HPC Consultant (Scientist 1/2)

What You Will Do
This position will be filled at either the Scientist 1 or Scientist 2 level, depending on the skills of the selected candidate. Additional job responsibilities (outlined below) will be assigned if the candidate is hired at the higher level.

The High Performance Computing Environments group (HPC-ENV) is seeking a driven HPC Consultant at the Scientist 1 or 2 level. The HPC Consulting team provides direct support to HPC customers to enhance the productivity of the user community by providing quality technical support. As HPC Consultants we are a single point of contact for HPC systems, and delivering customer-focused services, tools and software. The Division's goal is to create an effective HPC environment in which scientists can be as productive as possible on world-class supercomputing systems.
The HPC Division supports the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) mission by managing a world-class supercomputing center. We support stockpile stewardship for NNSA/DOE and accelerate scientific discovery for scientists. We integrate and support some of the world's largest supercomputers during an exciting time in computing with the focus on traditional large-scale simulations, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.

Scientist 1 ($92,300 - $151,00)

  • Direct Customer Support: Provide expert guidance and consultation to scientists, engineers, and other HPC users to enhance their workflows and enable use of HPC systems through phone, email, ticketing systems, and in-person consultations.
  • Collaborate with team members to troubleshoot HPC issues and improve user experience.
  • Documentation and Training: Develop user guides, best practices, and training materials to help the user community get the most from the HPC environment.
  • System Efficiency: Work with HPC system administrators to identify issues, improve overall system performance and resource utilization.
Scientist 2 ($101,700 - 168,200)

  • In addition to the duties outlined above, a successful Scientist 2 candidate will be required to:
  • Work independently to implement customer solutions to current problems and enhance our HPC user environment.
  • Represent LANL HPC Consulting at workshops, meetings, and conferences with other HPC and NNSA/DOE sites.
  • HPC Application Support: Provide in-depth support for users of HPC systems, including installation, configuration, and troubleshooting of scientific and engineering applications.
  • Performance Optimization: Analyze and optimize the performance of parallel applications and workflows to ensure efficient use of HPC resources.
  • Code Profiling and Tuning: Collaborate with software developers and users to profile and tune applications for performance, memory usage, and scalability on HPC platforms.
  • May provide technical and professional expertise to students & junior staff through mentorship and training.

What You Need

Minimum Job Requirements:
  • Experience with Linux-based systems.
  • Programming experience (2+ years) in languages such as C, C++, Fortran, and Python.
  • Knowledge of HPC, their environments and supporting infrastructure. Knowledge of distributed systems, including system architectures, computer networks, and software.
  • Communication Skills - Demonstrated effective communication skills in classroom or team situations, such as making, and presenting technical demonstrations, system documentation, and user manuals.
  • Attached cover letter addressing how knowledge, skills and abilities meet the minimum requirements along with a resume.

Additional Job Requirements for Scientist 2:
In addition to the requirements outlined above, qualification at the higher level requires:

  • Demonstrated experience with HPC environments and one or more of the domains found within such as parallel software, operating systems, parallel file systems, archives, parallel applications and job schedulers.
  • Proficiency in parallel programming in a CPU and/or GPU computing scientific environment such as (MPI, OpenMP, CUDA, etc.)
  • Documentation and Training - Experience developing user guides, best practices, and training materials to help the HPC user community.
  • Knowledge of HPC computational workflows and experience debugging them.

Education/Experience at lower level:
Position requires a bachelor's degree in a STEM field from an accredited college and university and 2 years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation.

Education/Experience at higher level:

Positions requires a Bachelor' degree in a STEM field from an accredited college and university and 4 years of related experience, typically with post-doctoral research experience at a university or national lab or equivalent experience directly related to the occupation

Desired Qualifications:

  • Familiarity with ML frameworks (PyTorch, Tensorflow, SciPy, NLTK).
  • Familiarity with GPU computing in scientific environments using CUDA.
  • Customer Service - Recent experience in a customer service role, ticketing systems.
  • Experience with DevOps and continuous integration (CI) tools.
  • Experience with containers (Docker, Podman, Singularity, Charliecloud).
  • Experience with code profiling, tuning, and performance optimization.
  • Familiarity administering or using Open OnDemand.
  • Experience with Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning (AI/ML).

Work Location: This position will be located in Los Alamos, NM, with the potential for a hybrid work arrangement (60% onsite/40% offsite) from a location within 2 hours ground commute of this location. Reporting onsite will be required. Hybrid is at the discretion of management and can change at any time with appropriate notice.

Position commitment: Regular appointment employees are required to serve a period of continuous service in their current position in order to be eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has
not served the time required, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. The position commitment for this position is 1 year.

Note to Applicants: For consideration, applicants should submit a cover letter addressing how their knowledge, skills and abilities meet the minimum requirements along with a resume.
Where You Will Work

Located in beautiful northern New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security. Our generous benefits package includes:

  • PPO or High Deductible medical insurance with the same large nationwide network
  • Dental and vision insurance
  • Free basic life and disability insurance
  • Paid childbirth and parental leave
  • Award-winning 401(k) (6% matching plus 3.5% annually)
  • Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
  • Flexible schedules and time off (PTO and holidays)
  • Onsite gyms and wellness programs
  • Extensive relocation packages (outside a 50 mile radius)
Additional Details

Directive 206.2 - Employment with Triad requires a favorable decision by NNSA indicating employee is suitable under NNSA Supplemental Directive 206.2. Please note that this requirement applies only to citizens of the United States. Foreign nationals are subject to a similar requirement under DOE Order 142.3A.

Clearance: Q (Position will be cleared to this level). Selected applicants will be subject to a background investigation conducted by or on behalf of the Federal Government, and must meet eligibility requirements* for access to classified matter. This position requires a Q clearance. and obtaining such clearance requires US Citizenship except in extremely rare circumstances. Dependent upon the position, additional authorization to access classified information may be required, which may or may not be available to dual citizens. Receipt of a Q clearance and additional access authorization ultimately is a decision of the Federal Government and not of Triad.

*Eligibility requirements: To obtain a clearance, an individual must be at least 18 years of age; U.S. citizenship is required except in very limited circumstances. See DOE Order 472.2 for additional information.

New-Employment Drug Test: The Laboratory requires successful applicants to complete a new-employment drug test and maintains a substance abuse policy that includes random drug testing. Although New Mexico and other states have legalized the use of marijuana, use and possession of marijuana remain illegal under federal law. A positive drug test for marijuana will result in termination of employment, even if the use was pre-offer.

Regular position: Term status Laboratory employees applying for regular-status positions are converted to regular status.

Internal Applicants:
Regular appointment employees who have served the required period of continuous service in their current position are eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has not served the required period of continuous service, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. Please refer to Policy Policy P701 for applicant eligibility requirements.

Equal Opportunity: Los Alamos National Laboratory is an equal opportunity employer and supports a diverse and inclusive workforce. All employment practices are based on qualification and merit, without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or preference, marital status or spousal affiliation, physical or mental disability, medical conditions, pregnancy, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or citizenship within the limits imposed by federal laws and regulations. The Laboratory is also committed to making our workplace accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations, upon request, for individuals to participate in the application and hiring process. To request such an accommodation, please send an email to applyhelp@lanl.gov or call 1-505-664-6947 option 2.