Director, HPC Systems Software Engineering

nscaleoperationsukltd; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Nscale is seeking a Director of HPC Systems Engineering to drive strategy, architecture, and execution for a major HPC platform. You will lead a manager-led organization delivering reliable, scalable HPC services that align with business priorities and platform strategy.

You will shape the org, define priorities, and ensure continuity of engineering excellence while managing budgets and cross-functional partnerships across engineering, product, and infrastructure teams.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading a large HPC systems or infrastructure-heavy engineering org.
• Strong engineering credibility in HPC software, distributed infra, and production operations.
• Ability to translate business strategy into engineering structure, priorities, and execution.

Responsibilities

• Define and execute strategy for a major HPC systems area aligned with business goals.
• Lead managers and senior engineers to deliver high-quality HPC services.
• Own delivery outcomes, execution quality, and team health across the area.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across product, security, and infrastructure.
• Ensure reliability and operating maturity of HPC platforms built on Slurm and related tech.

Skills

HPC systems engineering

Organisational leadership

Strategic planning

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

Slurm

Linux

Cloud-native

Job description

About the Role (Job Purpose)

The Director, HPC Systems Engineering is accountable for the strategy, execution, and organisational effectiveness of Nscale's HPC systems engineering function. This role operates at organisation scope and is responsible for ensuring that teams deliver reliable, scalable, and supportable HPC platform capabilities aligned with business priorities and long-term platform strategy.

This role combines organisational leadership with strong technical and operational judgement. You will shape the strategy for a major HPC platform area, build and lead the teams responsible for delivering it, and ensure that architecture, execution, and service quality remain aligned as the organisation grows.

As a Director, your impact comes through leadership of managers, senior engineers, and team‑of‑teams structures. You are accountable for building a healthy, high‑performing organisation with the right structure, talent, operating model, and priorities to package and operate high‑quality HPC systems as services.

What You'll be Doing (Responsibilities)

Strategy, Scope & Organisational Direction

Define and evolve the strategy for a major HPC systems engineering area, aligned with business goals, customer needs, platform priorities, and long‑term service direction

Translate company and engineering strategy into clear priorities, investment areas, and execution plans for the organisation

Ensure HPC platform architecture, operational maturity, and delivery priorities remain aligned across teams

Partner with Principal and Senior Staff engineers to ensure technical strategy is coherent, actionable, and executed effectively

Balance short‑term delivery pressure against long‑term platform health, team sustainability, and organisational capability

Organisation Leadership & Execution

Lead a major HPC systems engineering organisation through managers, senior technical leaders, and team‑of‑teams structures

Own delivery outcomes, execution quality, service quality, and team health across the area

Shape team topology, ownership boundaries, support models, and operating mechanisms to support effective execution at scale

Establish the right planning, prioritisation, review, and escalation mechanisms to keep the organisation effective and accountable

Remove systemic blockers that reduce engineering effectiveness or create avoidable delivery or operational risk

Technical Oversight & Platform Quality

Maintain sufficient technical depth to challenge designs, evaluate trade-offs, and support strong engineering judgement across the organisation

Ensure teams are building on sound software, systems, and operational foundations for Slurm‑based and adjacent HPC services

Sponsor major cross‑team HPC platform initiatives that require coordination, investment, or organisational change

Ensure reliability, performance, supportability, and operational maturity are treated as first‑class requirements

Build a strong partnership model with adjacent cloud‑native software engineering teams so shared patterns are reused effectively

People, Capability & Leadership Development

Hire, develop, and retain strong engineering leaders, managers, and senior HPC systems engineers

Raise the leadership bar through coaching, feedback, succession planning, and strong performance management

Build a healthy partnership model between engineering managers and senior ICs

Strengthen organisational capability over time by addressing skill gaps, clarifying expectations, and improving how the organisation operates

Foster a culture of ownership, clarity, urgency, strong engineering standards, and calm operational leadership

Cross‑Functional & External Leadership

Serve as a trusted partner to senior engineering, product, infrastructure, security, and business stakeholders

Represent the organisation in strategic planning, executive discussions, architecture reviews, customer conversations, and partner discussions where needed

Own budget, headcount planning, and organisational investment decisions for the area

Ensure the HPC systems engineering organisation is positioned to support broader company goals and changing business needs

Where relevant, support Nscale's technical position in the broader HPC and cloud‑native ecosystem

About You (Skills / Qualifications)

Proven experience leading a significant HPC systems, platform engineering, or infrastructure‑heavy engineering organisation

Strong technical credibility in software engineering for HPC systems, distributed infrastructure, Linux‑based platforms, and production operations

Demonstrated ability to operate at org scope, translating business and engineering strategy into team structure, priorities, and execution

Strong track record of leading through managers and senior technical leaders rather than relying primarily on individual contribution

Experience building high‑performing engineering organisations, including hiring, leadership development, organisation design, and per