IT System Architect and DB Administrator

IT System Architect and DB Administrator

Are you looking for a new opportunity to take your career to a higher orbit? To join an international group with a successful track record in Space Engineering? A job adapted to your career ambitions and in which you could have an impact for the years to come?

We are looking for an IT System Architect & DB Administrator to work at ESAC’s premises in Madrid, Spain.

You will have the opportunity to participate as Database Administrator in the software engineering service that supports the development and maintenance of the Science Archives at the ESDC (ESAC Science Data Centre) for the space missions of any of the sub-areas: Planetary, Astronomy, Survey, Heliophysics, and Human, Robotics and Exploration.

About the client and location

The European Space Astronomy Centre (ESAC) is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) base inVillanueva de la Canada, Madrid, Spain. ESACis responsible forall of ESA’s research into astronomy and solar system exploration, as well as being the location of ESA’s space telescope. It is from here that archives are stored on ESA’s science missions, which are then made accessible for researchers all around the world.

Tasks and activities

The scope of work will include:

• IT System Architect related:
  • Support the design, installation and configuration of a Liferay-based platform to meet scalability, security, and accessibility requirements.
  • Perform technical architecture definition, integration with external systems, and compliance with standards (WCAG, GDPR).
  • Provision and configure development, staging, and production environments (redirection rules, reverse proxy configurations and monitoring).
  • Implementing backup and disaster recovery procedures.
  • Support the migration of content from outdated Liferay platform to the new one.
  • Coordination with stakeholders for release windows and fallback plans.
  • Produce comprehensive technical documentation.
• DB Administrator related:
  • Administer, maintain, monitor and optimize PostgreSQL and Oracle databases.
  • Design and implement high-availability and distributed database architectures (e.g., sharding, clustering, replication).
  • Analyze and improve database performance through tuning queries, indexes, and system parameters.
  • Manage database security, access control, and data privacy compliance.
  • Evaluate new database technologies, tools, and distributed systems frameworks for scalability and performance improvements.
  • Support the project teams with any database related activity.

Skills and experience

The following skills and experience are mandatory:

• A Master’s Degree and at least 4 years of relevant work experience in Technology / Computer Science or equivalent.
• Experience in Infrastructure and Deployment (virtual machines and containerized environments).
• Experience in System Integration and Networking: APIs, Authentication (e.g., LDAP, SSO), Reverse Proxy and URL redirection.
• Experience in Performance Optimization (Caching, CDN, DB tuning)
• Expertise in Security Hardening (SSL, Firewall, Access Control)
• Expertise in Infrastructure and Database Backup & Disaster Recovery Planning
• Hands-on experience administering PostgreSQL and Oracle databases
• Proven experience with replication, partitioning, and distributed database architectures
• Exposure to NoSQL or distributed databases (e.g., Greenplum, CitusDB, CockroachDB, YugabyteDB, Cassandra).
• Desire to work both autonomously and as part of a team, in an international multicultural environment.
• Solution oriented mindset, with a customer focused communication skill.
• Fluent in English, both written and spoken.

The following skills and experience would be highly desirable:

• Understanding of GDPR and Web Accessibility (WCAG 2.1).
• Knowledge of monitoring tools (Grafana, ELK, Splunk).
• Experience and knowledge in data lakehouse technologies (Apache Spark, Apache Iceberg, Delta Lake).
• Experience and knowledge in data storage formats such as Parquet, ORC, and Avro.
• Knowledge of cloud-based database services and object storage systems (Azure Database, AWS RDS, AWS S3, Azure Data Lake, Google Cloud Storage, HDFS).
• Knowledge of DevOps & CI/CD Automation, Container Orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker Swarm) and Analytics & Traffic Evaluation.

Why should you apply?

• You will have the opportunity to work within leading space organisations across Europe.
• We encourage everyone to think outside the box and to push the boundaries of traditional knowledge. This role is an opportunity to join a forward-thinking company and allows for a deeper understanding of the industry.
• To be part of a company that values integrity, inspiration, care and collaboration.
• Benefits include: competitive remuneration packages; unique career opportunities, including working in other countries; access to training and development programmes; flexible relocation support.

We welcome applications from people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, all genders, LGBTQ+ individuals and ex-service personnel.