HPC Systems Architect

Job Description

HPC Systems Architect | Research Infrastructure

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Chicago

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The speed of research depends on the systems behind it.

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We’re working with a research-driven trading firm to hire an HPC Systems Architect who will shape the infrastructure supporting quantitative research and machine learning across its global business.

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This is a hands-on architecture role for someone who has built and operated large-scale compute environments. You’ll make decisions across compute, storage, scheduling and networking, then work with engineering teams to turn those designs into reliable production systems.

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The challenge is to make the whole environment perform: keeping processors fed, moving data efficiently, allocating resources intelligently and finding the bottlenecks that slow researchers down.

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What you’ll own

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• Design and guide the implementation of HPC infrastructure for demanding research and machine learning workloads.
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• Evaluate hardware and software across CPU and GPU compute, storage, scheduling and high-speed networking.
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• Diagnose performance bottlenecks and improve throughput, utilisation, scalability and reliability.
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• Establish architectural standards that support consistent expansion across global environments.
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• Work directly with researchers and software engineers to translate workload requirements into practical infrastructure decisions.
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• Develop monitoring and analytics that make system performance and capacity constraints visible.
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• Shape policies for allocating compute, storage and networking resources.
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• Take projects from initial design through delivery, including technical decisions, budgets and timelines.
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• Advise senior leadership on technologies that could materially improve research capability.
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What you’ll bring

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You’ve spent around 10+ years building, operating and designing substantial compute environments, with the depth to explain why an architecture works and where it will fail.

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Your experience should cover several of the following:

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• Linux systems engineering and HPC architecture.
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• Workload scheduling and orchestration, including Slurm, Kubernetes or comparable platforms.
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• High-performance storage, including technologies such as DDN, VAST or Isilon.
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• GPU infrastructure and the integration of AI/ML workloads.
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• InfiniBand, high-speed Ethernet and network performance.
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• Datacentre design, capacity planning and infrastructure expansion.
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• Python, Go, C++ or similar languages for automation, tooling and systems development.
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You’ll also need the communication skills to explain technical trade-offs, influence decisions and coordinate delivery across teams. A degree in computer science, electrical engineering or a related discipline is expected.

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Why consider it?

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You’ll have architectural influence across a global HPC environment, direct access to the people using it and responsibility for seeing your decisions through to production.

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We’re particularly interested in systems engineers and HPC engineers who have grown into architecture through building and operating infrastructure.

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Get in touch with a brief overview of the environments you’ve built, the scale involved and the architectural decisions you’ve owned.