ITS Research Platforms Engineer

Job Title

ITS Research Platforms Engineer

Job Description

Help power some of the most important medical research happening in Australia. We’re looking for a Research Platforms Engineer to join our small, friendly team and keep WEHI’s high-performance computing environment humming — the platform behind discoveries in cancer, immunology, structural biology, genomics, imaging and, increasingly, AI.

Our HPC environment — known as Milton — is a serious bit of kit, and our researchers lean on it every day:

• Thousands of CPU cores and a fleet of GPUs running everything from CryoEM and AlphaFold to large-scale genomics and AI.

• Multi-petabyte storage across high-performance flash (VAST), managed disk filesystems (Quantum StorNext) and tape, holding billions of research files.

• A rich scientific software stack — SLURM job scheduling, hundreds of environment modules, containerised services, and friendly web access through Open OnDemand, RStudio, Jupyter and more.

• A broad portfolio of research applications and core services to keep running — from imaging and proteomics platforms to tools the labs rely on day to day — plus a large tape archive holding billions of research files.

It’s a genuinely interesting environment to work in, with real scientific impact and plenty of room to bring new ideas.

• Keep the compute, storage and scheduling environment healthy, stable and continually improving.

• Work shoulder-to-shoulder with researchers to turn real scientific problems into solutions — scoping, building, tuning and supporting the tools they need.

• Roll out new technology and better ways of working, and help researchers get the most out of the platform.

• Troubleshoot the tricky stuff, get to the root cause, and put durable fixes in place — often before anyone notices there was a problem.

• Partner with vendors and the wider ITS team, and act as the researchers’ advocate when it counts.

What you’ll bring

We care more about what you can do than the letters after your name. The essentials:

• 3–5+ years’ hands-on experience with the kinds of technologies we run (or close, market-available equivalents) — think Linux and HPC cluster administration, a scheduler like SLURM, enterprise or high-performance storage, GPU compute, virtualisation, and scripting/automation in Bash or Python.

• Solid Linux systems administration, containers (Docker, Apptainer) and an infrastructure-as-code mindset (e.g. Ansible) — in short, a sysadmin/DevOps approach to keeping things reliable and repeatable.

• Strong problem-solving instincts and the curiosity to keep learning as the technology evolves.

• Great communication skills and a genuine enjoyment of working with people — you can talk to a researcher and a vendor in the same afternoon and make both conversations land.

Nice to have (but not deal-breakers):

• A tertiary qualification in science, IT, engineering or similar — desirable, not mandatory.

• Experience in medical research, higher education or another research-intensive sector.

• Familiarity with the research data lifecycle and tools like Globus, and an appreciation for the needs of bioinformatics, genomics and imaging researchers.

Why WEHI?

You’d be joining one of Australia’s leading medical research institutes, right in the heart of the world-class Parkville biomedical precinct. The work here matters — it shapes how diseases are understood, diagnosed and treated — and the people are collaborative, down-to-earth and good at what they do. We offer a supportive, flexible workplace and the chance to do technically meaningful work that directly enables great science.

If you like the idea of keeping a world-class research platform running and helping brilliant people make discoveries, we’d love to hear from you. Apply with your CV and a cover letter on why this role appeals — we read every one.

Terms of Appointment
This position is an ongoing in a full-time capacity. Very attractive salary packaging options are available for general living expenses, meal entertainment, novated leasing and more. 12% superannuation payable, plus up to a further 5% after the first 6 months of service via our matching superannuation scheme.   

General enquiries can be directed to recruitment@wehi.edu.au.

A position description is available here.

How to Apply
Please apply by uploading your CV, cover letter and a document addressing the key selection criteria in pdf format.

Application Closing Date:  The closing date for this advertisement is 3 August 2026, however we will be reviewing applications as they are received, and WEHI reserves the right to appoint a suitable candidate prior to the closing date. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing this opportunity.