Title: Research Systems Administrator-HPC III
Location: Upper East Side
Org Unit: Scientific Computing Unit
Work Days:
Weekly Hours: 35.00
Exemption Status: Exempt
Salary Range: $157,800.00 - $172,000.00
*As required under NYC Human Rights Law Int 1208-2018 - Salary range for this role when Hired for NYC Offices
Position Summary
Resolves critical technical problems and takes lead in mentoring junior staff. Designs complex architectural solutions for a growing and adaptive computational environment. Regularly interfaces with lateral technical and research groups to assist in their endeavors. This role acts as a senior technical leader and architect for institutional research computing platforms. This role is responsible for the design, evolution, and operation of large-scale HPC, storage, and hybrid computing environments supporting data-intensive research across multiple scientific domains. The position requires deep technical expertise combined with strong collaboration skills, enabling effective partnerships with faculty investigators, research staff, IT colleagues, and external vendors. The Senior HPC Engineer operates with substantial autonomy and plays a key role in shaping the long-term technical direction of research computing platforms.
Job Responsibilities
• Designs the architecture of the department’s Peta-Scale storage infrastructure.
• Architects data lifecycle management and storage tiers, including off-site replication to cloud providers.
• Develops highly reliable batch scheduling infrastructure.
• Designs the architecture of the department’s High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure.
• Trains and mentors junior and operational staff in monitoring and troubleshooting cluster performance issues.
• Designs and oversees the installation of scientific computing software stacks and research workflows.
• Assists in the development of, coordinates, and leads, training events for research users in the efficient use of cluster and storage resources.
• Provides and oversees complex technical documentation for the research community.
• Directly interfaces with investigators to assess requirements and implement tailored solutions for their problem sets.
• Responsible for vendor relations and negotiations of commercial solutions.
• Performs other related duties as co-developed with management.
Education
• Bachelor's Degree
Experience
Bachelors of Science degree preferably in a technical field (e.g., computer science, physics, math, chemistry, or engineering)
Approximately 12 years of relevant work experience.
Experience working in a scientific computing environment, particularly in an academic setting is required.
Experience with Infiniband networking is required.
Experience with GPU computing, particularly using the nVidia CUDA toolkit is required.
Experience architecting scientific computing clusters and their associated scheduling systems, such as SGE, PBS, or SLURM is required.
Experience architecting database-backed web applications, particularly managing Shiny services, is required.
Experience with designing secure and compliant scientific computing clusters and platforms for regulated research data (ex: NIST 800-171 compliant).
Experience with containers (Singularity/Apptainer, Docker), scientific workflow engines and reproducibility and portability concerns.
Experience with configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet, etc.), infrastructure as code concepts and CICD-style deployment for platforms.
Experience mentoring junior staff.
Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
• High proficiency in the Linux operating system, including scripting languages such as bash, Ruby and Perl.
• Proficiency in building, installing, and configuring a variety of open-source Linux software packages, especially with complex dependencies.
• High proficiency in at least two programming languages, such as C++ or Java, Perl, Python.
• A detailed knowledge of computer hardware, specifically, Peta-scale storage platforms.
• Proficiency in HPC filesystems, Lustre, GPFS.
• Proficiency of networking concepts and use of tools and protocols such as SSH, DNS, DHCP, and LDAP.
• Ability to manage complex vendor relationships.
• Demonstrated leadership and mentoring skills to effectively manage and develop staff members.
Licenses and Certifications
Working Conditions/Physical Demands
Standard office work.
Position may require domestic and international travel.
Position may require to ability to work flexible hours, evenings and/or weekends when requested for special projects.
Cornell welcomes students, faculty, and staff with diverse backgrounds from across the globe to pursue world-class education and career opportunities, to further the founding principle of “any person, any study.” No person shall be denied employment on the basis of any legally protected status or subjected to prohibited discrimination involving, but not limited to, such factors as race, ethnic or national origin, citizenship and immigration status, color, sex, pregnancy or pregnancy-related conditions, age, creed, religion, actual or perceived disability (including persons associated with such a person), arrest and/or conviction record, military or veteran status, sexual orientation, gender expression and/or identity, an individual’s genetic information, domestic violence victim status, familial status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.
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