ICT System Specialist at the BedrettoLab & SED

Are you ready to be part of groundbreaking research and work in a truly unique environment? At the BedrettoLab and the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich, you'll contribute to cutting-edge science in collaboration with national and international partners. Our work spans earthquake physics and rock mechanics to techniques for the safe and sustainable use of geothermal energy.

Located in a tunnel deep beneath the Alps in the Bedretto Valley, Ticino, the BedrettoLab provides an inspiring environment for innovative research.

We’re looking for someone to join our IT team, supporting scientists in their research and operations while advancing our IT infrastructure. In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to take on significant responsibility, collaborate with passionate experts, and help drive forward solutions that make a real impact.

As an ICT System Specialist, you will play a crucial role in supporting geoscientific research. You will be responsible for managing and maintaining the extensive IT infrastructure at both the BedrettoLab and our home base at ETH Zurich, working in close collaboration with the Swiss Seismological Service and the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences (D-EAPS).

Your role will be to ensure the digitisation and streaming of sensor measurement data while developing and implementing effective strategies for storing, backing-up, and maintaining the accessibility of large data volumes. These tasks will be carried out in collaboration with data managers, scientists, and other stakeholders.

You will also have the opportunity to implement virtualisation and containerisation techniques to optimise data processing workflows and support complex scientific experiments.

In addition, you will install and configure software; select, assemble, deploy and network hardware; write scripts and design toolchains tailored to the specific needs of geoscientific data management and analysis; and remote control of experiments. Providing IT support to the Bedretto scientific core team and changing external users will be a key part of your responsibilities.

The position also includes occasional on-call duties within the framework of the Swiss Seismological Service as well as during the experimental phases in the BedrettoLab.

This is a unique opportunity to contribute your technical expertise to a heterogeneous and dynamic research environment, to support scientific discoveries, to develop innovative solutions and to acquire new skills.

We are looking for a motivated, multi-talented person who is open to working in a dynamic research environment and in an international team.

Your qualifications include:

• A minimum of 5 years of experience in a similar role
• Completed studies or training in a relevant IT field (information technology, systems engineering, data management)
• Proficient system administration skills, mostly on Linux
• Comfortable with developing and maintaining tools or scripts (e.g. Python, Bash, …) for specific tasks
• Experience with some or all the following technologies: containerisation, VM hosting, scalable storage, databases & database replication, configuration management, infrastructure management, networking and firewalls

The stimulating and dynamic working environment at the BedrettoLab offers exciting opportunities, including occasional participation in tunnel activities, which will account for approximately 10% of your time.

We offer a dynamic and exciting working environment where you’ll be working with a diverse and enthusiastic team of scientists, technicians and administrators. This role offers the opportunity to develop new skills through daily practical challenges and training. We also value work-life balance and support this with flexible working hours. The workplace is located at ETH Zurich in the centre of Zurich with all the advantages of a large university (public transport, sports, staff restaurants, social life).