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Working at ESO
Are you interested in working in areas of frontline technology and in a stimulating international environment? Do you feel your profile matches our requirements? Learn more about our current vacancies and apply online. Read more..
The European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO) is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries.
ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in northern Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor (home to ALMA and APEX), and the ESO Headquarters are located in Garching, near Munich, Germany.
At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world's most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory, and will host and operate the southern array of the Cherenkov Telescope Array, the world's largest and most sensitive high energy gamma-ray observatory. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky" and whose operations will be fully integrated into the Paranal Observatory.
For its IT Department in the IT Architecture Group in Garching, within the Directorate of Engineering, ESO is opening a Local Staff Member position of:
ESO's IT landscape is undergoing a broad digital transformation to modernise and improve its operations. A major focus of this effort is the Integrated Operations Programme, which is going to transform operations for the VLT and the upcoming ELT at the Paranal Observatory. In this context, Site Reliability Engineers play a key role ensuring the reliability, scalability, and continuous improvement of ESO's digital infrastructure - supporting both site-specific needs and organisation-wide transformation.
Main Duties and Responsibilities:
- Collaborate with engineering and operations teams to improve the reliability, scalability, and performance of critical systems and services.
- Support the Design, implementation, and maintenance of monitoring, alerting, and observability solutions to ensure high system availability and rapid incident response.
- Contribute to building robust CI/CD pipelines and automate infrastructure provisioning using infrastructure-as-code tools.
- Identify and remediate reliability risks across systems, services, and deployments in cloud and on-premise environments.
- Create and maintain operational runbooks, system documentation, and internal tooling for support and diagnostics.
- Drive continuous improvement in system performance, cost efficiency, and operational resilience.
- Operate in an international environment with a focus on collaboration, knowledge sharing, and long-term service sustainability.
Reports to:
Head of IT Architecture Group of the Information Technology Department within the Directorate of Engineering.
Key competences and Experience:
Essential:
- 2+ years of experience as a Systems Engineer, Network Engineer or in a similar infrastructure-focused role.
- Strong troubleshooting skills across networking, systems, and services.
- Solid experience with Linux system administration (e.g. RHEL, CentOS, Ubuntu).
- Experience with WAN and LAN networking, especially in distributed or remote environments.
- Experience with OS virtualization (e.g. KVM, VMware)
- Basic experience with automation/configuration tools such as Ansible or Puppet.
- Advanced scripting skills (e.g. in Bash, Python).
- Working knowledge of Git (cloning, branching, merging, conflict resolution).
- Familiarity with monitoring and observability tools (e.g. Icinga, TIG, Prometheus, Grafana).
- Good communication skills and ability to work across teams.
- Experience with infrastructure documentation and change management processes.
- Basic understanding of containerization and orchestration technologies such as Docker, Kubernetes or similar
- Willingness to learn and grow into cloud technologies (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP).
Desirable:
- Experience with Git platforms such as GitLab, GitHub, or Bitbucket.
- Experience operating in a multi-site, on-premises environment.
- Understanding of web services, databases, and supporting infrastructure.
- Understanding of storage technologies (e.g. RAID, NAS, SAN, Object Storage).
- Exposure to cloud platforms (e.g. AWS, Azure, GCP), even at a basic level.
- Experience with automation to deploy and manage infrastructure, database and networking architectures
- Strong level of expertise programming in at least one of the following languages: Python, Bash, PHP, Java, Go, JavaScript
- Basic knowledge of project management practices (e.g. Agile, Kanban).
- Strong consulting, negotiation skills and ability to work within diverse teams and key stakeholders both internal and external to the organization.
Qualifications:
A university degree or equivalent in relevant disciplines, e.g. data science, computer science, engineering is required.
Language Skills:
ESO is an international organization where the official language is English. The position requires excellent oral and written communication skills in English.
Remuneration and Contract:
We offer an attractive remuneration package including a competitive salary and educational benefits, as well as financial help in relocating the candidate's family, where applicable. ESO aims to support members of personnel in maintaining a good work-life balance. The initial contract is for a period of two years with the possibility of indefinite extension, subject to performance evaluation. The title or grade may be subject to change according to qualification and the number of years of experience. For further information, please visit https://www.eso.org/public/archives/static/jobs/conditions/brochure-lsm-updated-jan2020.pdf
Duty Station:
ESO premises in Vitacura, Santiago de Chile, and the Paranal Observatory, located 120 km south of the city of Antofagasta, Chile. The working schedule will be 75% in Vitacura, with 5x2 shifts, and 25% at the Paranal Observatory with 5x2 shifts, with the option of mobile working within our corresponding framework. These percentages may vary depending on operational requirements, so some flexibility is expected. Regular duty travel to the ESO Headquarters in Garching, Germany is also expected.
Career Path: V
Application:
If you are interested in working in areas of frontline science and technology and in a stimulating international environment, please visit http://www.eso.org for further details. Applicants are invited to apply online at https://recruitment.eso.org/. Your application should be in English and include your curriculum vitae (CV) and a letter of motivation. All interviews will be conducted in English. Deadline for applications is 22 August 2025.
Interviews are expected to start soon after this date.
ESO Values
An important element in any successful employment relationship is harmony in values between an organisation and its people.
The ESO Values are:
ESO strives for excellence through innovation.
ESO provides outstanding services to its communities.
ESO fosters diversity & inclusion.
ESO believes in the key role of sustainability for its future.
Achieving the above are recognized as only possible on the basis of personal values and attitudes that we expect from our employees: respect, integrity, accountability, commitment, collaboration, and clear & open communication. Applicants to any ESO role are asked to reflect on their affinity with these values and advised they may be asked about them if called for interview.
Diversity
ESO has established diversity as an important value of the Organisation, is committed to providing an equal opportunities environment and is actively seeking to promote a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce. Please visit https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/sustainability/dei-at-eso/ for further details.
Nationality
No nationality is excluded, however non-Chilean applicants must have a pertinent working permit, according to Chilean regulations, at the time of the application. The post is equally open to suitably qualified candidates irrespective of gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity or religion.