Join IUCAA as a DevOps Engineer to operate and automate high-throughput computing and collaboration infrastructure for the LIGO-India gravitational wave data centre.

About the Company

The Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) is an autonomous institution established by the University Grants Commission (UGC) of India. Its primary mission is to promote the growth of active groups in astronomy and astrophysics within Indian universities. IUCAA serves as a Centre of excellence for teaching, research, and development in astronomy and astrophysics, operating within the university sector. It is a key partner in the LIGO-India project, a major international scientific collaboration to detect gravitational waves.

Role Overview

We are seeking a skilled DevOps Engineer to join the LIGO-India Gravitational Wave Data Centre team. The selected candidate will be responsible for the operation, maintenance, automation, monitoring, and continuous improvement of the High-Throughput Computing (HTC) and Collaboration Support Infrastructure. This infrastructure comprises a large Linux-based HTCondor compute facility, scientific storage and data-access systems, Proxmox-based virtualization, web/application and collaboration services, high-speed networking, and associated monitoring and security infrastructure. The engineer will work closely with system, storage, network, security, and scientific-computing personnel to progressively automate infrastructure deployment and operation, improving reliability, reproducibility, maintainability, and security of production services. This role requires working across multiple technology areas rather than focusing on a single product, demanding strong fundamentals in Linux, automation, networking, and troubleshooting, along with the ability to quickly acquire expertise in specialized technologies used by the GW Data Centre.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor production services and respond to alerts
• Diagnose Linux, network, storage, and application problems
• Deploy configuration changes through controlled procedures
• Patch and upgrade infrastructure
• Maintain automation code
• Review failed CI/CD pipelines
• Provision servers and VMs
• Troubleshoot HTC jobs and execution nodes
• Monitor capacity and performance
• Test backups and recovery procedures
• Implement new monitoring and alerting
• Participate in infrastructure commissioning
• Assist with introduction of new services
• Perform root-cause analysis of recurring failures
• Participate in scheduled maintenance and incident response outside normal working hours when required

Tech Stack

• Operating Systems: Linux (production systems)
• HTC/HPC: HTCondor
• Virtualization: Proxmox, VMs, Containers (Docker/Kubernetes implied)
• Configuration Management: Ansible
• CI/CD: Git (GitLab/GitHub), CI/CD pipelines
• Scripting/Automation: Python, Shell scripting
• Monitoring: Monitoring tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana, Nagios implied)
• Networking: High-speed networking, security infrastructure
• Storage: Scientific storage, parallel/distributed storage
• Other: Identity and access management, backup/disaster recovery

Mandatory Required Skill Set:

• Systems Administration of Linux systems
• Automation using python/shell scripting and configuration management technologies like Ansible
• Good working knowledge of Git platforms and implementing CI/CD
• Management & administration of Virtualization (VMs / Containers)
• Good understanding of Networking
• Experience with infrastructure monitoring & troubleshooting

Desired/Preferred Skill Set:

• Administration of Scientific/HPC/HTC computing infrastructure including GPU infrastructure
• Parallel & distributed storage
• Scientific data infrastructure for distributed scientific-data management
• Virtualization, web & application infrastructure
• Identity and access management
• Networking and security
• Site reliability engineering

Desirable Personal and Professional Competencies:

• Strong analytical and troubleshooting ability
• Ability to work systematically during infrastructure/service failures
• Willingness to learn unfamiliar technologies
• Ability to automate rather than repeatedly perform manual tasks
• Good technical documentation skills
• Ability to work collaboratively with system, network, storage, security and scientific-software teams
• Ability to communicate technical problems and solutions clearly
• Willingness to participate in planned maintenance and critical incident-response activities when required

• 30% House Rent Allowance (HRA) as per rules
• Opportunity to work with cutting-edge scientific infrastructure
• Exposure to international collaboration (LIGO-India)
• Temporary appointment with potential for extension