HPC Engineer; Early Career), System Acceptance and User Environment

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The National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) provides pioneering computational infrastructure for technical and scientific professionals to accelerate scientific discovery and engineering advances across a broad range of subject areas. NCCS is home to some of the fastest supercomputers and storage systems in the world including Frontier, the first supercomputer to break the exascale barrier and Orion, a 700 petabytes Lustre parallel file system.

As an important part of the broader High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure, the division also hosts the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), a Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility. NCCS serves multiple agencies including DOE, NOAA, and the Air Force, and supports the center’s Quantum Computing User Program (QCUP) which provides access to state‑of‑the‑art quantum computing resources.

The Team:

The System Acceptance and User Environment Group is within the HPC Operations Section of the NCCS and ensures the functionality, performance, reliability, and usability of NCCS systems. The group’s work includes system acceptance, readiness testing, test development, software environment deployment, documentation, and early user support for all NCCS pre‑production systems.

Major Duties/Responsibilities:

The role comprises the following primary focus:

• Take technical ownership of user reported problems and provide hands‑on support for scientific applications and libraries and users of high‑performance computing systems and clusters.
• Compile and debug large science and engineering applications.
• Identify and resolve system‑level bugs in conjunction with other technical staff.
• Work with vendors to resolve issues and implement changes.
• Install third‑party software applications and tools and provide documentation for usage.
• Develop and implement system tests to ensure newly deployed systems can support user workloads.
• Proactively ensure that users have up‑to‑date information about the system, including any changes and their impact on the users. HPC User Support staff are very involved in researching and developing documentation and reference material during system early‑use and upgrade phases, as well as maintaining them throughout system operation.
• Participate in the development, maintenance, and delivery of training and outreach materials to users.
• Respond to general administrative questions (e.g., system status, requests for accessor special accommodation).
• Implement special projects as requested (e.g., metrics, new tools, policy discussions).
• Deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. Promote equal opportunity by fostering a respectful workplace – in how we treat one another, work together, and measure success.

Basic Qualifications:

• BS degree in computer science or related field.
• Prior experience with multiple programming languages and technologies including at least one of the following:
  • Fortran
  • C
  • C++
  • Perl
  • Python
  • Shell scripting (e.g., bash) in a Linux or Unix environment

Preferred Qualifications:

• BS degree and 2+ years of relevant experience, or MS and 1+ year of relevant experience.
• Experience building and installing scientific software and other 3rd party software applications on HPC systems.
• Experience with HPC schedulers and resource managers.
• Experience implementing scientific software on HPC systems.
• Experience developing and delivering training for users.
• Strong technical and analytical skills.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Always maintains the highest level of integrity when interacting with internal and external customers.
• Demonstrates a high-energy, positive demeanor and commitment to quality customer service.
• Contributes to a positive team environment within the center by demonstrating a strong work ethic, effectively communicating with others, and proactively anticipating center and user needs.

Special Requirements:

• This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain an HSPD-12 PIV badge.

For…