HPC Storage Systems Group Leader

Storage Systems Group Lead

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) is inviting applications for the position of Storage Systems Group (SSG) Lead. NERSC's mission is to accelerate scientific discovery through high performance computing and data analysis for the Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science programs. NERSC is searching for a knowledgeable and inspired group leader for the Storage Systems Group who will be responsible for developing NERSC's storage strategy based on NERSC's systems roadmap, science workflows and user needs. They will provide vision and guidance to design, operate and simplify the storage environment for NERSC's 11,000+ users.

The SSG is responsible for NERSC's storage portfolio, including large scale high capacity parallel file systems and archival storage systems with an eye towards balancing performance, stability, and usability for NERSC's users who operate in a wide variety of DOE mission areas and scientific domains. The SSG Lead provides technical leadership to a group of highly skilled storage engineers who collaborate with other teams at NERSC to deliver innovative solutions to complex problems and a technical vision for the future of NERSC storage platforms.

The NERSC storage environment that SSG is responsible for today is composed of multiple tiers:

• The NERSC hierarchical storage management system (presently High Performance Storage System (HPSS)) stores more than 450 PB of data for the scientific community and puts NERSC in the top 10 largest HPSS deployments globally.
• NERSC provides a large-scale parallel community file system (presently Storage Scale) with more than 150 PB of online storage to the user community on a RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) fabric.
• Home and common storage mounted via Storage Scale on several thousand nodes across NERSC.

In addition to the current environment, SSG will be responsible for the scratch and new quality of service storage systems in NERSC's latest GPU based supercomputer, named Doudna, to be operationalized in 2027. Doudna will deliver a tenfold increase in computing power to NERSC users along with new capabilities. The new Doudna environment will support larger and higher resolution data sets coming from new sensors, detectors, sequencers and telescopes from the scientific community and these data sets will need to be managed, shared and stored.

The Storage Systems Group lead is responsible for understanding existing and new emerging requirements, and deploying storage solutions in collaboration with other NERSC teams to support NERSC's broad user base of today and tomorrow. In doing so, the SSG Lead will drive the development and implementation of a holistic storage strategy to support changing scientific workflows and new technologies as part of Doudna and future NERSC system roadmaps. To accomplish this, the SSG Lead will be responsible for investigating new storage technologies and engaging with the vendor community on future roadmaps. The SSG Lead will work with the Data Center Department Head to provide guidance and priorities for the group based on NERSC's strategic plan and its goals.

You will:

• Develop NERSC's storage strategy based on NERSC's systems roadmap, science workflows and user needs.
• Lead a team that procures, installs, manages, supports and monitors NERSC's large scale storage systems, including providing 24x7 support.
• Ensure NERSC's storage systems meet the needs of NERSC's 11,000 users by providing high performing, available, and usable systems.
• Work independently and as part of the Storage Systems Group to diagnose and fix storage problems, help analyze storage system issues, and develop and implement workarounds and/or patches for software bugs.
• Provide effective line management to a group of approximately 10 Computer Systems Engineers by hiring excellent staff and working closely with SSG staff members. Ensure staff are meeting goals, provide both positive and constructive feedback to staff and ensure all staff have career growth opportunities.
• Provide technical leadership for implementation and deployment efforts for storage system improvements that enhance task automation, reliability, stability, usability, performance, and security.
• Continuously evaluate new storage technologies and make recommendations on future storage strategy and directions for the center, including both parallel and hierarchical storage, that would create new capabilities and enhance storage and HPC system performance and usability.
• Work closely with other teams at NERSC to enable large-scale simulation, data analysis and AI applications to run on NERSC supercomputing and storage systems.
• Provide budgetary input and oversight for NERSC's storage systems.
• Lead or collaborate efforts with other Department of Energy (DOE) Labs on future storage technologies, multi-lab storage efforts and other related topics.
• Present at conferences and talks to promote NERSC to other national labs and HPC sites.
• Create and develop a vision and strategy for the group and be a key part of NERSC's management team.

We are looking for:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Computational Science (or related fields) and current applicable systems support and engineering experience, plus a minimum of 3 years of experience in a managerial role of complex computer systems, storage or networking unit.
• Experience with storage technologies in a Linux environment, such as InfiniBand, RoCE, SAN/NAS, NFS, pNFS, hierarchical storage management systems (such as HPSS), Lustre, Storage Scale, VAST, and object stores.
• Prior experience with HPC applications, workflows and computational and storage systems.
• Experience in managing and supporting a 24/7 IT environment.
• Ability to mentor staff to increase their knowledge and skills.
• Deep and broad knowledge of storage technologies such as parallel filesystems (i.e. Storage Scale), hierarchical storage management (i.e. HPSS), distributed storage systems (i.e. VAST), and storage networking (i.e. InfiniBand or RoCE).
• Demonstrated ability to work independently as well as collaboratively in large projects, and contribute to an active intellectual environment.
• Ability to gather requirements from the scientific user community and turn requirements into system characteristics.
• Strong technical and collaboration skills needed to create and deploy innovative ways of allowing our diverse user base to effectively utilize the unique resources that NERSC provides.
• Understand balancing technical solutions with user needs and show initiative, tact and good judgment in developing solutions to problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Desired skills/knowledge:

• A Master's or PhD degree in related fields.
• Knowledge of object storage and non-volatile storage technologies.
• Experience administering and deploying storage systems of tens of petabytes (or greater) scale in a HPC environment.

We're here for the same mission, to bring science solutions to the world. Join our team and YOU will play a supporting role in our goal to address global challenges! Have a high level of impact and work for an organization associated with 17 Nobel Prizes!

Why join Berkeley Lab?

• Exceptional health and retirement benefits, including pension or 401K-style plans
• Opportunities to grow in your career - check out our Tuition Assistance Program [Only if Applicable to the Appointment]
• A culture where you'll belong - we are invested in our teams!
• In addition to accruing vacation and sick time, we also have a Winter Holiday Shutdown every year.
• Parental bonding leave (for both mothers and fathers)
• Pet insurance

Additional information:

• Application date: Priority consideration will be given to candidates who apply by December 15, 2025. Applications will be accepted until the job posting is removed.
• Appointment type: This is a (full-time/part-time) career appointment, exempt (monthly paid) from overtime pay.
• Salary range: The expected salary for this position is $203,496 - $248,736, which fits into the full salary of $180,876 - $305,268 depending upon the candidate's skills, knowledge, and abilities. This includes education, certifications, and years of experience.
• Background check: This position is subject to a background check. Any convictions will be evaluated to determine if they directly relate to the responsibilities and requirements of the position. Having a conviction history will not automatically disqualify an applicant from being considered for employment.
• Work modality: This position requires substantial on-site presence