Research Computing Engineer

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Company Overview:

Santa Clara University is a prestigious academic institution dedicated to advancing research innovation and education. We are seeking a visionary and highly skilled Research Computing Engineer to join our dynamic team. This pivotal role will strategically develop and optimize our High-Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure directly driving groundbreaking multi-disciplinary research across the institution.

Job Description:

As the strategic anchor for the SCU High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment the Research Computing Engineer serves as the primary technical partner between Santa Clara Universitys research community and its computational infrastructure.

This role focuses on driving the outer relationship with usersfaculty researchers and studentsto deeply understand architect and translate complex computational workflows into scalable technical solutions. Rather than simply maintaining existing infrastructure the Research Computing Engineer provides strategic leadership engineers robust processes and drives long-term planning to ensure the HPC ecosystem proactively evolves alongside the universitys research mission.

The ideal candidate is highly curious creative tenacious and entirely self-directed. They bring an advanced technical toolkit combined with the leadership capacity to identify define and resolve complex systemic and human workflows independently and collaboratively.

Work Schedule: This position requires on-site support on a regular basis. On-campus vs. remote schedules will operate on a hybrid model based on strategic and operational tasks.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

1. Strategic Leadership Planning and Research Facilitation

• Lead the strategic roadmap and long-term capacity planning for SCUs HPC infrastructure partnering with the Dean and academic stakeholders to forecast future computational demands.

• Own the full-cycle consultation process with researchers and faculty translating cutting-edge academic requirements into scalable robust technical solutions.

• Architect and implement proactive infrastructure enhancements to optimize application pipelines for emerging domains including AI Machine Learning Data Science and GPU-accelerated processing.

• Evaluate recommend and drive the adoption of emerging technologies and external integrations with national academic computing resources to expand institutional research capabilities.

• Provide high-level technical leadership and programming support to resolve complex multi-disciplinary computational challenges across university departments.

2. Process Innovation Governance and Training

• Design implement and institutionalize standard operating procedures (SOPs) and automated workflows for user onboarding resource allocation and system governance.

• Develop lifecycle management processes for scientific software deployment cluster usage auditing and data management.

• Establish system performance metrics and reporting frameworks to showcase HPC utilization and research impacts to executive leadership.

• Design and spearhead comprehensive training programs advanced workshops and modern digital documentation to cultivate a self-sustaining research culture.

• Lead institutional initiatives to train users in modern code-management AI-assisted coding CI/CD and version control best practices (e.g. Git/GitHub).

3. Full-Cycle HPC Infrastructure Architecture & Operations

• Own the deployment lifecycle configuration and optimization of specialized scientific software compilers containerized environments and shared libraries.

• Lead the architecture fine-tuning and policy creation for workload managers and cluster schedulers (e.g. Slurm) to ensure optimal equitable resource distribution.

• Lead the scaling and operational strategy for parallel storage and distributed file systems (e.g. BeeGFS Lustre) ensuring total data integrity high-throughput performance and business continuity.

• Lead network design and execution within the HPC environment overseeing high-speed fabrics (e.g. InfiniBand) and complex VLAN configurations.

4. Security Frameworks and Systems Stewardship

• Architect and enforce comprehensive security frameworks including server hardening access controls and vulnerability mitigation protocols to safeguard sensitive research data.

• Proactively monitor analyze and optimize system telemetry to perform deep root-cause analysis on complex hardware and software bottlenecks.

• Stay current with emerging trends in HPC AI and cloud technologies to inform long-term infrastructure planning.

C. QUALIFICATIONS

1. Knowledge Skills and Abilities

• Full-Cycle Ownership & Strategy: Demonstrated ability to independently design implement and govern enterprise-grade computational environments and workflows.

• Technical Mastery: Advanced hands-on mastery of Linux systems administration automated provisioning and comprehensive package management systems.

• Scripting and Automation: Demonstrated experience writing and debugging complex scripts in Bash Python or Ansible.

• HPC Ecosystem Expertise: Deep knowledge of workload managers (Slurm) container technologies (Docker Apptainer) and version control. Proven success implementing distributed file systems (BeeGFS Lustre) and environment module systems.

• Cybersecurity Leadership: Advanced understanding of cybersecurity principles encryption standards and risk-mitigation strategies unique to open research cluster environments.

• Communication: Exceptional interpersonal and verbal communication skills; ability to explain complex technical concepts to non-technical users.

• Problem Solving: Strong analytical skills with a proactive approach to identifying and resolving technical and human issues.

2. Experience and Education

• Education: Bachelors degree in Computer Science Engineering or a highly quantitative field required. Advanced degree (MS or PhD) strongly preferred to bridge the gap during high-level research consultations.

• Experience: 810 years of progressively responsible experience in Information Technology operations and system design ideally within an academic government lab or corporate R&D research setting.

• Preferred Experience: 5 years of experience explicitly leading architecting and supporting multi-node HPC cluster environments.

D. PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• Routinely perform server installation troubleshooting and repairs at the data center including lifting or moving objects up to 50 pounds.

• Considerable time spent at a desk using a computer terminal.

• Ability to meet in-person with researchers and colleagues on the Santa Clara University campus.

E. WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Hybrid Eligible: Regular on-site presence required typically at least 34 days a week depending on task requirements.

• Occasional exposure to data center conditions including equipment noise (>80dB) high voltage electricity and varying temperatures.

• Standard work hours are 9 am 5 pm Pacific with occasional evening or weekend work required for system maintenance or outage mitigation.

Telecommute

Santa Clara University is registered to do business in the following states: California Nevada Oregon Washington Arizona and Illinois. Employees approved to telecommute are required to perform their work within one of these states.

EEO Statement

Equal Opportunity/Notice of Nondiscrimination

Santa Clara University is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race color ethnicity national origin citizenship ancestry religion age sex sexual orientation gender gender expression gender identity marital status parental status veteran or military status physical or mental disability medical conditions pregnancy or related conditions reproductive health decision making or any other characteristic protected by federal state or local laws. For a complete copy of Santa Clara Universitys equal opportunity and nondiscrimination policies please visit the Office of Equal Opportunity and Title IX website at Notice of Availability

Santa Clara University annually collects information about campus crimes and other reportable incidents in accordance with the federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act. To view the Santa Clara University report please visit the Campus Safety Serviceswebsite. To request a paper copy please call Campus Safety at . The report includes the type of crime venue and number of occurrences.

Americans with Disabilities Act

Consistent with its obligations under the law Santa Clara University will provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and employees with disabilities. Applicants who wish to request a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process should contact the Department of Human Resources ADA Team ator by phone at . Please note: This contact information is intended for accommodation requests only. Resumes or inquiries about application status sent to this inbox will not be reviewed or forwarded. For resumes or questions regarding application status please contact .