High Performance Computing (HPC) Research Computing Associate

Job Description

Department:

Scientific Computing

Pay Rate Type:

Salary

Employee Type:

Job Summary:

The High Performance Computing (HPC) Research Computing Associate provides technical expertise and user support for Colby College’s advanced computing infrastructure. This role is integral in ensuring that researchers, faculty, and students can effectively leverage HPC resources for their computational and data-intensive research. The HPC Research Computing Associate primary responsibility will be to work closely with Information Technology Services (ITS) and Academic Research Computing (ARC) staff, faculty, and research teams to optimize the performance and usability of HPC systems, to develop and maintain software solutions to support the computational and data analysis needs of the research community, and to design, code, test, and optimize software systems that enhance research capabilities and streamline computational workflows. The HPC Research Computing Associate is expected to occasionally debug and rewrite low-level systems software, evaluate software for potential acquisition, and work closely with vendors’ support organizations to ensure timely resolution of problems and high availability of HPC production services.

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

To perform successfully in this position, an individual must be able to perform essential duties satisfactorily as well as possess education/experience, employ the knowledge, skills, and abilities as listed in representative fashion. Colby College actively supports the Americans with Disabilities Act and will consider reasonable accommodations to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions of the position.  This listing of essential duties is not all-inclusive, but representative; other duties may be assigned. .

Responsibilities:

• Develop, deploy, enhance, and maintain software applications and tools to support research computing needs.

• Implement efficient algorithms and data structures to handle large datasets and complex computations.

• Write clean, well-documented, and maintainable code using modern programming languages.

• Integrate software solutions with existing research computing infrastructure, including high-performance computing (HPC) systems and cloud platforms.

• Collaborate with systems administrators and researchers to ensure seamless integration and functionality of software tools within the research environment.

• Analyze and optimize the performance of software applications, ensuring they meet the high demands of computational research.

• Identify and address performance bottlenecks, memory usage issues, and other technical challenges.

• Provide technical support and troubleshooting for software issues, assisting researchers in overcoming obstacles.

• Create and maintain comprehensive documentation for software tools, including user guides, technical specifications, and troubleshooting procedures.

• Stay up to date with advancements in software engineering and computational research technologies.

• Propose and implement new features, improvements, and updates to enhance the functionality and usability of software tools.

• Manage project timelines, deliverables, and milestones to ensure successful and timely completion of software initiatives

Position Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

Education and/or experience:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Computational Science, Engineering, or a related field

• Conceptual knowledge of all and in-depth knowledge of some of the following: systems architectures, security, networking, storage systems, parallel computing, batch/scheduling systems.

• Extensive knowledge of HPC environments, including experience with job scheduling systems (e.g., Slurm), parallel computing, and data-intensive computing.

• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in research computing (e.g., Python, C, C++, bash, R, MATLAB, Perl).

• Use of source control systems such as Git, and Machine Learning Frameworks, including Tensorflow.

• Strong background in Linux/Unix environments and experience with software development and optimization for HPC systems.

• Experience with distributed computing and cloud-based HPC environments (e.g., AWS, Google Cloud).

• Ability to communicate effectively with non-technical research faculty and collaborate across disciplines to support their computational research needs.

• High emotional quotient (EQ) and strong interpersonal skills, with a focus on relationship-building and service-oriented support.

• Proven track record of successfully supporting academic research projects, with a strong understanding of research methodologies and workflows.

PREFERRED SKILLS:

• Master’s degree in Computer Science, Computational Science, Engineering, or a related field

• Familiarity with specific research applications and scientific software packages.

• Experience with containers (e.g., Docker, Singularity, Kubernetes) and automation tools.

• Experience in grant writing or contributing to research proposals is a plus.

• Prior experience working in a higher education environment or collaborating with faculty on research projects.

Physical/Mental Demands

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform essential functions of this position and/or may be encountered while performing essential functions.  Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• To successfully perform the essential functions of this position, an employee must be able to maintain appropriate confidentiality with regard to employee data, documents, issues, etc., and respect privacy needs of employees and past employees with regard to the same.

• The ability to comply with highly inflexible deadlines is required to successfully perform the essential functions of this position; there will be multiple occurrences of sudden, urgent task completion required.

• There may be occurrences of employees, past employees, members of the general public, and others who express opinions, may exhibit strong emotions, which will require the employee to interact professionally, diplomatically, and appropriately in such situations.

• While performing the essential duties of this position, an employee would frequently be required to move around the office space as well as within hallways, meeting rooms, and other parts of the campus facilities. 

• There may be multiple/daily instances of prolonged personal computer use which would include keyboard and/or mouse usage as well as viewing a computer monitor.

• An employee must frequently lift and/or move up to 10 pounds and occasionally lift and/or move up to 35 pounds to perform essential position functions.

• Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, distance vision, and ability to adjust focus.

• The overall work environment requires the mental ability to shift focus quickly due to interruptions; an employee must be able to mentally track multiple projects and tasks as well.

• The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate; however, there may be unexpected instances of somewhat loud sounds.

To Apply:

Interested candidates should apply electronically by clicking the “Apply Now” button on the Colby College website.  Please upload a cover letter and resume to your application.