Principal Storage Architect & Team Lead; Research & HPC Data Platforms

Reports to

Executive Director of Research Computing

Stanford University operates one of the most sophisticated academic storage ecosystems in the world, with aggregate capacity exceeding 100PB and 5 billion files. We are seeking a world-class technical leader to oversee our primary research storage platforms. These services span the gamut from the 15PB flash-based Lustre scratch file system on our Sherlock HPC cluster to archival storage on the Elm HSM platform.

You aren't just managing a storage cluster; you are architecting a data and storage ecosystem that supports Nobel-caliber research across all disciplines.

• Technical Leadership: Lead and mentor a specialized team of systems engineers, balancing high-level architectural design with hands‑on operations and escalation support.
• Tiered Storage Architecture: Oversee the integration of Lustre HSM on the Elm platform, managing data movement policies between parallel file systems and MinIO object storage.
• Platform Ownership: Drive the scaling, reliability, security, compliance, operations, and lifecycle management of our primary research computing storage platforms, including for high-risk data.
• Performance Engineering: Tune I/O for large‑scale High Performance Computing and AI workloads.
• Community Stewardship: Represent Stanford within the Lustre community and other key community groups, contributing to the upstream roadmap and maintaining a vendor‑neutral storage strategy.

Required Qualifications

• Education:
  
  Bachelor’s degree and ten years on increasingly technical work experience or a combination of education and relevant experience.
• Expertise at Scale: 10+ years of hands‑on experience architecting, building, and managing Lustre and ZFS or similar file systems at the 20PB+ scale.
• Management:
  Proven experience leading technical teams in a High-Performance Computing (HPC) or Research Computing environment.
• Object Storage & HSM:
  Deep technical fluency in MinIO and Lustre HSM (copytools, policy engines like Robin Hood) or similar tools.
• Kernel & Network Mastery:
  Expert-level knowledge of the Linux kernel and large-scale Infini Band/Ethernet fabric tuning.
• "Hands-ON" Requirement:
  Must be comfortable in the "weeds"—capable of debugging issues such as kernel panics, LNet congestion, and metadata bottlenecks alongside the team.

• Constantly perform desk-based computer tasks.
• Frequently sit, grasp lightly/fine manipulation.
• Occasionally stand/walk, writing by hand.
• Rarely use a telephone, lift/carry/push/pull objects that weigh up to 10 pounds.

* Consistent with its obligations under the law, the University will provide reasonable accommodation to any employee with a disability who requires accommodation to perform the essential functions of the job.

• May work extended hours, evenings, and weekends.

• Interpersonal
  
  Skills:
  
  Demonstrates the ability to work well with Stanford colleagues and clients and with external organizations.
• Promote Culture of Safety:
  Demonstrates commitment to personal responsibility and value for safety; communicates safety concerns; uses and promotes safe behaviors based on training and lessons learned.
• Subject to and expected to stay in sync with all applicable University policies and procedures, including but not limited to the personnel policies and other policies found in Stanford's Administrative Guide, (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

The expected pay range for this position is $225,000 to $245,000 per annum.

Stanford University provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of the salary or hourly wage the university reasonably expects to pay for a position upon hire. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, departmental budget availability, internal equity, geographic location, and external market pay for comparable jobs.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one aspect of the comprehensive rewards package.

At Stanford University, base pay represents only one…