The Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes (ING) comprises 3 world class optical telescopes: the 4.2-m William Herschel Telescope, the largest and most advanced telescope in Europe, together with the 2.5-m Isaac Newton Telescope and the 1-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope. ING is located on the island of La Palma in the Canaries where it operates a sea level base in the island’s capital of Santa Cruz de La Palma together with the telescope site, 2400 meters above sea level in the international Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos. The telescopes are required to operate 365 nights of the year.

This position of ING Network Manager reports to the Head of the Computer Facilities Group who has overall responsibility for the provision of computer services to the staff and visitors of the ING. The facilities are a combination of 3Com, Fore Systems and Cisco devices with Sun Microsystems, DEC Alphas, DEC Vaxes, X terminals and a variety of PCs. All devices are connected to a 10/100BaseT network in support of the scientific, engineering and administrative activities of the ING.

The successful candidate will be an experienced network manager willing to take on and advance this important role. Candidates should have a thorough understanding of IP networking technologies and network implementation strategies as related to LANs and WANs. In addition to these skills a good working knowledge of UNIX (Sun Solaris 2 and Linux) and Windows 95/98/NT/2000 will be expected. Practical experience as well as a theoretical understanding of DHCP,WINS, NFS, DNS and NIS+ is required.

Your primary responsibility will be to ensure that the ING network is maintained operational and effective so as to enable astronomical observing to proceed every night of the year and other network dependent activities throughout the daytime.

Experience and an understanding of computer security, WWW server management and Email systems would be an advantage.

The successful candidate will be educated to first degree level or have an equivalent qualification or experience and have supervisory or project management skills. They will possess the ability to communicate effectively in oral and written forms, be a self-starter, a vivid team player with effective problem-solving and inter-personal skills.

Although you will be based at the ING’s Sea-Level Office, to fulfil your role as Network Manager you will be expected to travel to the observatories. The appointed individual will be available for night-time support as Duty Engineer on a rostered basis and occasional work outside normal office hours to rectify network related faults that may arise. The ability to converse in Spanish would be highly desirable and a full driving is essential.

The post is at PPARC’s Band 4 level, equivalent to HPTO/HSO. As such, starting pay will be in the range £17,880 to £22,790 with the potential to progress to the range maximum of £27,267. As the post is based in La Palma, PPARC’s overseas conditions of employment will apply. These are analogous to those of the Civil Service and include the payment of overseas allowances, the provision of rent free accommodation and a relocation package.

Further information on this post is available from the Head of CFG, Don Carlos Abrams (tel. (00 34) 922 425450, or email don@ing.iac.es) or from Personnel, Les Edwins (tel. (00 34) 922 425418 or email lie@ing.iac.es). Further details about ING may also be found at our web site http://www.ing.iac.es

Individuals wishing to apply against this vacancy should send an application form together with a CV to the Head of Personnel at ING before the closing date of 14 August. An electronic version of the PPARC application form may be found on the ING’s website under "Job Opportunities" section of "About ING".

This vacancy is being advertised across the Civil Service, "jobs.ac.uk" and the internet.

PPARC is fully committed to equality of opportunity in the workplace

L Edwins
Isaac Newton Group

For Director, ING
10 July 2000