Database Administrator

Database Engineer in the Information Technologies Department (IT), Database Serv

ices (DB) Group.
Date of publication: 14.10.2010

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Programme Staff
Staff Category Computer Scientists
Number of posts 1
Job Reference IT-DB-DSA-2010-263-LD

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Professional Code / Code Professionnel
208
Career Path / Filière de Carrière
E
English Version
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Voir plus bas pour la version française.
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Introduction
The Information Technology (IT) Department provides computing services for all a
spects of the laboratoryâ s activities. These require a wide range of technologies an
d skills including the provision of computing facilities, local and wide area ne
tworking, platforms for computing environments, software development, databases,
desktop environments and a wide range of system integration and management task
s. The Department collaborates with institutes around the world as part of the L
HC Computing Grid to provide the environments for physics data processing as wel
l as engaging in research and development projects with industry as part of the
CERN openlab and partnering in a number of European Commission projects.
More information on the Department is at: http://cern.ch/it-dep/
The IT Database Services (DB) Group provides the central infrastructure and supp
ort for Database Applications used across the laboratory. The Group is responsib
le for over 100 Oracle databases running on Linux based servers with over 1000TB
of disk space and using Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC) and Oracle repli
cation solutions. These databases are used by the CERN accelerators, administrat
ive and engineering applications as well as by the experiments, and for the LHC
Computing Grid, the worldâ s largest Grid for scientific computing.
The Group also actively participates in the CERN openlab research programmes (ht
tp://cern.ch/openlab) in collaboration with Oracle Corporation.
More information regarding the activities of the Group can be found at: http://c
ern.ch/it-dep/db
Functions
As a member of the Database Services group, you will join a team of experienced
database administrators. The team has responsibilities for managing and supporti
ng databases for a wide set of applications including the CASTOR mass storage sy
stem (http://cern.ch/castor/), the Laboratoryâ s Administrative Information Services,
the control of the newly operational LHC Accelerator and support for the online
and offline activities of the LHC experiments.
The work involves database administration in an Oracle cluster (RAC) environment
(currently using Oracle 10.2, preparing a migration to 11.2.), management (inst
allation, backup, monitoring, capacity planning, procedures development) and opt
imisation of database resources, as well as design consultancy, assistance and a
dvice to end users. It is expected that the initial assignment will involve clos
e collaboration with the team providing direct support to the CMS experiment for
their online and offline database applications.
These functions require flexibility, structured problem solving skills, the abil
ity to learn quickly, good communication skills and a customer-oriented approach
.

Qualification required
University degree or equivalent in computer science.

Experience and knowledge

Knowledge and practical experience is required in the following areas:

Excellent knowledge of the Oracle Database Management System and related tools;
Practical experience in the operation of large production databases, including e
nd-user support;
Practical experience with Oracle database application design and tuning;
Practical experience with the Linux operating system;
UNIX shell, Perl and/or Python programming;
Practical knowledge of the Oracle RAC, Oracle Data Guard and Enterprise Manager
components would be an asset as would an understanding of the IT Infrastructure
Library (ITIL);
Good knowledge of English or French; basic knowledge of the other language or an
undertaking to acquire it rapidly.

Eligibility and closing date

Employing a diverse and international workforce is a CERN core value and central
to our success.
We welcome applications from all Member States irrespective of gender, age, disa
bility, sexual orientation, race, religion or personal situation.
This vacancy will be filled as soon as possible, and applications should normall
y reach us no later than 11 November 2010. Applications will normally remain val
id for 12 months.

Note on Employment Conditions

We offer a limited-duration contract for a period of five years. Limited-duratio

n contracts shall terminate by default on their date of expiry. Subject to certa
in conditions, holders of limited-duration contracts may be granted an indefinit
e contract.
These functions require participation in a regular stand-by duty, including nigh
ts, Sundays and public holidays.

Quick links:
Conditions of Employment
Compensation and Benefits