HPC Storage Architect for AI/ML & HPC Workloads

NMC2; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch stipend

Employer-paid medical benefits

Dental & Vision for employees and fami

Paid parental leave

401(k) with company match

Job summary

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is seeking an HPC Storage Solutions Architect to design, integrate, and optimize high-performance storage for HPC/AI workloads. You will guide customers through requirements, design, PoC, deployment, and ongoing optimization of scalable file systems and object storage, working with partners to drive platform evolution.

The role emphasizes customer-facing communication and collaboration with product, engineering, and vendors to deliver resilient, efficient storage

Qualifications

• Strong technical expertise in parallel and distributed file systems (Lustre, GPFS, Ceph, VAST) and object storage platforms.
• Hands-on experience with multi-petabyte storage systems, including design, deployment, and scaling.
• Linux storage stack tuning, file system protocols (NFS, SMB, POSIX), and performance optimization.
• Experience implementing storage automation and infrastructure-as-code (Ansible, Terraform).
• Proven ability to troubleshoot and optimize storage workloads for HPC/AI/data-intensive workloads.
• Strong customer-facing communication skills to explain complex architectures.

Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary storage SME for customers deploying or scaling HPC environments.
• Capture workload storage requirements, performance objectives, and capacity planning needs.
• Design and document end-to-end storage architectures (Lustre/GPFS/Ceph/VAST, object storage, tiered solutions).
• Lead proof-of-concept and benchmarking initiatives validating performance and resiliency.
• Implement integration strategies across compute, networking, and orchestration layers.
• Conduct workflow assessments and storage reviews to improve throughput and cost efficiency.
• Develop architecture blueprints and repeatable design patterns for HPC storage.
• Work with Ansible/Terraform to deliver repeatable storage environments.
• Collaborate with engineering, product, and operations to refine offerings and roadmap.
• Partner with vendors to integrate features and gather feedback for roadmaps.
• Stay up to date with emerging storage tech and data management practices.
• Represent the team at customer workshops, reviews, and industry forums.

Skills

Lustre

GPFS

Ceph

VAST

NFS

SMB

POSIX

Ansible

Terraform

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical field

Tools

Lustre

GPFS

Ceph

VAST

NFS

SMB

POSIX

Ansible

Terraform

Job description

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is backed by dedicated leadership and investment, with a clear mission as it operates at the bleeding edge of technology. Its goal is to scale and enhance the high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure that supports its clients' research, production, and delivery, enabling breakthroughs that shape the industries of tomorrow. Its engineers build critical infrastructure to eliminate friction in scientific research, simulations, analysis, and decision-making, accelerating discovery and driving faster innovation.

THE POSITION

The Architecture team's mission is to build a sound, coherent architecture for the HPC platform. The team takes in product requirements and operational constraints, incorporates technologies explored and validated by Innovation Architecture, and produces reference architectures ready for implementation and rollout. The team is comprised of senior architects with subject matter expertise spanning HPC compute, storage, networking, and orchestration.

As the HPC Storage Architect, you will own the architecture of highly scalable, highly available, and globally distributed storage systems that support large-scale research workloads. You will research and prototype solutions with built-in monitoring for health, bottlenecks, and performance, recommending optimizations such as I/O acceleration and caching strategies while keeping capacity and data integrity front of mind in every design tradeoff.

You will work closely with Networking, Compute, and Orchestration architects, along with engineering teams and storage vendors, to ensure every storage decision fits into a coherent, future-proof HPC platform. You will also establish a data-driven approach to continuously evaluating operational needs and constraints, proactively identifying opportunities to improve performance and resiliency.

Success in this role looks like bringing rigor and clarity to some of the most demanding storage challenges in HPC — from petabyte-scale data pipelines to emerging fabric technologies — while staying ahead of a fast-moving technology landscape.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Design the architecture of highly scalable, highly available, and globally distributed storage systems to support large-scale research workloads.
• Research and prototype solutions that embed continuous monitoring for health, bottlenecks, and performance, and suggest optimizations such as I/O acceleration techniques or caching strategies.
• Bring awareness of capacity , security, and data integrity to architecture and design tradeoffs.
• Assess existing and emerging storage technologies against business and product needs.
• Guide and drive execution by bringing clarity of the architecture to engineering teams and ensuring high-quality engineering standards are followed.
• Collaborate with networking, compute, and orchestration architects to propose coherent, complete, and future-proof HPC solutions.
• Establish a data-driven approach to continuously evaluate operational needs and constraints, and proactively propose improvements.
• Stay current with emerging technologies and approaches, and apply new knowledge across disciplines.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field, with 10-12 years of experience.
• Strong working knowledge of storage architectures, volume management, filesystems, with hands-on experience applying them in an HPC context.
• Hands-on experience with high-performance storage systems such as VAST, Lustre, or Spectrum Scale, and staging these systems within an HPC cluster.
• Familiarity with defining data ingest, staging, processing, and archiving strategies for HPC workflows, especially around large petabyte-scale datasets.
• Hands-on experience running benchmarks and test jobs on pre-production / unproven hardware in a testing environment.
• Experience designing for reliability, resiliency, and security throughout storage clusters and architecture.
• Experience with storage benchmarking and performance modeling using tools like IOR, mdtest, or FIO.
• Exposure to emerging storage trends such as NVMe over Fabrics, CXL, or persistent memory.
• Experience working directly with clients to capture technical requirements and deliver tailored, scalable system designs across AI/ML, scientific computing, CFD, or genomics workloads.

It is impossible to list every requirement for, or responsibility of, any position. Similarly, we cannot identify all the skills a position may require since job responsibilities and the Company’s needs may change over time. Therefore, the above job description is not comprehensive or exhaustive. The Company reserves the right to adjust, add to or eliminate any aspect of the above description. The Company also retains the right to require all employees to undertake additional or different job responsibilities when necessary to meet business needs.

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Company-Paid Lunch Stipend: Lunch is provided via GrubHub

Company-Paid Benefits: 100% Employer-Paid Medical in our High Deductible Health Plan, Dental and Vision benefits for employees and their families, 16 weeks of Paid Parental Leave, Employee Assistance Program, Life insurance, Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability

401(k): Company will match 100% of your contributions up to 6%

Optional Employee-Paid Benefits: Medical insurance in our PPO plan and a variety of other benefits such as Health Savings Accounts (with Company Contribution!), Flexible Spending Accounts, Supplemental Life Insurance, Wellhub and more.

Time Off: 25 days of Paid Time Off plus 12 company holidays

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