Linux Engineer (IT-CD-CLI-2025-109-GRAE)

Your responsibilities

Are you a passionate Computing Engineer at the start of your career, with a strong foundation in Linux and a desire to work on critical computing services for the research community? Join the CERN Linux Team to help operate, evolve and support Linux-based services used by thousands of scientists across the organisation and worldwide.

The CERN IT Linux Service provides essential infrastructure for the scientific community, including public software mirrors, package build systems, and network-booting (PXE) infrastructure. We support a hybrid environment based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL), AlmaLinux, and Debian, and we contribute upstream to open-source communities.

In this position, you will:

• Help operate and maintain key Linux services at CERN.
• Contribute to package building infrastructure for RPM- and DEB-based systems.
• Support PXE boot services and associated configuration tools.
• Collaborate with upstream open-source communities and partner HEP institutes to improve Linux tooling and reliability.
• Develop automation and tooling to streamline operations.
• Provide support and guidance to CERN's Linux user community.
• Work with modern DevOps tools, including GitLab CI and configuration management systems.

Your profile

Skills:

• Essential to have: experience using and managing Linux systems;
• Expected to have: basic experience in service operations or system administration;
• Useful to have: understanding of Linux package management (RPM/DEB);
• Nice to have: experience with GitLab CI/CD pipelines, Python development and configuration management systems (such as Puppet or Ansible);
• Spoken and written English, with a commitment to learn French.

Eligibility criteria:

• You are a national of a CERN Member or Associate Member State.
• By the application deadline, you have a maximum of two years of professional experience since graduation in Computer Science or a related field (or a related field) and your highest educational qualification is either a Bachelor's or Master's degree.
• You have never had a CERN fellow or graduate contract before.
• Applicants without University degree are not eligible.
• Applicants with a PhD are not eligible.

Job closing date: 10.07.2025 at 23:59 CEST.

Contract duration: 24 months, with a possible extension up to 36 months maximum.

Working hours: 40 hours per week

Target start date: 01-September-2025

This position involves:

• Stand-by duty, when required by the needs of the Organisation.
• Work during nights, Sundays and official holidays, when required by the needs of the Organisation.

Job reference: IT-CD-CLI-2025-109-GRAE

Field of work: Software Engineering and IT

What we offer

• A monthly stipend ranging between 5196 and 5716 Swiss Francs (net of tax).
• Coverage by CERN's comprehensive health scheme (for yourself, your spouse and children), and membership of the CERN Pension Fund.
• Depending on your individual circumstances: installation grant; family, child and infant allowances; payment of travel expenses at the beginning and end of contract.
• 30 days of paid leave per year.
• On-the-job and formal training at CERN as well as in-house language courses for English and/or French.

About us

At CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists and engineers are probing the fundamental structure of the universe. Using the world's largest and most complex scientific instruments, they study the basic constituents of matter - fundamental particles that are made to collide together at close to the speed of light. The process gives physicists clues about how particles interact, and provides insights into the fundamental laws of nature. Find out more on http://home.cern.

Diversity has been an integral part of CERN's mission since its foundation and is an established value of the Organization. Employing a diverse workforce is central to our success.