Director of Information Systems Strategy | French national synchrotron facility

Apr 27 2023

SOLEIL is the French national synchrotron facility, located on the Saclay Plateau near Paris. It is a multi-disciplinary instrument and research laboratory whose mission is to conduct research using synchrotron radiation, to develop cutting edge instrumentation on the beamlines, and to make these developments available to the scientific community. SOLEIL synchrotron, a unique tool for both academic research and industrial applications across a wide range of disciplines including physics, biology, chemistry etc., opened in 2008. It is used annually by thousands of researchers from France and abroad. SOLEIL is based on a synchrotron source that is state-of-the-art both in terms of brilliance and stability. This large-scale facility, a partner of the Université Paris Saclay, is a “publicly owned” private company, founded by the CNRS and the CEA.

The technical and scientific environment of a synchrotron facility is increasingly complex and demanding in terms of performance and intelligence of systems and processes. It includes masses of information that can add value and produces increasingly large volumes of experimental data. This trend is emphasized by future developments, such as a major upgrade of the synchrotron facility.

This has a strong impact on SOLEIL’s information systems, which cover many areas: system and network infrastructures, administrative, technical and scientific information systems, control and acquisition systems, means of processing, curating and opening experimental data in accordance with SOLEIL’s data policy.

This position is open in view of the retirement of the Director of Information Systems Strategy (DISS), within the Direction under the responsibility of the Director General.

I.Mission

After the retirement of SOLEIL’s DISS, you will take charge of the Information Systems (IS) strategy, in consultation with the representatives of the SOLEIL Divisions and in line with SOLEIL’s strategy. Currently, a digital transformation is launched based on an event-driven architecture and microservices being implemented. You will drive the introduction of new technologies with innovative solutions. In a matrix organization, you will coordinate the IS strategy implementation by operational staff and with the support of national and international partnerships and collaborations, ensuring that this is done in a harmonious, relevant, and secure way. Currently, two ISS engineers, including the CISO, contribute to the DISS’s missions.

With the support of a dedicated transverse team, you will define the long-term IS strategy paying particular attention to the recommendations of the CISO, organize peer reviews, submit it to management, present its progress on a regular basis, coordinate its implementation being attentive to the resources, risks, and quality aspects, and manage the associated budgets and schedules.

You will ensure the implementation of SOLEIL’s data policy, and make evolve it in consultation with the Management, SOLEIL scientists and SOLEIL Users’ representatives.

You will collect needs, conduct diagnostics of the existing systems, and develop value propositions for their transformation.

You will supervise or carry out feasibility studies, identification of applicable technologies, of existing solutions in other research facilities or industry, of any relevant external services, and the design of new technical solutions, with the support of 2 ISS engineers and the operational staff.

You will contribute to the knowledge and use of new digital technologies within SOLEIL. You will ensure a technology watch. You will consider standards, developments and innovations of the industry and research facilities

You will work in close collaboration with the operational staff of IT Infrastructures, Management Systems Integration, Acquisition and Control Systems Engineering, Reduction and Analysis of SOLEIL Experimental Data groups, and provide expert advice.

You will set up, develop, and participate in partnerships and collaborations (national and international).

You will interact with IT users and with representatives of SOLEIL User researchers

You will manage the ISS engineers, carry out their annual evaluation, propose their career development and analyse their training needs.

In a transition phase, you will work with SOLEIL’s DISS to take over these responsibilities and tasks upon her retirement.

II.Experience required

This job is offered to people with an engineering background (or equivalent) in the IT field, combined with at least 10 years of professional experience in digital transformation and/or IT project management. Experience in IT for research infrastructures is a plus.

III.General conditions

This offer is for a permanent position under French law. The salary will be based on the general salary scale for SOLEIL and determined based on qualifications and work experience.

The position is open for people with disabilities, open for CNRS and CEA personnel, academic personnel, and other French state personnel in secondment.