Post Doctorate Research Associate- Hardware-Software Co-design Scalable AI Systems

Position: Post Doctorate Research Associate- Hardware-Software Co-design for Scalable AI Systems
** Overview*
* At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate's (PCSD's) strengths in experimental, computational, and theoretical chemistry and materials science, together with our advanced computing, applied mathematics and data science capabilities, are central to the discovery mission we embrace  our most important resource is our people-experts across the range of scientific disciplines who team together to take on the biggest scientific challenges of our time. 

The Advanced Computing, Mathematics, and Data Division (ACMDD) focuses on basic and applied computing research encompassing artificial intelligence, applied mathematics, computing technologies, and data and computational engineering. Our scientists and engineers apply end-to-end co-design principles to advance future energy-efficient computing systems and design the next generation of algorithms to analyze, model, understand, and control the behavior of complex systems in science, energy, and national security.

** Responsibilities*
* Next-generation data-driven scientific discovery will require massive data volumes and bandwidths; and comprise diverse workloads, many with specialized needs. As a consequence, the memory and storage subsystems of computing systems require new designs, architectures, and management systems. A key principle in these designs is virtualization, where modular system components are composed into disaggregated systems; and where workloads execute within virtualized environments at different levels of abstraction (e.g., machine, container, function).

PNNL's Future Computing Technologies group seeks an accomplished Post Doctoral Researcher to explore hardware-software codesign methodologies for the future computing systems that will meet the needs of scientific computing. Relevant research topics include:

+ Novel methods for hardware-software codesign, including workload characterization, performance modeling, and architectural emulation. Memory-centric toolsets for modeling and optimizing software and architectures.

+ Forming disaggregated memory-storage systems through fabric-attached memory (FAM) technologies such as Compute Express Link (CXL).

+ Scaling AI workloads (inference, training, agentic workflows), irregular and data-intensive applications, and managing geo-distributed datasets.

The successful applicant will work within the Future Computing Technologies group and have demonstrated expertise in a topic closely related to continuum computing, distributed and parallel computing, memory and storage systems, performance and workload modeling, telemetry, and characterization. The researcher should be creative, self-motivated, and familiar with publishing at top-tier venues.

** Qualifications*
* Minimum Qualifications:

+ Candidates must have received a PhD within the past five years (60 months) or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.

Preferred Qualifications:

+ PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical/Computer Engineering, Applied/Computational Mathematics, Data Science, or a closely related.

+ Familiar with topics such as distributed and continuum computing, vector databases, performance modeling, storage and memory systems, etc.

** Hazardous Working Conditions/Environment*
* Not Applicable.

** Testing Designated Position*
* This is not a Testing Designated Position (TDP).

** About PNNL*
* Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is a world-class research institution powered by a highly educated, diverse workforce committed to the values of Integrity, Creativity, Collaboration, Impact, and Courage. Every year, scores of…