Archive/ Pipeline Operations

The APO Technical Lead & Deputy Manager is a senior technical and leadership position within the Archive/Pipeline Operations (APO) Group of the ALMA Department of Computing. The role provides technical direction, coordinates operational and project activities, and helps ensure the availability, performance, security, and evolution of the Observatory systems used for scientific data archiving, processing, replication, distribution, and database services.

Working closely with the APO Manager, the position translates operational and strategic priorities into coordinated technical plans, assigns and follows up work, manages technical risks and dependencies, and provides hands-on support for complex incidents and escalations. The role collaborates with ADC Software and IT teams, Science Operations, the Integrated Computing Team, ALMA Regional Centres, and external technical partners in Europe, North America, and East Asia.

As Deputy Manager, the position supports group planning, people management, budget preparation, stakeholder communication, service reporting, and continuous improvement. The role acts on behalf of the APO Manager when delegated or during the Manager’s absence.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Technical Leadership and Service Coordination

• Provide technical leadership for the APO Group and coordinate daily operational, maintenance, project, and improvement activities.
• Translate group priorities into clear work plans, assign technical tasks in consultation with the APO Manager, and monitor progress, dependencies, risks, and deliverables.
• Coordinate the lifecycle, maintenance, and evolution of archive, pipeline-processing, database, storage, replication, monitoring, and supporting infrastructure.
• Lead or coordinate technical activities related to NGAS, Oracle, processing clusters, high-performance storage, networking, and other APO-managed platforms.
• Ensure that technical decisions, architectures, operational procedures, standards, and recovery processes are documented, reviewed, and maintained.
• Promote standardization, automation, observability, cybersecurity, service resilience, and operational efficiency across APO-managed systems.
• Coordinate technical readiness for planned maintenance, upgrades, deployments, disaster‑recovery tests, and major operational changes.
• Represent APO in technical working groups, reviews, cross‑department initiatives, and projects, and communicate relevant outcomes to the group and management.

Operational Support and Technical Escalation

• Act as a senior escalation point for critical incidents affecting archive, pipeline, database, storage, replication, or processing services.
• Provide hands‑on diagnosis and resolution support for complex Linux, Oracle, storage, high‑performance computing, and dataflow issues when required.
• Coordinate incident response, service restoration, stakeholder communication, vendor escalation, root‑cause analysis, and follow‑up corrective actions.
• Support the administration, patching, tuning, recovery, failover, security, and replication of Oracle environments during escalations or critical maintenance activities.
• Provide expert support for high‑performance storage and processing platforms, including parallel filesystems, high‑speed interconnects, schedulers, and related infrastructure.
• Ensure that lessons learned from incidents and maintenance activities are captured and available in knowledge bases, and improvement plans.
• Participate in scheduled on‑call, emergency, or out‑of‑hours support when required.

Projects, Architecture, and Continuous Improvement

• Coordinate APO contributions to new projects and infrastructure upgrades, ensuring alignment with operational needs, architecture, cybersecurity, budget, and supportability.
• Assess technical requirements, alternatives, risks, resource needs, and lifecycle impacts, and provide clear recommendations to the APO Manager and project stakeholders.
• Contribute to capacity planning and technology roadmaps for data growth, processing demand, storage, databases, replication, and monitoring.
• Encourage proof‑of‑concept testing, performance evaluation, automation, and adoption of technologies that improve reliability and scalability.
• Coordinate with vendors and partner institutions to resolve technical issues and maintain effective support relationships.

Deputy Management Responsibilities

• Act for the APO Manager when delegated or during the Manager’s absence, maintaining operational continuity and timely decision‑making.
• Assist with group planning, prioritization, workload balancing, shift and on‑call scheduling, and follow‑up of agreed commitments.
• Support the preparation and facilitation of group meetings, technical coordination meetings, reviews,