IT Systems & HPC Infrastructure Specialist 60% - contractor

Are you a Linux-savvy IT professional who thrives at the intersection of systems administration and High-Performance Computing (HPC)?

We are looking for a Part-Time IT Systems & HPC Infrastructure Specialist to manage our technical environment. While we have 30 employees who need standard support, our additional challenge lies in maintaining the high-performance compute farms and cloud-bursting capabilities that drive our engineering team.

Currently, these tasks are handled by our senior engineers; we are looking for a dedicated specialist to take over the tactical management of our local and cloud infrastructure, ensuring our compute-heavy workloads run reliably and securely, as well as helping enhance and maintain our standard office IT infrastructure.

Responsibilities

• HPC (High-Performance Computing) - Ensuring engineers have the compute and tools needed for their work.

  • Compute Management: Manage and optimize job scheduling tools (SLURM, LSF-like) for heavy compute loads.

  • Hardware Acceleration: Ensure optimal GPU access (both local and cloud-based).

• DevOps & Infrastructure - Automation, security, and the "invisible" backbone that keeps systems running reliably.

  • Infrastructure Automation: Use Ansible to deploy, configure, and maintain on-premises servers (Proxmox/bare-metal) and cloud environments.

  • Containerization & Data Pipelines: Facilitate data pipelines utilizing Kubernetes, Docker, and containers.

  • Security & IAM: Manage identity and authentication (LDAP, SSSD, SAML) and maintain firewall rules (Fortinet).

  • Data Integrity: Maintain a rigorous backup/snapshot regime and ensure all SaaS data (e.g. GitLab, Coda) is archived to the NAS.

  • Business Continuity: Establish disaster recovery procedures and conduct security audits/log monitoring.

• Helpdesk & IT Operations - Supporting the human element and managing the physical office technology.

  • User Support: Provide essential support for the ~ 30 users (troubleshooting hardware, app freezes, network latency).

  • Endpoint Management: Deploy and maintain Operating Systems (Windows/macOS) and manage ESET/Google Admin consoles.

  • Life Cycle Management: Onboarding/Offboarding employees and providing training on security/IT tools.

  • Vendor Relations: Act as the technical point of contact for partners and third-party service providers.

• HPC (High-Performance Computing)

  • HPC Experience: Practical familiarity with job schedulers (SLURM/LSF).

  • Workload Management: Experience managing high-compute workloads, specifically involving CPU and GPU resource allocation.

  • Performance Optimization: Ability to troubleshoot performance bottlenecks at the system level (memory, daemon processes, latency).

• DevOps & Infrastructure

  • Infrastructure as Code: Proficiency in Ansible for automated deployment and configuration.

  • Linux Administration: A strong background in Linux System Administration (the primary OS for your servers and compute nodes).

  • Networking & Security: Practical knowledge of firewall management (e.g., Fortinet). Identity management expertise with LDAP and SSSD. Experience with system logging for proactive security monitoring.

• AI & Automation Mindset

  • AI Curious: You are familiar with the current AI landscape and have experimented with AI agents or LLM-assisted workflows to automate your own work.

  • Automation-First: You naturally lean toward scripting and agentic solutions rather than manual, repetitive fixes.

• Helpdesk & IT Operations

  • General IT: Proficiency in managing Windows and macOS endpoints (onboarding, cleanup, and troubleshooting).

  • SaaS Administration: Experience with Google Workspace administration and partner integrations (e.g., Coda, GitLab).

  • Mobile/Endpoint Tools: Comfort using MDM consoles (Apple Business Manager, ESET, Google Admin).

• You are a tactical executor. You don't need to be the chief architect, but you should be able to take strategic input and handle the "how-to" of the deployment autonomously.

• Logistics: Flexibility to support both Leuven and Meylan sites (remote/on-site split negotiable).

Why this role?

This isn’t a “typical” IT support role. You will be working with a sophisticated, hybrid stack that bridges high-performance on-premises clusters with advanced cloud-native data tools.

It is an ideal position for a technical generalist who enjoys deep-level infrastructure variety—moving from automation and compute orchestration to security and user support—while working in a flexible, part-time capacity within a high-growth technical environment.