HPC Architect

AbbVie; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 180,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

AbbVie Information Research (IR) seeks a highly motivated HPC Architect to lead on‑premises, cloud, and hybrid HPC platforms. This role requires hands‑on expertise with Slurm, GPUs, containerized environments, and automation, ensuring secure, scalable scientific computing.

You will guide design, lifecycle management, and cost optimization while partnering with R&D. The ideal candidate has strong leadership, deep Linux/HPC knowledge, and experience with Posit Workbench and analytical tools in

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field with 7 years of experience; OR Master’s Degree with 6 years of experience; OR PhD 2 years’ experience.
• Leadership experience needed with ability to influence technical teams and stakeholders.
• Expert knowledge of Linux, HPC compute and GPU architectures, MPI, CUDA, and hardware lifecycle management.
• Strong experience with Slurm, GPU scheduling, and performance optimization.
• Experience with HPC networking (InfiniBand, Ethernet) and storage (Lustre, NFS).
• Experience integrating Active Directory with SSH/SSSD and security best practices.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the technical architect for on‑premises, cloud, and hybrid HPC environments.
• Architect and evolve scientific HPC platforms, including compute, storage, and networking.
• Administer Slurm workload management and GPU scheduling; troubleshoot performance issues.
• Establish container and software environments using Apptainer/Singularity and Docker workflows.
• Support Posit Workbench, Connect, and related analytics platforms with Slurm and storage.
• Implement secure identity management and vulnerability remediation per security SOPs.
• Lead automation for provisioning, configuration, patching, monitoring, and lifecycle activities.
• Develop runbooks, diagrams, and dashboards; mentor engineering teams and vendors.
• Partner with R&D to design solutions for research workloads.

Skills

Leadership

Linux

HPC compute

GPU architectures

Slurm

Networking

Automation

DevOps

Python

MPI

Education

Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or related field

Master’s Degree

PhD

Tools

Slurm

Apptainer/Singularity

Docker

Posit Workbench

CUDA

MPI

Python

R

Job description

Company Description

About AbbVie

AbbVie's mission is to discover and deliver innovative medicines and solutions that solve serious health issues today and address the medical challenges of tomorrow. We strive to have a remarkable impact on people's lives across several key therapeutic areas including immunology, oncology and neuroscience - and products and services in our Allergan Aesthetics portfolio. For more information about AbbVie, please visit us at www.abbvie.com. Follow @abbvie on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.

Job Description

AbbVie Information Research (IR) Scientific and Cloud Computing team isseekinga highly motivated High Performance Computing (HPC) Architect to provide technical leadership for scientific and R&D computing environments. This roleis responsible forarchitecting and evolving on-premises, cloud, and hybrid HPC platforms, includingcompute, GPU, networking, storage, workload management, containers, automation, security, and scientific software services. The successful candidate will have strong hands-on experience with HPC infrastructure,AWS,and hybrid cloud environments,Slurm, infrastructure as code, automation, DevOps practices, and enterprise IT operations. The HPC Architect will guide the design, implementation, lifecycle management, and support of secure, scalable, reliable, and cost-effective solutions while partnering with R&D stakeholders and fostering collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities:

• Serve as the technical architect for AbbVie IR’s on-premises, cloud, and hybrid HPC based scientific-computing environments.Responsiblefor architecture, standards, infrastructure (software and hardware) lifecycle, evaluation of POC, capacity planning, and cost management.
• Architect and continuously evolve all aspects of scientific HPC computing platforms, including operational and maintenance processes.
• Design, implement, and support HPC compute and networking infrastructure - compute,networking,and storage.
• Administer andoptimizeSlurmworkload management, including partitions, queues, priorities, fair-share, reservations, resource limits, GPU scheduling, accounting, job troubleshooting, performance tuning, and integration with Posit and other research platforms.
• Establish secure, reproducible container and scientific software environments usingApptainer/Singularity, Docker-compatible workflows, environment modules, compilers, MPI, CUDA, Python, R, and application dependencies.
• Assistwith the architecture and support of Posit Workbench, Posit Connect, Posit Package Manager, and related analytics platforms, integrating them withSlurm, Active Directory, storage, GPUs, and scientific software.
• Implement secure identity and access managementin accordance withAbbVie security SOPs and applicable industry standards. Architect, implement, and supportvulnerability-managementprocesses and remediation efforts.
• Lead efforts to automate provisioning, configuration, patching, testing, monitoring, remediation, and lifecycle activities.
• Maintainobservabilitymetrics, architecture diagrams, inventories, dependency maps, configuration standards, runbooks, support procedures, and end-of-life plans while addressing technical debt, operational risks, and capacity constraints. Lead the development ofappropriate reportingand monitoring tools and dashboards.
• Lead design and incident reviews, vendor engagements, proofs of concept, capacity planning, and implementation governance; provide technical direction and mentorship to engineering and partner teams.
• Partner with R&D to createappropriate solutionsfor research workloads.

Qualifications

Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, IT, or related fieldwith 7 years of experience; OR Master’s Degree with 6 years of experience; OR PhD 2 years’ experience.
• Respective years of experience in application program development.
• Leadership experience isrequired, including the ability to guide, collaborate withand influence technical teams, projects, and workstreams both within and outside the organizational structure.Demonstrated ability to balance technical depth with people leadership and stakeholder management.
• Expert knowledge of Linux, HPCcomputeand GPU architectures, CPU/memory/NUMA/PCIe design, MPI, NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA, MIG, node provisioning, firmware, drivers, and hardware lifecycle management.
• Strong experience with Slurm, including partitions, queues, scheduling policies, resource management, GPU scheduling, accounting, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.
• Strong knowledge of HPC networking, including Mellanox/NVIDIA InfiniBand, RDMA, Aruba switching, Ethernet, VLANs, routing, segmentation, subnet management, monitoring, and low-latency communications.
• Experience with high-performance and distributed storage, including Weka or comparable platforms,Lustre, NFS, CIFS/SMB, storage gateways, quotas, permissions, data movement, replication, backup, archival, and recovery.
• Experience integrating Active Directory or equivalent identity services with SSH, SSSD,sudo, service accounts, security groups, filesystem permissions, and least-privilege access models.
• Experience withApptainer/Singularity, Docker-compatible workflows, container security, reproducibility, GPU/MPI enablement, image management, and scientific software environments using modules, compilers, Python, R, CUDA, and related dependencies.
• Experience supporting interactive research platforms such as Posit Workbench, Posit Connect, Jupyter, or comparable tools, including integration withSlurm, GPUs, identity services, storage, and software environments.
• Experience architecting cloud and hybrid HPC solutions, including networking, security, identity, provisioning, storage, autoscaling, infrastructure as code, workload placement, cost management, monitoring, and lifecycle operations.
• Strong scripting, automation, and DevOps skills.
• Knowledge of observability, centralized logging, alerting, incident response, root-cause analysis, capacity planning, performance engineering, cybersecurity, vulnerability management, encryption, patching, and access governance.
• Experience creating architecture diagrams, technical standards, operating models, runbooks, migration plans, lifecycle strategies, and executive-level recommendations.
• Experience working in Data Science, Life Sciences, orPharmaceuticalindustryworking in regulated or enterprise IT environments.

Preferred:

• Work experience in the pharmaceutical industry preferred.

Additional Information

Applicable only to applicants applying to a position in any location with pay disclosure requirements under state orlocal law:

• The compensation range described below is the range of possible base pay compensation that the Companybelieves ingood faith it will pay for this role at the timeof this posting based on the job grade for this position.Individualcompensation paid within this range will depend on many factors including geographic location, andwemayultimatelypaymore or less than the posted range. This range may bemodifiedin thefuture.
• We offer a comprehensive package of benefits including paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick),medical/dental/visioninsurance and 401(k) to eligibleemployees.
• This job is eligible toparticipatein our long-term incentiveprograms.

Note: No amount of payis considered to bewages or compensation until such amount is earned, vested, anddeterminable.The amount and availability of any bonus,commission, incentive, benefits, or any other form ofcompensation and benefitsthat are allocable to a particular employeeremainsin the Company's sole andabsolutediscretion unless and until paid andmay bemodifiedat the Company’s sole and absolute discretion, consistent withapplicable law.

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