What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior High Performance Computing Systems Administrator /HPC position at Motion Recruitment?
A research computing organization that serves as the primary provider of high-performance computing (HPC), storage, and visualization resources for a large academic research community is looking to bring on Senior HPC Systems Engineer. The team supports thousands of users across hundreds of research groups, enabling advanced research through centrally managed HPC infrastructure, scientific software, and technical expertise.
Join a small, highly collaborative systems and operations team responsible for building, operating, and scaling large-scale HPC environments. This role plays a critical part in maintaining and evolving complex on-prem and hybrid cloud infrastructure that supports diverse research workloads across multiple scientific disciplines. This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days onsite to support hands-on data center and infrastructure operations.
Required Skills & Experience
Tech Breakdown
You Will Receive The Following Benefits
Posted By: Kylie Lenz
Join a small, highly collaborative systems and operations team responsible for building, operating, and scaling large-scale HPC environments. This role plays a critical part in maintaining and evolving complex on-prem and hybrid cloud infrastructure that supports diverse research workloads across multiple scientific disciplines. This is a hybrid position requiring 3 days onsite to support hands-on data center and infrastructure operations.
Required Skills & Experience
- 6-8 years of experience in systems administration, HPC systems engineering, or related roles
- Strong Linux systems administration experience (Red Hat–based environments)
- Experience installing, configuring, and maintaining large compute clusters and servers
- Experience with HPC schedulers such as Slurm
- Experience managing high-performance or parallel file systems (e.g., GPFS or similar)
- Scripting experience with Bash and Python
- Experience using automation and configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible)
- Experience troubleshooting hardware, OS, storage, and networking issues in production environments
- Familiarity with hybrid infrastructure environments (on-prem with AWS and/or GCP)
- Bachelor’s degree in a related technical field or equivalent practical experience
- Experience in academic, research, or national lab HPC environments
- Experience with HPC hardware procurement and lifecycle management
- Familiarity with InfiniBand networking and HPC authentication mechanisms
- Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g., Terraform)
- Experience supporting HIPAA-compliant or regulated systems
- Exposure to AI/ML, scientific computing, or data-intensive research workloads
- Experience supporting heterogeneous hardware environments
- Strong documentation and cross-team collaboration skills
Tech Breakdown
- 60% Linux Systems & HPC Infrastructure (Red Hat, cluster administration)
- 20% Storage, Networking & Performance (GPFS, InfiniBand, monitoring)
- 15% Automation & Scripting (Bash, Python, Ansible, Terraform)
- 5% Cloud & Hybrid Integration (AWS, GCP)
- 40% Hands-on systems administration of HPC clusters, servers, and operating systems
- 20% Monitoring, performance tuning, and troubleshooting of compute, storage, and network components
- 15% Automation, scripting, patching, and security maintenance
- 10% User support, access management, and help desk ticket resolution
- 10% Software deployment, upgrades, backups, and restores
- 5% Documentation, compliance tracking, and inventory reporting
You Will Receive The Following Benefits
- Medical, Dental, and Vision Insurance
- Vacation Time
Posted By: Kylie Lenz