CTO/Technical Coordinator Position

INESC-ID - Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores, Investigação e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa is a R&D institute dedicated to advanced research and development in the fields of Information Technologies, Electronics, Communications, and Energy. INESC-ID has participated in more than 50 research projects funded by the European Union and more than 190 funded by national entities. Until today, our researchers have published more than 700 papers in international journal papers, more than 3000 papers in international conferences, and have registered 15 patents and/or brands.

This opening of position corresponds to a fixed-term employment contract, to be developed within the scope of the project BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT the Portuguese Infrastructure for Biological Data and the Portuguese node of ELIXIR - the European Distributed Infrastructure for Biological Data. It supports the research strategy and programs of the national scientific system through a distributed computing infrastructure and a network of bioinformatics and data management experts, promoting scientific research in the agrofood and forestry, sea and health sectors. BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT maps and disseminates ELIXIR resources to Portuguese users in academia and industry, and builds training and services focused on fulfilling national needs and promoting excellence.

We are a flexible young solution-driven team that values integrity, transparency, communication, high standards of performance, and professionalism and teamwork.

1. Objectives

The main purpose of this role is to ensure the successful implementation and delivery of BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT services through the collaborative development and execution of the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT technical strategy.

The BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT CTO/Technical Coordinator is also expected to take the lead role in development and writing of the technical components of grant applications and proactively, in collaboration with National Nodes and other partners, identify new grant opportunities in the technical domain. Thus the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT CTO/Technical Coordinator will work closely with the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT Executive Director and National Nodes to lead the planning for technical risk and growth of the distributed infrastructure, stay abreast of technical developments and hot topics as well as demonstrate the necessary strategic thinking, people and communication skills to build a high performant, innovative and collaborative team across the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT national nodes. The BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT CTO/Technical Coordinator will also drive the implementation technical standards from key European framework projects to BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT and be responsible to ensure that there are effective interactions between BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT and the ELIXIR, as well as other European ESFRI Infrastructures.

In partnership with the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT Executive Director, National Node Representatives and technical coordinators, identify opportunities and risks for delivering BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT services including identification of opportunities for innovation, and assessment of obstacles and technical hurdles to the  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT success.

As appropriate, advise the Executive Director and National Node Representatives in establishing governance processes of direction and control to ensure that objectives are achieved, risks are managed appropriately and the organization’s resources are used responsibly.

Proactively work with National Nodes to identify, evaluate and implement appropriate technology platforms (including web application frameworks and the software deployment stacks) adoption of good practices and innovative solutions for delivering  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT services.

Set timetables for the evaluation, development, and deployment of services.

Establish a governance process that meets government, partner, and company expectations for customer information privacy within  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT.

Lead the development and execution of an BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT information security plan that protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data and servers.

Communicate the  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT technology strategy to partners, users, and stakeholders with the  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT management team.

Identify technology and scientific trends and that may support or impede the success of ELIXIR.

Implementation & Deployment

As a member of the  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT management team, lead the strategic planning of ELIXIR technology by identifying and supporting prioritization of  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT pilot actions and technical parts of  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT grant applications.

Ensure the establishment of effective collaboration tools for BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT such as a wiki, forum, chatroom, project management together with  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT National Node technical leads.

Lead  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT Technical Coordinator forum, in group meetings as well as frequent one on-one meetings, to stay aware of technical as well as operational developments at each of the nodes, to keep current best practices up to date and support nodes in their implementation, to support the identification and implementation of new technologies and standards.

Effectively manage the portfolio of  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT pilot actions and technology projects through regular personal interaction with their project leaders to monitor progress, help identify risks and blockers to delivery, and ensure that initiatives are appropriately resourced and run.

Operational Management

Maintain up-to-date knowledge of technology standards, industry trends, emerging technologies, and software development best practices.

Collaboratively define and communicate  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT mission and standards for acquiring or developing systems, equipment, or software within the organisation.

Ensure that technology standards and best practices are maintained across the organisation.

Share knowledge, mentor, and educate  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT staff, partners, users, and stakeholders with regard to the technological vision, opportunities, and challenges through participation in meetings, personal interactions and contributions to  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT media.

Responsible for recruitment, training, retention, and organization of technical BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT staff in accordance with the BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT hiring process, personnel policies, and budget requirements.

Take responsibility for the technical operating and capital budget at the  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT and proactively work with  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT Executive Director to ensure that financial targets are met with appropriate risk management. Establish standards of performance and monitor conformance for  BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT technical staff (through performance review) and vendors (through setting criteria for service delivery and monitoring the service providers).

Ensure that ELIXIRs internal technological processes and customer-facing services comply with community expectations and applicable laws and regulations for privacy, security, and social responsibility.

Contribute to standardization of technologies, and evolution of best practices by collaborating with peers outside the organisation, releasing code, presenting at conferences, and writing for publication (online or offline).

2. Applicable Law

A fixed-term contract will be celebrated according to the Portuguese Labour Code in force - Lei n.º 7/2009 (vg. art. 140º, n. 1 and n. 2, al. g), art. 148º, n. 1 and art. 149º, n. 2, 3 and 4)

 “Código do Trabalho” (Labor Code), approved by Law No. 7/2009, of February 12, in its current wording.

3. Duration

12  months, starting in January, 2021

- Renewable, subject to suitable performance within the period of the project, not exceeding the maximum period set for this type of contract – 2 years (included contract renewals)

 

4. The jury of the call is composed as follows 

 

5. The workplace shall be at INESC ID Headquarters Rua Alves Redol, 9, 1000-029 Lisboa or at any other facilities namely in INESC-ID Energia IST - Departamento de Engenharia Electrotécnica e de Computadores, Área de Energia, Av. Rovisco Pais 1049-001 Lisboa or in INESC-ID - Taguspark Avenida Professor Cavaco Silva, Edifício IST 2744-016 Porto Salvo, in accordance with the requirements and needs of research projects.

6 The Employee is entitled, prior to any deductions or withholdings, to a monthly pay of €2 702.83, working in an exclusive dedication basis and schedule exemption.

7. Any national, foreign and stateless candidate(s) holding a MSc degree in a field of knowledge or specialty covering the scientific area of life-science, computer science, or another rigorous discipline with solid interest and experience of bioinformatics / medical informatics research.may submit an application. For degrees awarded by a foreign higher education institution, the degree must comply with the provisions of Decree-Law no. 341/2007 of 12th of October, and all formalities established therein must be fulfilled, by the selected candidate, until the date of signature of the contract.

8. General call admission requirements include those specified in the previous point and that, from the candidate’s curriculum vitae, one may validate the compliance with criteria such as:  

·         Demonstrated ability to lead and motivate technical teams in a distributed environment to deliver against challenging goals and timelines. 

·         Demonstrated ability to envision web-based services that meet user needs or solve business problems. 

·         Ability to discern user requirements and develop specifications. 

·         5+ years experience in a life-science informatics research environment. 

·         Familiarity and experience with more than one software development methodology.

·         Contribution to collaborative open source projects is an asset. 

·         Robust understanding and experience from data-intensive high performance computing with demonstrated ability to predict and project technical developments and needs. 

·         Knowledge of Internet protocols, database management systems, and revision control systems. 

·         Familiarity with network technologies, database management systems, web standards and data integration techniques including semantic data integration. 

·         Demonstrated understanding of information security vulnerabilities and risk management.

·         Knowledge and practical experience of business process development, governance processes, management, budgeting, and administrative operations. 

·         Results oriented with proven ability to lead teams in distributed and matrix-managed environments with excellent interpersonal skills. 

·         Excellent written and oral communication skills in English and preferably one other European language. 

·         Ability to articulate ideas and vision to engage and inspire both technical and nontechnical audiences. 

·         Exceptionally self-motivated and directed. 

·         Superior analytical, evaluative, and problem-solving abilities. 

·         Exceptional service orientation. 

·         Awareness and understanding of European research policy and funding opportunities. 

·         This will be a busy role with frequently changing priorities so it is essential that the role holder is able to: 

·         set and manage priorities judiciously with a minimum of supervision, 

·         meet deadlines and handle a heavy workload, 

·         work to a high level of accuracy and attention to detail show a flexible approach, self-motivation and resilience, 

·         work occasionally outside normal office hours, 

·         if required, travel to ELIXIR headquarters or events, and BioData.pt nodes.

9. The evaluation of the scientific and curricular path focuses on relevance, quality and timeliness in the scientific area of the call:

i) 40% Academic and professional training

ii) 40% Professional experience 

(These two criteria will rank the candidates, the top 3 will be interviewed)

iii) 20% Discussion of a two-pager for implementing the role in BioData.pt | ELIXIR PT

Preference will be given to candidates with PhD degree

The jury may also decide not to assign the position, if none of candidates meets the required conditions.

10. The evaluation of the scientific and curricular career has two components, namely

i) The assessment of the curriculum vitae and other documentation presented.

ii) The Juri may interview the first candidates with higher classification in person or in the impossibility of attending by video conference. The evaluation of the interview is expressed in a scale of 0 to 100 taking into consideration the quality of the scientific knowledge and the capacity of communication demonstrated by the candidate, as well as the answers to the questions placed by the members of the evaluation panel.

If an interview is conducted, the punctuation proposed by each member of the jury is obtained by assigning a weighting factor of 90% to the curriculum vitae and other documentation presented, and a weighting factor of 10% to the interview

11. Each member of the jury assigns a classification to each of the candidates on a scale of 0 to 100 points, ranking the candidates according to their classification consisting on the sum of the partial classifications assigned in each evaluation criterion, and taking into account the weighting factor given to each parameter. In this process abstentions are not allowed

12. Candidates shall be ordered by applying the successive voting method

13. The jury has the faculty not to select a candidate in case the requirements are not fulfilled.

14. Minutes of the jury meeting are drawn up, which contain a summary of what has taken place in the meeting, as well as the votes cast by each of the members and their reasons, being available to the candidates whenever requested.

15. The final deliberation of the jury is approved by the President of INESC-ID, and it is his responsibility to establish the respective contract.

16. Formalisation of applications 

16.1 Applications are made by sending an email to rh@inesc-id.pt, with the documents stated in 16.2 and 16.3.

16.2 Applications are formalised by sending a Motivation Letter, addressed to the Board of INESC ID, including this announcement identification, full name, parents’ names, ID card, or Citizen Card number and date, or civil identification number, taxpayer ID number, date and place of birth, marital status, occupation, residence and contact address, including email address and telephone

16.3 Applications shall include all supported documents encompassed by point 6 and 7 for call admission, namely:

a) Single copy of certificate or diploma and detailed list of grades

b) Detailed curriculum vitae

* The administrative verification of the recognition of the degrees obtained abroad will be fulfilled for the purpose of contracting, in case of approval of the candidatures.

17. This call is open from December 14, 2020  to January 15, 2021

18. Candidates who formalize their application incorrectly or who do not prove the requirements required in this notice are excluded from admission. In case of doubt, the jury may demand any candidate to present documents proving those statements.

19. The false statements made by the candidates will be punished according to the law.

20. The admitted and excluded candidates applicants will be notified by email of the final ranking list .

21. Prior Hearing and Deadline for Final Decision: After being notified, candidates have 10 working days to submit a formal rebuttal. Within the term of 30 days, counted from the deadline for the presentation of the candidacies, the final decisions of the jury are given.

22. This call is exclusively intended to fill the vacancy (s) indicated and may be terminated until the homologation of the final ranking list of candidates and expiring with the respective occupation of the working position on offer.

23. Non-discrimination and equal access policy: INESC-ID actively promotes a policy of non-discrimination and equal access, so that no candidate can be privileged, benefited, disadvantaged or deprived of any right or exemption from any duty owing, in particular, to ancestry, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, family status, economic situation, education, social origin or condition, genetic heritage, reduced working capacity, disability , chronic illness, nationality, ethnic origin or race, territory of origin, language, religion, political or ideological beliefs and trade union membership.

24. Under the terms of D.L. No. 29/2001, of February 3, a disabled candidate has a preference when in equal classification, which prevails over any other legal preference. Candidates must declare on the application form their respective degree of disability, the type of disability and the means of communication / expression to be used in the selection process, under the terms of the aforementioned diploma.

25. The selection panel approved this announcement on December 2, 2020