Joan Marc Riera · CITP MBCS · Saffron Walden, England
HPC and AI infrastructure architect.
I design, build and run the computing and storage that research and AI work depends on, then hand it to a team that can run it without me. I work through my own company, Riera Technologies Ltd.
Now: on a full-time contract as technical lead, AI and HPC infrastructure. New engagements from mid-2027.
150 PB+active research archive; I led the teams behind it at EMBL-EBI
4,500+Linux servers and VMs run in production
70%lower disaster-recovery cost, moving DR to tape
0 downtimedata-centre migration, the first at EMBL-EBI
01 · Work
Two ways I can help
Infrastructure delivery
For research institutes, life-science and AI teams, and the integrators and GPU cloud providers who build for them.
- GPU and HPC cluster architecture and build
- Petabyte storage, archives and data transfer
- Data-centre moves without downtime
- Runbooks and a proper handover to operations
Contract work. Fixed scope or day rate.
Advisory
For small and family firms, and boards without a technology director.
- A plain-English review of what you run today
- A modernisation plan you can do in stages
- Automation where it saves real time
- A regular advisory session, or a board seat
A fixed-scope review first, then a monthly retainer if it helps.
Everything is contracted through Riera Technologies Ltd, with a short written proposal before any work starts. Rates on request.
How an advisory review works
Audit first. A fixed-scope review of how your systems and workflows run today, in plain English, before anyone proposes a six-month transformation.
1. LookA fixed-scope review over about five business days: tools, data, access, backups and the work people repeat by hand.
2. PlanA short written plan, in stages, with the obvious wins first.
3. BuildOptional focused sprint to put the first stage in place and automate what saves real time.
4. KeepA monthly advisory session, or a board seat, if it helps.
What the review covers
- Customer and lead records, and where they live
- Workflows and automations between your tools
- Documents, decisions and shared knowledge
- Tasks and recurring work
- Uptime, certificates and monitoring
- Mail delivery and operational alerts
What you get
- A written review you can hand to your board or your accountant
- A staged modernisation plan with the order of work
- Workflows that are documented and can be rebuilt from scratch
- Connected tools, so leads, tasks and alerts stop vanishing into chat threads
- One server where one will do, and no new subscriptions for the sake of it
Fixed scope, agreed in writing before work starts. Rates on request.
The advisory page
02 · Record
Nearly twenty years of running infrastructure
2026 to nowDirector, Riera Technologies Ltd. Contract and advisory work.
2021 to 2026Deputy Head of Operations, EMBL-EBI. Archive, storage, identity and data-centre operations; eight direct reports.
2016 to 2020Compute, then archive, transfer and identity services lead, EMBL-EBI.
2014 to 2016Solutions Architect and Technical Service Manager, Atos.
2011 to 2014HPC systems engineer and trainer, then technical lead for managed services, Bull. HPC with Slurm, InfiniBand and Lustre.
2007 to 2011Research support coordinator and infrastructure lead, Fundació Barcelona Media.
Full CV and PDF
03 · Credentials
Credentials
Chartered IT ProfessionalCITP, BCS
Professional Cloud ArchitectGoogle Cloud
CTO ProgrammeCambridge Judge Business School
Executive FinanceOxford Saïd Business School
ITIL 4 StrategistDirect, Plan and Improve
PRINCE2 Agile PractitionerAXELOS
All credentials
04 · Built
Things I build and run myself
Small products and a home lab. They keep my hands on the tools.