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Head of Information Technology


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 Deadline 15/09/2016

Within the Directorate of Engineering, the IT department is responsible for providing IT services to the whole organisation and all sites in Germany and Chile. This includes mission-critical IT services that underpin the operation of observing facilities at the ESO Observatories (and the subsequent storage of the observation data) and the provision of general IT services that support the operation of the ESO office based business functions (e.g. telephony and email). ESO is recruiting a Head of IT to lead this department. It has approximately 17 technical and managerial staff, located at the Garching, Santiago and Paranal sites. In addition, a large fraction of the daily operations are outsourced to an external service provider. The IT department in numbers: 700 users, 600 Linux and Mac clients, 600 Windows clients, 530 Linux servers and 100 Windows servers.

 
Main Duties and Responsibilities:

The Head of IT will report to the Director of Engineering and will in particular:
  • Provide leadership and vision to the IT department;
  • Ensure that the IT department fulfils a common and unified vision, goals and operational practices across all sites;
  • Manage direct reports and ensure that required standards of professional performance and behaviour are known and adhered to by all ESO IT personnel (both ESO staff members and third party staff);
  • Ensure that there is a clearly defined, documented and relevant technical strategy within ESO IT, and that this strategy is followed across all operational sites and teams;
  • Develop and ensure adherence to technical standards;
  • Develop, maintain and ensure adherence to IT policies across the organisation;
  • Ensure that IT builds and maintains a strong relationship with the ESO organisational units in Garching, Santiago and the Observatories and that the quality and scope of the IT services being delivered meets the evolving requirements of the ESO business;
  • Develop a culture, with supporting processes and procedures to continuously improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the ESO IT Department as a key service provider to ESO;
  • Manage the relationship with the primary ESO out sourced service provider(s), and define the key service requirements for contract renewals;
  • Manage the IT budget.

 
Reports to:

 

Director of Engineering

 
Experience:

Minimum 5 years of experience in each of the following areas:
  • Senior management of an IT operational environment, preferably multi-platform and with a highly technically proficient user community;
  • In managing multi-site (multi-country) operational environment;
  • In managing the provision of mission-critical IT services / systems (e.g. real time production systems);
  • In assessing and planning IT operational capabilities, performance improvement, and/or transformational change;
  • In developing and managing IT strategy and business alignment, IT governance, IT management, solution-development practices, service-management practices, infrastructure and emerging technologies;
  • Experience in managing external service providers and third party technical resources;
  • Hands-on experience with several IT key technologies such as network and backup infrastructure, Unix, Microsoft applications and systems, Relational Databases, collaboration platforms.

 
Key Competences:

 
  • Strong interpersonal, communication and negotiation skills, and ability to foster effective team working;
  • Ability to set the vision and strategy and lead an IT operational unit;
  • Confidence in challenging established ways of working and continuously develop and adopt new practices to support the organisation's future challenges;
  • Ability to listen to clients and adapt own principles and ideas to the needs of the organisation;
  • Positive and flexible attitude to investigate solutions to problems taking into account potential boundary conditions;
  • Tenacity and commitment to deliver and possess a strong sense of accountability for results;
  • Ability to interact with the senior management team and adapt communication styles as required for technical and non technical audiences;
  • Ability to present information or draft material in a clear and logical manner.

 
Qualifications:

 

University Degree in Computer Science or equivalent.

 
Language Skills:

 

Full command of the English language (written as well as spoken). Knowledge of German and Spanish would be an asset.

 
Remuneration and Contract:

 

We offer an attractive remuneration package including a competitive salary (tax free), comprehensive pension scheme and medical, educational and other social benefits, as well as financial help in relocating your family and the possibility to place your child/children in daycare.

The contract is for a fixed term duration of three years, and is subject to successful completion of the probation period. There is a possibility of extension(s) subject to individual performance and organisational requirements, and as defined in the applicable policies and staff rules and regulations. For any further information, please visit <
>.

 
Duty Station:

 

Garching near Munich. Due to the importance of the Santiago office and the three Observatory sites, it is required that the Head of IT will spend approximately 30-40% of her/his time in Chile.
Career Path:

 

V/VI

 
Application:

 

If you are interested in working in areas of frontline technology and in a stimulating international environment, please visit <
> for further details.

Applicants are invited to apply online at <
>. Applications must be completed in English and should include a motivation letter and CV.

Closing date for applications is 15 September 2016.

No nationality is in principle excluded. However, recruitment preference will be given to nationals of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

The post is equally open to suitably qualified female and male applicants.

 

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