Platform Storage Engineer

Overview

SSA LLC is seeking a Platform Storage Engineer to support a Federal Program in Chantilly, VA. This is a direct-hire role with our client, a growing Federal Integrator. An active TS/SCI Clearance with CI Polygraph is required.

Platform Storage Engineer

• Design, deploy, and maintain enterprise storage solutions to support Artificial Intelligence (AI) workloads.
• Join a diverse team of platform engineers to design, deploy, maintain, and secure platform infrastructure; collaborate with stakeholders inside and outside the organization to deliver high standards for building, deploying, and securing infrastructure.

• Expert knowledge of Linux distributions, including user management, security hardening, and system troubleshooting
• In-depth understanding of iSCSI, Fibre Channel, Fibre Channel over Ethernet, NFS, SMB/CIFS, NVMe/TCP, NVMe/RoCE for efficient and performant data transfer
• Extensive experience with ext4, XFS, Btrfs – knowing when to use each based on performance needs
• Mastery of RAID levels and disk management techniques for redundancy and performance
• Proven ability to deploy, configure, and manage storage area networks and network-attached storage solutions
• Hands-on experience with major vendors like Dell EMC, Net App, or HPE Nimble – including firmware updates and troubleshooting
• Experience setting up synchronous/asynchronous data replication for disaster recovery
• Proficient in using tools like Prometheus, Grafana, Zabbix to track performance metrics and identify bottlenecks
• Ability to analyze storage I/O patterns and optimize configurations for high compute workloads
• Skills in forecasting storage needs and ensuring optimal utilization
• Intermediate scripting experience for automating routine tasks and creating custom monitoring solutions
• Experience with Ansible, Chef, or Puppet to manage storage infrastructure as code
• Expert understanding of implementing encryption at rest and in transit to protect sensitive data
• Experience in implementing automated data tiering based on access frequency and business value

• Problem-Solving: Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills to diagnose and resolve complex technical issues in distributed systems.
• Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills to collaborate effectively with development teams, operations, security, and other stakeholders.
• Collaboration: Ability to work effectively in a team environment, mentor junior engineers, and lead technical initiatives.
• Mentorship: As a Senior role, the ability to guide and mentor junior engineers, share knowledge, and foster best practices.
• Proactive & Ownership: Proactive approach to identifying and addressing potential issues, with a strong sense of ownership over the platform.
• Adaptability & Continuous Learning: Eagerness to learn new technologies and adapt to a rapidly evolving cloud-native landscape.

• Experience optimizing for NVMe-based systems and managing flash memory performance
• Working knowledge of AWS S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
• Designing solutions that span both on-premises and cloud environments
• Familiarity with Ceph, Swift, or other object storage platforms
• Knowledge of Lustre, GPFS/Spectrum Scale – critical for high-performance computing environments
• Understanding how storage integrates with job schedulers like Slurm or PBS

• Active TS/SCI clearance with Counterintelligence polygraph
• Have current IAM Level II to satisfy DOD 8570 IAT requirements