Application Coordinator

About the Team In service of its world-leading life sciences services, training, and research, the Applications team within ITS operates a substantial platform based on circa 120 Kubernetes clusters, combining a large VMware on-premises estate with a growing presence in public cloud. The Platform Coordinator will oversee the full spectrum of platform operations, spanning both on-premises user application platforms and public cloud services.

This role ensures the seamless delivery, support, and evolution of platforms used by developers, bioinformaticians, and learners across EMBL-EBI, contributing directly to the success of EMBL-EBIs training mission. The role requires strong technical leadership, stakeholder management, and a holistic view of platform operations to ensure efficiency, cost control, and high service quality across all environments. In addition, the Platform Coordinator will lead the Solutions Architecture function, driving the standardisation of platform and solution architectures across the organisation.

This will focus on simplifying the technology landscape, promoting reusable patterns and reference architectures, and improving delivery efficiency while maintaining flexibility for innovation. The Platform Coordinator leads a combined team of Dev Ops engineers and Site Reliability Engineers (SREs), managing the operational health, reliability, and evolution of EMBL-EBIs on-premises and cloud platforms. This includes Kubernetes, CI/CD tools like Gitlab, web traffic management, web statistics services, and public cloud platforms (AWS and GCP).

Main

Duties and Responsibilities:

Technical Leadership Translate strategic objectives into actionable technical plans for the platform team. Oversee the lifecycle of technical projects, ensuring timely delivery and adherence to best practices. Manage operational performance and ensure high availability of both on-premises and cloud platforms. Maintain and develop strong collaborative relationships with IT teams and EMBL-EBI service stakeholders. Lead platform administration including Kubernetes clusters, Git Lab, web statistics, and web traffic management systems.

Oversee management of public cloud estates (AWS and GCP), promoting Fin Ops practices for cost tracking, forecasting, and governance. Engage in architecture design and promote reusable blueprints and best practices across the platforms. Support EMBL-EBI Training by implementing the technical components of course delivery. Drive continuous improvement, evaluating technologies, and prototyping solutions to meet evolving business needs. Team Leadership and Management Lead and coordinate a combined team of 4 SREs and 3 Dev Ops as a single, cohesive unit.

Manage performance, development, and career progression through regular 1:1s, objective setting, and coaching. Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous improvement, and knowledge sharing. Encourage Agile practices and coaching within the team. Promote accountability for platform stability, performance, and customer satisfaction. Stakeholder and Service Management Act as the primary point of contact for platform-related inquiries and escalations. Ensure high-quality service delivery and proactive issue resolution.

Collaborate with Training and Research teams to uphold standards of platform availability and learning experience. You have (Requirements) Proven experience managing complex IT platforms, including on-premises and cloud environments. Strong understanding of Kubernetes, Git Lab, cloud services (AWS/GCP), and web infrastructure management. Experience leading combined teams of Dev Ops and SREs, with the ability to unify teams across different specialties.

Strong stakeholder management and communication skills. Knowledge of Fin Ops principles and cost management in multi-cloud environments. Agile and project management experience. Technical problem-solving skills and hands-on experience in platform administration is desirable. Behaviors we value in our team:
You enjoy working & leading as part of a collaborative, international team. You can meet more of the team here Strong communication and interpersonal skills You will…