salary will be determined by qualifications and experience along with other exceptional benefits. Because we understand everyone has different requirements, our flexible benefits allow you to choose those which are important to you. Our pension scheme offers employer contributions of up to 12%, private health insurance, and annual leave of 31 days PLUS bank holidays.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from minority ethnic backgrounds, for example, are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At LifeArc we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace, so whatever your background or lived experience, if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Our top priority is finding the best candidate, and you may be just right for this or other roles. We all have potential. At LifeArc, you’ll discover what you can really do with it.

Seniority level: Mid-Senior level

Employment type: Full-time

Job function: Information Technology

Industries: Pharmaceutical Manufacturing