Teaching Support IT Job at UCL Physics and Astronomy

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We’re looking for someone with IT skills, and interests in teaching and physics, to work with us at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCL (University College London).

This is a system manager job with an emphasis on supporting our teaching, and will involve a wide range of responsibilities, including managing a Linux cluster and interfacing PCs to lab equipment as well as providing first-line support for the university Windows environment.

The application deadline is Monday 2nd January 2017. Applicants must already have the right to work in the UK.

Duties and Responsibilities

A system manager is required to support Teaching and Learning in the Department, and to provide some support to administrative support staff. The balance is likely to be approximately 75% support for teaching and learning, and 25% other support.

The Department has over 180 desktop computers in teaching labs. Most of these are installed with the standard UCL Windows Desktop environment, also available to students in other cluster rooms across the University, and permit each student to record their experimental work, analyse data, and engage in e-learning activities while in the lab. Additionally, we have around 30 individual PCs interfacing with lab equipment. We also have a Linux cluster available for student use: this currently has 19 PCs running Scientific Linux, supported by rack-mounted servers in a separate machine room, but this is likely to expand.

Programming is an important skill for any scientist, as well as for many graduates who go on to work in other fields, and the computing strand of our degree programmes is continually being reviewed and updated. All Physics undergraduates learn programming in Python in their first term and, depending on their choices, may learn Mathematica, Matlab and Java in subsequent terms. Other courses, not focussed specifically on programming, are also increasingly making use of e-learning technology and some computing to carry out calculations and aid understanding of scientific concepts. These courses all rely on expert technical support to ensure that the relevant software is installed and configured correctly.

Professional Services staff in the department use Windows PCs for a variety of administrative tasks using locally installed software and services provided by UCL’s central

Key Requirements

The successful applicant will have a proven ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with people of varying levels of technical knowledge, a demonstrable interest in and knowledge of physics and education, and excellent technical skills.

A deep knowledge of either Linux or Windows is required, along with some experience of the other operating system and the willingness to learn more. Applicants should have knowledge and experience of some of the relevant technologies and tools. These include scientific software, programming, e-learning systems, networking, and deployment and configuration of computing hardware and services.

Further Details

Click here for full details and application form.