Senior ML Infrastructure Engineer
Requirements
Requires proven experience leading the design and operation of large-scale ML compute clusters and expertise in high-throughput storage. Candidates must have expert knowledge of GPU architecture, high-speed networking, and IaC tools like Terraform.
Job Description
At the Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT), we're on a mission to translate scientific discovery into real world impact. We bring together visionary scientists, technologists, policy makers, and entrepreneurs to tackle humanity's greatest challenges in four transformative areas:
- Health, Medical Science & Generative Biology
- Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture
- Climate Change & Managing CO₂
- Artificial Intelligence & Robotics
Your Role:
Join our SciComp team to build the cloud and compute foundation that enables scientific breakthroughs. Deliver reliable, secure platforms and self-service guardrails that accelerate experimentation and turn ideas into results - faster, at scale, and with confidence.
Your Responsibilities:
- Build, operate, and continuously optimise our high-performance GPU training and inference clusters, focusing on robust, high-availability scheduling, isolation, and automated lifecycle management.
- Drive systems design and implementation for high-throughput data paths, optimising I/O, caching, and data locality across compute and storage (including our current Lustre implementation).
- Proactively benchmark, profile, and resolve performance bottlenecks across the compute, network, and orchestration layers to maximise efficiency for distributed training and inference.
- Establish comprehensive observability, resilience, and automated security controls to ensure compliance and robust operation of sensitive research environments.
- Partner with Research, Data, and Applied teams to forecast capacity and cost for GPU and storage needs, setting quotas and streamlining ML experimentation pipelines.
Essential Skills, Qualifications & Experience:
- Proven experience leading the design, build, and operation of high-performance ML compute clusters at scale
- A proactive, autonomous approach to systems design and the proven ability and desire to ideate, co-create and implement optimal solutions
- Exposure to migrating or transforming ML infrastructure from traditional schedulers to modern, containerised systems
- Expertise with high-throughput storage systems for ML/HPC workloads
- Expert-level understanding of GPU architecture, high-speed networking for distributed training, and performance profiling to resolve bottlenecks
- A solid grasp of IaC and CI/CD practices (e.g., Terraform, Argo CD)
We offer the following salary and benefits:
- Competitive salary (dependent on experience) + travel allowance + bonus
- Enhanced holiday. Our annual leave allowance is 25 days plus 8 bank holidays and an additional 3 days between Christmas and New Year. You will also have the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days annual leave in January and July.
- Pension - Employer contribution 7.5%, minimum employee contribution 5%
- Life Assurance.
- Income Protection
- Private Medical Insurance as standard for you, your partner and any dependents. Including hospital Cash Plan
- Employee discounts
- Electric car scheme
- Nursery Salary Sacrifice scheme
- Cycle to Work Scheme
- Family Planning
- Neurodiversity support including advise and assessments
- Coaching & Therapy services
You must have the right to work permanently in the UK with a willingness to travel as necessary. In certain cases, we can consider sponsorship, and this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
You will live in, or within easy commuting distance of, Oxford (or be willing to relocate) and can commit to being onsite at our Oxford office, a minimum of 3 days per working week.
Skills
About Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford
EIT delivers scaled solutions to humanity’s important problems. Backed by rigorous science and expansive AI capabilities, we plan to push the boundaries of what’s possible. By combining science, technology and commercial insight, we aim to build ethical, sustainable companies that create meaningful, lasting impact around the world. EIT comprises of a world-class faculty of scientists, technologists, engineers, researchers, educators and innovators. Together we are breaking down the silos between science, research, industry and policy. Our approach blends the rigour of transformative science with the agility of enterprise. Set for completion in 2027, the EIT Campus in Littlemore will include more than 300,000 sq ft of research laboratories, educational and gathering spaces. Fuelled by growing ambition and the strength of Oxford’s science ecosystem, EIT is now expanding its footprint to a 2 million sq ft Campus across the western part of The Oxford Science Park. Designed by Foster + Partners led by Lord Norman Foster, this will become a transformative workplace for up to 7,000 people, with autonomous laboratories, purpose-built laboratories including a plant sciences building and dynamic spaces to spark interdisciplinary collaboration.
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