BBC Jobs – Senior Systems Engineer

About the job

Job Introduction

The Scaled Infrastructure team within BBC Research & Development are building on-premise compute, network and storage capabilities. We are using these capabilities to demonstrate how the BBC may gain future flexibility from software-based media infrastructure, and where it remains most appropriate to host or operate this technology in-house.

We currently operate three on-site cloud deployments based upon OpenStack and the Ceph storage system. These deployments have been tailored to the unique requirements of a media organisation, and we continue to develop them in order to facilitate our research.

This role offers the opportunity to get ‘hands on’ with a range of modern technologies including:

• Data centre grade servers
• High performance network switches
• NVMe storage, GPUs and DPUs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd/projects/computing-and-networks-at-scale

Mission, Culture & Purpose

BBC Research & Development’s mission is to explore and develop innovative technologies that transform the BBC and the wider media industry, supporting and shaping the BBC’s mission and ambitions.

Our purpose is to consider the wider technology environment, imagine and explore solutions based on people’s needs and values, and create opportunities for the BBC and media industry to use technology to thrive.

We strive for an inclusive, open, collaborative, and engaged culture. We aim to build on our common values to provide a safe, shared and supportive space for exploration, problem solving, and world-class innovation. We champion everyone’s creativity and technical excellence.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/rd

We have five applied research areas focused on Audiences, Automation, Distribution, Infrastructure and Production who are looking to solve some of the most interesting challenges in Media and Broadcasting; as well as our Commercial, Partnerships & Engagement team who ensure we’re collaborating with the right external partners and optimising commercial returns through the exploitation of our Intellectual Property and grant funding. Our work supports the BBC’s current ambition as well as informing future strategy. If you’re excited by the prospect of working in an innovative environment with smart and supportive colleagues then BBC R&D is the place for you.

Role Responsibility

You will be responsible for the ongoing operation of our cloud deployments, and their continuing upgrades, as part of a small team.

In a Typical Day, You May Be Responsible For

• Physical installation and cabling of new servers, switches and storage
• System configuration using Ansible
• OpenStack and operating system upgrades
• Debugging a large open source codebase in live or staging environments
• Improving our monitoring and continuous integration systems
• Providing support to our users and diagnosing issues

Are you the right candidate?

This Is a Technical Role Which Requires

• Significant practical experience with the Linux command line, preferably Ubuntu
• Experience using the Git version control system
• Knowledge of IP networking including switching and routing fundamentals

Additionally, we are looking for a selection of skills from the following. We don’t expect anyone to have all of these on day 1, but a desire to learn would be beneficial.

• Practical experience with configuration management tools, preferably Ansible
• Experience with virtualisation and containerisation technologies on Linux platforms
• Knowledge of more advanced networking including practical experience with the Cisco Nexus platform, BGP, VXLAN and multicast
• Experience operating the Ceph distributed storage system
• Experience of the Prometheus monitoring system
• An understanding of TLS and OAuth/OpenID Connect

The Successful Candidate Should Have

• A proven ability to gain in depth technical knowledge, and solve related problems
• Strong written and verbal communication skills to ensure work is well-documented and can be clearly communicated to other parties
• A self-motivated approach to working as part of a distributed team

Package Description

Band: D

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Salford

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application . There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

• Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
• Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
• Benefits – We offer a competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

About The BBC

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours in the document attached below.

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual’s unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here

Attached documents

• Our Values Our BBC
• Job description: Senior Systems Engineer