AI HPC Systems Engineer - Research Computing

Penn State University; United States; On-site; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Penn State University seeks a Research Computing Engineer to join our ICDS technical team. You will design, operate, automate, and optimize GPU/AI and HPC infrastructure used by researchers across the university, including storage, networking, and workflow systems.

The role develops scalable solutions for machine learning, data-intensive research, and computational science, collaborating with researchers and ICDS staff to meet workload requirements and ensure secure, compliant operations.

Qualifications

• Proficiency using Linux and command-line tools; able to edit files and configure systems.
• Strong scripting in Bash and Python for automation.
• Excellent problem-solving and debugging of complex systems.
• Ability to collaborate effectively within a technical team.
• Experience using AI tools to improve workflows in programming, debugging or prototyping.
• Clear written and verbal communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with teammates, users, and vendor support to diagnose issues and implement solutions across compute, storage, networking, and software environments.
• Monitor, maintain, automate, and improve AI and HPC systems and supporting infrastructure.
• Design, deploy, operate, troubleshoot, and optimize systems using DevOps and infrastructure-as-code practices.
• Support GPU-accelerated computing environments for AI, machine learning, and scientific workloads.
• Partner with researchers to understand workload requirements and develop practical engineering solutions.
• Support security, logging, documentation, and compliance processes for the systems operated.
• Contribute to planning, requirements gathering, process improvement, and operational readiness for new services.
• Provide timely updates to system documentation and respond to user questions with guidance.
• Evaluate and improve tools, platforms, and workflows for AI model development and data movement at scale.

Skills

Linux

Bash

Python

Problem solving

Teamwork

AI tools experience

Communication

Tools

Slurm

PBS

HTCondor

LSF

Kubernetes

Docker

OpenStack

MAAS

XCAT

Job description

Penn State University seeks a Research Computing Engineer to join our ICDS technical team. You will design, operate, automate, and optimize GPU/AI and HPC infrastructure used by researchers across the university, including storage, networking, and workflow systems.

The role develops scalable solutions for machine learning, data-intensive research, and computational science, collaborating with researchers and ICDS staff to meet workload requirements and ensure secure, compliant operations.