Lab System Administrator – School of Science

Overview

Are you interested in joining a dynamic and international team of professionals to transform education? IE University's School of Science & Technology department is looking for an Lab System Administrator to join its team  

IE University is seeking a skilled and motivated System Administrator to support the operations, development, and maintenance of the university's laboratory computing infrastructure. This includes a multi-node computing cluster that serves the teaching and research activities of the Robotics and AI and High-Performance Computing laboratories, as well as standalone workstations across various labs.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Linux systems administration, such as configuring and maintaining Ubuntu or CentOS servers, managing users and permissions (LDAP), automating tasks with Bash or Ansible, and securing multi-user environments. They should also have experience with private cloud platforms (e.g., OpenNebula, Proxmox, oVirt), public cloud services (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP), and be familiar with HPC cluster technologies, including job schedulers like Slurm or PBS, MPI environments, and GPU-enabled workloads.

This role offers a unique opportunity to co-design and build the HPC-AI cluster infrastructure from the ground up, including decisions on hardware configuration, software stack, networking, and integration with virtualization and cloud platforms. The administrator will play a key role in shaping a computing environment that supports advanced workloads in machine learning, robotics, and scientific computing.

The position focuses on ensuring the performance, reliability, and security of all computing resources used in courses, student projects, and faculty-led research across scientific and technical disciplines.

  Why IE University?   With 50 years of experience and founded by and for entrepreneurs, IE University has turned business education on its head through disruptive teaching. We count on high-level faculty who bring real-world experience into the classroom and foster a hands-on approach to learning.   Our Purpose   At IE University, we foster positive change through education, research, and innovation. As a transformative educational institution, we empower students to make their mark on the world. We provide them with the skills, knowledge and environment needed to make a difference, and they join a supportive and international community that lasts a lifetime. Our spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship has allowed us to drive change and constantly stay at the cutting edge of higher education. And through diversity, we have harnessed the power of people while also understanding and embracing the importance of humanities.   Our People At IE we are:

• People-driven
• Change Builders
• Autonomy Enthusiasts
• Communication Enthusiasts
• Knowledge Champions

We are looking for a person to join a full-time position in Madrid.   

Responsibilities

Your role as a Lab System Administrator will involve:

System Administration & Operations:

• Manage and maintain HPC and AI servers, including GPU clusters, storage, and network fabric
• Install, configure, and upgrade operating systems (primarily Linux) and application software
• Optimize GPU utilization for LLMs (PyTorch FSDP)
• Monitor system health, troubleshoot issues, and ensure uptime and performance targets

Cloud Infrastructure:

• Operate and maintain a private cloud environment (e.g., OpenNebula) with GPU passthrough capabilities
• Support deployment and integration with public cloud services for hybrid workloads
• Manage virtual machines, templates, containers (Docker/Singularity), and cloud images

Research & Teaching Support:

• Support faculty, researchers, and students in deploying applications, tools, and workflows on HPC and cloud platforms
• Provide technical guidance on system usage, resource requests, and job scheduling
• Support course environments with preconfigured resources for ML, data science, and computational labs

Security & Compliance:

• Implement user and access controls, backup strategies, and system hardening
• Monitor usage for compliance with institutional policies and data protection regulations

Automation & Documentation

• Automate common administration tasks (e.g., via Ansible, Bash, Python)
• Maintain technical documentation, procedures, and system inventory

Qualifications

To thrive in this role, you should possess the following qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field (Master's preferred)
• 3+ years of experience in system administration, preferably in academic or research environments
• Proficiency with Linux server administration, shell scripting, and system security
• Experience operating and maintaining HPC clusters (Slurm, PBS, or similar)
• Experience securing and scaling containers/VMs (Slurm with Docker, GPU isolation, Kubernetes)
• Familiarity with virtualization and cloud management platforms (OpenNebula, Proxmox, VMware, etc.)
• Experience managing containers (Docker, Singularity) and supporting ML/data science toolchains
• Experience with GPU management and scheduling (CUDA, NVIDIA drivers, multi-GPU systems)
• Familiarity with distributed storage systems (NFS, Ceph, ZFS)
• Understanding of public cloud APIs and hybrid architectures
• Knowledge of scientific software environments (conda, JupyterHub, TensorFlow, PyTorch, JAX)
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines and Git-based workflows
• Knowledge of parallel filesystems for large datasets (GPFS, Lustre)

Application Instructions: Submit your resume/CV, a cover letter detailing your experience and motivation, and at least one reference contact (all in one PDF file). Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Unleash your full potential and make an impact. The next move is yours  If you want to be part of this educational revolution, we invite you to apply and be part of our dynamic team at IE University.   At IE University, we actively promote equal opportunities in recruitment processes and access to employment, always ensuring the absence of gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ethnic origin, or disability bias throughout the entire selection process.

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