Systems Engineer – Platform Automation

The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) develops and operates a high‑performance computing and data research infrastructure that supports world‑class science in Switzerland. Its user laboratory is available to domestic and international researchers in academia, industry and the business sector. The centre is operated by ETH Zurich.

Work location:

Lugano.

As high‑performance computing, AI and cloud technologies continue to converge, CSCS is redefining how advanced computational services are designed and delivered. Modern scientific and engineering workloads are increasingly complex, data‑intensive and diverse, pushing existing infrastructure to its limits.

We are offering a contract initially limited to two years, with the possibility of extension or transition to a permanent position.

The main goal of this position is to develop and manage HPC/AI services on top of a multi‑tenant infrastructure. As a Platform Automation Engineer, you will directly contribute to the design, implementation, maintenance, and documentation of platform services to support HPC and AI, enhancing overall system functionality and efficiency.

Main duties:

• Investigate, troubleshoot and debug platform services and infrastructure resources.
• Develop, maintain and support tools and pipelines for geographically redundant infrastructure.
• Create automations to provision, test, deploy and monitor resources for HPC and AI platforms.
• Support, document and share knowledge of tools and procedures.

You should have a bachelor’s or higher degree in computer engineering, computer science, a relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

You should have sound knowledge of:

• Deployment of HPC, AI or cloud infrastructures.
• Management of HPC/AI services to maximize utilization of compute, storage and high‑speed network components.
• Automation tools and frameworks, including CI/CD processes.
• Linux administration.

Experience with the following is preferred, though there will be ample opportunities to learn on the job:

• Versioning systems and CI/CD workflows such as ArgoCD.
• Debugging microservices running on Kubernetes.
• Performance monitoring and diagnostic tools for HPC/AI hardware.
• Infrastructure‑as‑Code tools such as Terraform and Ansible.

• Self‑motivated and proactive team player.
• Strong communication skills.
• Strong problem‑solving mindset with tolerance for uncertainty and change.
• Understanding user needs and collaborative problem resolution.
• Adaptive and eager to learn new technologies.
• Comfortable tackling complex or ambiguous problems.
• Willing to admit when uncertain and seek appropriate expertise.

• Experience working in self‑organized teams.
• Familiarity with Agile methodology.
• Experience with test‑driven development is a plus.