Principal Engineer for Geospatial Computing Infrastructure

Principal Engineer For Geospatial Computing Infrastructure

As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an impressive 80-year legacy of addressing the nation's most pressing challenges. Our team is made up of over 7,000 dedicated and innovative individuals! Our goal is to create an environment where a variety of perspectives and backgrounds are valued, ensuring ORNL is known as a top choice for employment. These principles are essential for supporting our broader mission to drive scientific breakthroughs and translate them into solutions for energy, environmental, and security challenges facing the nation. We invite applications for a Principal Engineer for Geospatial Computing Infrastructure. This dynamic and visionary leader will launch and build a next-generation Geospatial Data & Computing Center to support ORNL's geospatial high-performance computing (HPC) research portfolio within the Geospatial Science and Human Security Division. ORNL is the nation's geospatial research laboratory. Our scientists and engineers are breaking new ground in geospatial science and technologies, advancing the state-of-the-art and scaling science for global impacts. The Geospatial Science and Human Security Division is part of the National Security Sciences Directorate, where we translate and apply the latest advancements in ORNL and US scientific leadership to support the nation's national and energy security needs. Over the past decade ORNL has earned a strong reputation for delivering novel geospatial capabilities grounded in HPC, and this new role offers the opportunity to transform the foundations of these capabilities into a distinct center with its own mission of delivering leading-edge geospatial compute and data services, driving innovation at the intersection of computing and geospatial science, and advancing research outcomes across sponsors, disciplines and institutional partners. The successful candidate will have the strategic mindset, technical breadth, and leadership skills to stand up a mission-driven organization, guide its evolution, manage its operations, and cultivate a world-class team. This role is both operational (managing and optimizing assets and services today) and visionary in charting the future of geospatial compute, orchestrating large-scale investments and partnerships, and positioning ORNL as the national leader in geospatial HPC, data infrastructure, and emerging computing paradigms (edge compute, neuromorphic, quantum). In this capacity you will be responsible for the formation of a Geospatial Data Center (GDC) built initially from current assets, then grown into a clearly demarcated resource with a growing team to support the work. Your responsibilities will include helping to define the strategic direction and the business model (service delivery + research + partnerships), establishing operating practices, building the team, and engaging sponsors and users. You will be the face of the center internally and externally, aligning with ORNL and National Security Sciences leadership and programs, and ensuring that the center becomes a trusted advisor, partner, and innovation hub in the geospatial and HPC community.

Major Duties & Responsibilities: The responsibilities of the Principal Engineer for Geospatial Computing Infrastructure will include, but are not limited to:

• Strategy & Vision: Develop and refine a strategic roadmap for the GDC, including defining its mission, vision, value proposition, operating model (services, research, partnerships), business case, metrics of success and growth path.
• Asset & Infrastructure Management: Oversee the effective integration, operation, scaling and optimization of the GDC's compute, storage, networking and geospatial-data assets (existing and planned). Ensure high performance, high availability, cost-effectiveness, data integrity, and operational resilience.
• Service Delivery & Operations: Define, implement and continually improve service offerings (e.g., large-scale geospatial compute pipelines, data ingest/curation/archive, analytics/visualization, user support). Establish operating policies, SLAs, user workflows, resource allocation models and performance metrics.
• Research & Innovation Leadership: Cultivate and lead a research-oriented culture within the center: identify and integrate emerging geospatial/HPC technologies (e.g., ML Ops for geospatial data, real-time analytics, cloud/HPC hybrid, edge geospatial compute, neuromorphic, quantum), pilot new capabilities, foster innovation partnerships (academia, industry, federal sponsors). Serve as principal investigator (PI) or co-PI on research proposals, secure external funding, and help shape the center's research agenda.
• Team Building & Staffing: Hire, develop, and lead a highly agile and high-performing multidisciplinary team covering, HPC/data infrastructure, data engineering, software engineering, user engagement, and operations. Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, inclusion and continuous learning.
• Stakeholder Engagement & Partnerships: Serve as the external interface for the center: liaise with sponsors (DOE, other federal agencies, industry, academia), build and maintain relationships, understand user needs, market the center's capabilities, co-develop new programs. Internally align with ORNL leadership, HPC facility management, ORNL's National Center for Computational Sciences, data services groups, programmatic divisions and labs.
• Budgeting, Resource & Governance: Develop and manage budgets, resource planning (people, infrastructure, capital investments), cost model, vendor and subcontractor relationships. Define governance structures, policies (data governance, security, access), compliance (cybersecurity, data privacy, export controls).
• Performance Monitoring & Reporting: Define performance metrics and dashboards for the center (e.g., utilization, throughput, time-to-science, user satisfaction, cost per unit, growth of services), regularly report to ORNL leadership, sponsors and stakeholders. Drive continuous improvement and benchmarking against peer organizations.
• Operational Excellence & Risk Management: Ensure robustness of operations (backup/archival, disaster recovery, continuity), manage risk (data loss, data protection, downtime), oversee infrastructure lifecycle (refresh, decommissioning), and uphold industry best practices in HPC/data center operations.

Basic Qualifications: Advanced degree (MS or PhD) in Computer Science, Data Science, Geospatial Science (GIS/remote sensing), Electrical/Computer Engineering, or a closely related discipline. Minimum of 10–12 years of relevant experience (or equivalent) in one or more of the following: geospatial science/engineering, HPC/data center operations, large-scale data infrastructure, research center leadership, service delivery in a technical organization, or related field. Proven track record of leadership: building and managing multidisciplinary teams, developing strategy, hiring, mentoring, and managing scientists/engineers/technologists. Solid technical expertise across high performance computing (compute, storage, interconnects, networking), large-scale data management (ingest, curation, archive), geospatial data workflows (remote sensing, GIS, mapping, analytics) and infrastructure-as-a-service models. Experience with service delivery models (e.g., user support, resource allocation, service catalogue, SLAs) and/or research infrastructure. Experience engaging with federal sponsors (e.g., DOE, DoD, other agencies) or large external stakeholders; demonstrated ability to produce proposals, manage programs, and interface at senior levels. Strong communication and collaboration skills: able to articulate vision and technical concepts to senior leadership, sponsors, non-technical stakeholders, and users; comfortable representing the center externally. Demonstrated financial/acquisition/contract experience: budget planning, vendor/subcontractor management, procurement, cost-modelling, and governance oversight. Demonstrated familiarity with data governance, security, compliance (cybersecurity, export controls, access policies) as applies to HPC/data infrastructure in federal research environments. Motivated self-starter with the ability to work independently and to participate creatively in collaborative teams across the laboratory. Ability to function well in a fast-paced research environment, set priorities to accomplish multiple tasks within deadlines, and adapt to ever changing needs.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience specifically in geospatial high-performance computing, e.g., leveraging HPC for remote sensing, large-scale mapping, geospatial analytics, Earth system science, real-time geospatial streaming, or associated research infrastructure. Experience leading or being part of a research center or institute (or similar) with a mix of service delivery and research mission. Experience with leading edge geospatial/HPC technologies: AI/ML for remote sensing/geospatial, cloud-HPC hybrid architectures, geospatial edge compute, real-time analytics, and geospatial big data platforms. Demonstrated success securing external funding and managing the resulting programs. Familiarity with ORNL-style national laboratory environment (or similarly complex research institution), federal research stakeholders, user facilities, and large-scale infrastructure operations. Established professional network in the geospatial, HPC or data infrastructure community; prior leadership of/participation in geospatial or HPC user communities, etc. Prior experience with practices of operationalizing research infrastructure: metrics, service catalogue development, business model transition (from support to mission-driven), and growing a team into a standalone organizational entity. Excellent written and oral communication skills.