Job Description
We are seeking an experienced Senior DevOps Consultant to support a defined project at our Headquarters in Berlin. The assignment is focused on the set-up and further development of our data management and infrastructure platform. The initial consulting engagement is planned for six months, with the possibility of extending the assignment for a further period, potentially up to 12 months in total.
The project supports our Climate Policy Team, which is engaged in various projects on climate change mitigation, in particular on energy system transformation, evaluation of emissions scenarios, the 1.5°C global warming limit and evaluation of national climate action. This includes flagship projects such as the Climate Action Tracker and the National Pathways Explorer, for which data is processed and analysed in-house and then published on the respective project websites.
As part of the assignment, the consultant will work on the shared data platform and infrastructure used across the organisation. Our platform is self-hosted on our own hardware and currently runs PostgreSQL, MinIO, GitLab CI/CD and containerised workloads on Linux.
Your Responsibilities
- Build and operate the data platform for advanced analytics and climate modelling, spanning DevOps and data engineering work
- Take the platform from single-server deployments to properly separated environments, with orchestration and infrastructure as code
- Establish and improve the platform's operational practices, including monitoring, alerting, incident response, capacity planning and performance optimisation
- Design and implement the access, identity and secrets model across platform and shared infrastructure
- Contribute to the standardisation of production data workflows and platform standards across the organisation
- Document what you build (runbooks, architecture notes and handover material) to ensure continuity
- Provide technical guidance to data analysts and scientists and support the adoption of good practice in DataOps, security and governance
- Evaluate new tools and technologies, run proof-of-concepts, and help define the technical roadmap for the infrastructure
Your Profile
Required
- Python and shell scripting
- Linux servers in production
- Container orchestration you have operated yourself, including cluster setup and upgrades (Kubernetes, Docker)
- Infrastructure as Code and configuration management (Ansible, or equivalent)
- Operational experience with PostgreSQL (backup and point-in-time recovery, tested restores, version upgrades and connection pooling)
- Monitoring tools (like Prometheus, Grafana) and alert design
- A solid understanding of distributed systems in an on-premise context
Nice to have
- S3-compatible object storage operations (MinIO, Ceph)
- Identity and directory services like LDAP, Keycloak, or SSO integration across self-hosted tools
- Virtualisation platforms (Proxmox, KVM)
- Data governance experience
- Some experience deploying AI projects
Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience operating Linux servers in production, including on-premise or bare-metal environments
- Proven ability to build automated pipelines that streamline development, testing and deployment for data-related projects
- Excellent troubleshooter, diagnosing and fixing data infrastructure and identifying performance bottlenecks
- Strong communicator who can collaborate effectively with colleagues and stakeholders in a diverse, interdisciplinary and international environment
- Passionate about working at the intersection of Climate Science and Data Engineering
- Organised, detail-oriented, and motivated self-starter with strong analytical skills
- Proven ability to work independently while collaborating effectively with project stakeholders
- Good communication skills in English
Our Offer
- Application deadline: open until filled
- Expected start: as soon as possible, by mutual agreement
- Location: preferably based in Berlin to facilitate effective project coordination
- Terms: senior consultant engagement for 6 months with possible extension up to 12 months total