Job Reference

420_26_LS_BCU_ASS

Position

Life Sciences Department Assistant

Closing Date

Friday, 16 October, 2026

Reference: 420_26_LS_BCU_ASS

Job title: Life Sciences Department Assistant

About BSC

The Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS) is the leading supercomputing center in Spain. It houses MareNostrum, one of the most powerful supercomputers in Europe, was a founding and hosting member of the former European HPC infrastructure PRACE (Partnership for Advanced Computing in Europe), and is now hosting entity for EuroHPC JU, the Joint Undertaking that leads large-scale investments and HPC provision in Europe. The mission of BSC is to research, develop and manage information technologies in order to facilitate scientific progress. BSC combines HPC service provision and R&D; into both computer and computational science (life, earth and engineering sciences) under one roof, and currently has over 1000 staff from 60 countries.

Look at the BSC experience:
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We are particularly interested for this role in the strengths and lived experiences of women and underrepresented groups to help us avoid perpetuating biases and oversights in science and IT research. In instances of equal merit, the incorporation of the under-represented sex will be favoured.

We promote Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, fostering an environment where each and every one of us is appreciated for who we are, regardless of our differences.

If you consider that you do not meet all the requirements, we encourage you to continue applying for the job offer. We value diversity of experiences and skills, and you could bring unique perspectives to our team.

Context And Mission

The Life Sciences Department (https://www.bsc.es/discover-bsc/organisation/scientific-structure/life-sciences) is composed of 6 research groups and 5 technical units covering the main areas of Computational Biology and bioinformatics, including genome analysis and annotation structural bioinformatics, network biology and text mining. The Department hosts the coordination and technical nodes of the Spanish National Bioinformatics Institute (INB-ISCIII) node of ELIXIR. Overall, the department has as a common goal the technical, computational and scientific challenges in the field of Personalized Medicine.

The mission of this role is to give assistance to the Group Leaders and staff, as well as facilitate the logistic issues of the researchers. The selected candidate will work within the Life Sciences Department but will also work in coordination with the central administration department.

Key Duties

- Department Administration: Implement, write, and update departmental procedures and follow-up documentation (handbooks, checklists, file management), maintain internal mailing lists, and assist with publication updates on the website.
- Onboarding/Offboarding:



Assist with onboarding, and offboarding workflows, including welcome communications, hotdesk management, resource allocation (laptops, equipment re-assignment).
- Financial & HR Monitoring: Support HR and finance tracking for departmental groups, participating in follow-up meetings with Group Leaders.
- Travel Management: Manage complete travel logistics (flights, reservations, conference registrations) and financial closure in SAP for PIs and invited guests/speakers.
- Event & Visitor Coordination: Organize Department seminars, workshops, and project meetings, including speaker logistics and visitor reception management.
- Office & Space Management: Handle day-to-day office needs, including office supplies and internal administrative requests.

Requirements

- Education
- University degree level or equivalent professional experience.

- Essential Knowledge and Professional Experience

- Knowledge of IT tools: Office Suite, SAP
- Experience in travel management (reservations, communicaiton with travel agencies, etc.)
- Minimum 1 year in a similar position

- Additional Knowledge and Professional Experience

- Knowledge of academic environment
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English and Spanish. Catalan will be a plus.

- Competences

- Candidates must be proactive, self-motivated individuals.
- Ability to take initiative, prioritize tasks and work under set deadlines.
- Capacity to interact and build strong relations with internal and external stakeholders.
- Ability to work both independently and within a team.
- High level of responsibility.

Conditions

- The position will be located at BSC within the Life Sciences Department
- We offer a full-time contract (35h/week), a good working environment, a highly stimulating environment with state-of-the-art infrastructure, versátil working hours, extensive training plan, restaurant tickets, private health insurance, support to the relocation procedures
- Duration: Open-ended contract due to technical and scientific activities linked to the project and budget duration
- Holidays: 22 days of holidays + 6 personal days + 24th and 31st of December per our collective agreement
- Salary: we offer a competitive salary commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate and according to the cost of living in Barcelona
- Starting date: asap

Applications procedure and process

All applications must be submitted via the BSC website and contain:

- A full CV in English including contact details
- A cover/motivation letter with a statement of interest in English,



clearly specifying for which specific area and topics the applicant wishes to be considered. Additionally, two references for further contacts must be included. Applications without this document will not be considered.

Development of the recruitment process

The selection will be carried out through a competitive examination system ("Concurso-Oposición"). The recruitment process consists of two phases:

- Curriculum Analysis: Evaluation of previous experience and/or scientific history, degree, training, and other professional information relevant to the position. - 40 points
- Interview phase: The highest-rated candidates at the curriculum level will be invited to the interview phase, conducted by the corresponding department and Human Resources. In this phase, technical competencies, knowledge, skills, and professional experience related to the position, as well as the required personal competencies, will be evaluated. - 60 points. A minimum of 30 points out of 60 must be obtained to be eligible for the position.

The recruitment panel will be composed of at least three people, ensuring at least 25% representation of women.

In accordance with OTM-R principles, a gender-balanced recruitment panel is formed for each vacancy at the beginning of the process. After reviewing the content of the applications, the panel will begin the interviews, with at least one technical and one administrative interview. At a minimum, a personality questionnaire as well as a technical exercise will be conducted during the process.

The panel will make a final decision, and all individuals who participated in the interview phase will receive feedback with details on the acceptance or rejection of their profile.

At BSC, we seek continuous improvement in our recruitment processes. For any suggestions or comments/complaints about our recruitment processes, please contact recruitment [at] bsc [dot] es.
For more information, please follow this link.

Deadline

The vacancy will remain open until a suitable candidate has been hired. Applications will be regularly reviewed and potential candidates will be contacted.

OTM-R principles for selection processes

BSC-CNS is committed to the principles of the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers of the European Commission and the Open, Transparent and Merit-based Recruitment principles (OTM-R). This is applied for any potential candidate in all our processes, for example by creating gender-balanced recruitment panels and recognizing career breaks etc.
BSC-CNS is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion. We are pleased to consider all qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or any other basis protected by applicable state or local law.
For more information follow this link

📌 Life Sciences Department Assistant (Barcelona)
🏢 Barcelona Supercomputing Center (Bsc)
📍 Barcelona