dedicated Head of IT Infrastructure & Scientific Computing

Are you an experienced IT professional ready to lead in a complex scientific environment? CeMM is seeking a dedicated Head of IT Infrastructure & Scientific Computing (m/f/d) to drive our technological evolution. You will actively design secure, scalable solutions that combine advanced enterprise infrastructure with high-performance research computing and high security standards. In this pivotal role, you will lead a highly skilled team and manage both our core IT systems and our scientific computing environment, including HPC clusters, virtualization, and containerization platforms. Your work will directly support cutting-edge molecular medicine research. You will supervise system administrators, align architectures, manage vendors, and ensure robust data protection across our entire hybrid infrastructure.

Your role

• You will take on a wide range of administrative, strategic, and technical duties spanning enterprise IT and scientific computing. You will oversee the daily operations of the IT and scientific computing teams while driving major transformation projects, cloud migrations, HPC infrastructure development, and compliance measures. Below are the key areas of responsibility for this leadership position.
• Provide technical and disciplinary leadership to the IT Services and Scientific Computing teams, fostering professional growth and collaboration.
• Design secure, scalable end-to-end architectures, translating business and research requirements into feasible solution designs.
• Independently plan, manage, and execute complex IT, infrastructure, and security projects within a hybrid cloud environment.
• Design, operate, and scale HPC clusters and GPU resources to support computational biology, genomics, and machine learning workloads.
• Manage virtualization and containerization platforms (VMware, KVM, Docker, Apptainer/Singularity) for both enterprise systems and reproducible scientific computing environments.
• Develop and maintain scheduling, resource allocation, and job management systems (e.g., SLURM) for shared research compute resources.
• Ensure stable, secure, and performant operations across all IT and scientific computing systems, adhering to standards like ISO 27001.
• Manage data protection compliance (DSGVO/GDPR and Austrian DSG) and coordinate secure data transfers for scientific projects.
• Collaborate with research groups to translate scientific computing requirements into infrastructure and software solutions, including evaluation and integration of ML/AI infrastructure and tooling.
• Maintain strong, transparent communication with internal stakeholders, external vendors, and university campus network teams.
• Establish uniform IT processes, maintain comprehensive documentation, and continuously optimize service management methodologies.

• We are looking for a proactive, solution-oriented professional with a strong technical background spanning both enterprise IT and research computing, and excellent communication skills. You should possess a solid understanding of modern infrastructure, security frameworks, HPC environments, and data protection regulations. The ideal candidate will meet the following requirements and experience.
• Completed higher education in Computer Science, IT Security, Engineering, Computational Biology, Business Management, or equivalent experience.
• Several years of experience in IT infrastructure, system engineering, or IT operations, preferably in research environments.
• Hands-on experience with Windows/Linux, Active Directory, virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V), and Microsoft Azure cloud ecosystems.
• Hands-on expertise with Linux-based HPC environments, job schedulers (SLURM or similar), and parallel computing.
• Strong experience with containerization and virtualization technologies for scientific workloads (VMware, KVM, Docker, Apptainer).
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks and GPU computing infrastructure (CUDA, etc.).
• Solid understanding of IT security principles (ISO 27001, NIS2) and data protection laws (DSGVO, DSG) as applied to both enterprise and research data.
• Scripting/automation skills (Python, Bash, Ansible, or similar) for infrastructure management.
• Strong passion for open-source software, tools, and methodologies to foster innovation and security.
• Project management certification (such as PRINCE2, PMP, or IPMA) and experience with ITIL are assets.
• Fluent English communication skills, as English is the working language at our international scientific institute.

www.cemm.at

• Work in an experienced, interdisciplinary, and international team in one of Europe’s leading research institutes.
• Plenty of opportunities to contribute and gain experience in a key area of biomedical research and precision medicine.
• A wide range of social, cultural and sports activities are organized by the Institute.
• Excellent benefits including full insurance coverage (health, accident, pension), healthcare services, subsidized company cafeteria.
• Minimum gross monthly salary of EUR 6000-7500 paid 14 times a year
• Normal working week is 40 hours. Core working time is the working time during which the employee must be present at the workplace. Monday to Thursday from 09:00 to 15:00 and Friday from 09:00 to 13:00. A maximum of 1 home office day per calendar week may be used.
• This role is based in Vienna, Austria. You will be required to relocate if you are based elsewhere, and you will receive a generous relocation allowance to support you.

The mission of CeMM, the Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, is to achieve maximum scientific innovation in molecular medicine for the improvement of health care. CeMM is an international research institute and a founding member of EU-LIFE, an alliance of leading European life science institutes. At CeMM, an international and creative team of scientists and physicians pursue free basic research in the life sciences in a large and vibrant hospital environment with an outstanding medical tradition and practice. CeMM’s research is based on post-genomic technologies and focuses on diseases of major societal importance, such as immune and infectious diseases, cancer, aging, and metabolic disorders. CeMM operates in a unique mode of super-collaboration, linking biology with medicine, experimentation with computation, discovery with translation, and science with society and the arts., CeMM is a proud recipient of the HR Excellence in Research Award (HRS4R). This award demonstrates that CeMM cares about the well-being of its staff, that the recruitment process is open, fair, and transparent, and that CeMM provides professional appraisals and career development procedures. CeMM employs more than 300 members, including auxiliary groups, from 49 nationalities. The working language is English. The Institute promotes equal opportunities and is home to a mix of different talents, backgrounds, and competencies.