HPC Systems Engineer

northmark; Dallas (TX); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) in Dallas, TX is seeking an HPC Systems Engineer to drive end-to-end platform design across compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes, automation, and data center infrastructure. You’ll lead cross-domain reviews and resolve dependencies to enable large-scale AI/HPC deployments.

The role emphasizes translating business objectives into scalable, reliable infrastructure while coordinating with multiple engineering leads and vendor partners.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, CS, or equivalent.
• 8+ years in systems engineering, HPC, cloud infra, or data center infra.
• Deep expertise in at least one infra domain with broad knowledge across adjacent domains.
• Experience with infrastructure automation tools like Terraform, Ansible, CI/CD.
• Excellent communication and cross-team leadership without direct authority.

Responsibilities

• Drive cross-domain technical alignment across compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes, automation, and data center infrastructure teams.
• Lead integrated design reviews for new HPC deployments, platform expansions, and major infrastructure initiatives.
• Identify technical dependencies, design gaps, scalability constraints, and integration risks throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Partner with domain engineering teams to define end-to-end architecture, engineering standards, and implementation readiness criteria.
• Ensure infrastructure designs meet requirements for performance, resiliency, scalability, and long-term operational supportability.
• Develop system-level engineering specifications that define how infrastructure components interoperate.
• Participate in failure analysis, resiliency reviews, and operational readiness assessments ahead of production turnover.
• Collaborate with automation teams to improve deployment consistency, validation, lifecycle management, and operational efficiency.
• Serve as a technical point of escalation for cross-team integration issues, arbitrating architectural tradeoffs where domain priorities conflict.
• Influence engineering direction and platform standards across the organization through design authorship, review, and technical mentorship.

Skills

Cross-domain collaboration

Technical leadership

Excellent communication

Systems thinking

Problem solving

Education

Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

CI/CD pipelines

Kubernetes

Job description

THE COMPANY

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

NMC² is hiring an HPC Systems Engineer to join its infrastructure engineering organization in Dallas, TX, based out of the Victory Commons office. This is a cross-domain technical role responsible for ensuring that HPC infrastructure is designed, integrated, and delivered as a cohesive end-to-end platform rather than a collection of independently optimized parts. The Systems Engineer works horizontally across the compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes, automation, and data center infrastructure teams, driving technical alignment, resolving cross-functional dependencies, and reducing integration risk across large-scale AI and HPC deployments.

This role is built for engineers who think beyond a single technology domain. Great performance here looks like anticipating the failure modes that live between teams - the fabric assumption that breaks a storage design, the power and cooling constraint that reshapes a rack layout, the scheduler behavior that undermines a networking decision - and resolving them in design rather than in production. The Systems Engineer translates business objectives into scalable, reliable infrastructure solutions and holds the system-level view that no individual domain team owns on its own.

The role partners closely with domain engineering leads across compute, storage, networking, and data center infrastructure, as well as with automation and platform teams, operations, and hardware and technology vendors. Influence here is earned through engineering depth, collaboration, and sound judgment rather than positional authority, and the Systems Engineer is expected to shape technical direction across teams accordingly.

RESPONSIBILITIES

• Drive cross-domain technical alignment across the compute, storage, networking, Kubernetes, automation, and data center infrastructure teams.
• Lead integrated design reviews for new HPC deployments, platform expansions, and major infrastructure initiatives.
• Identify technical dependencies, design gaps, scalability constraints, and integration risks throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Partner with domain engineering teams to define end-to-end architecture, engineering standards, and implementation readiness criteria.
• Ensure infrastructure designs meet requirements for performance, resiliency, scalability, and long-term operational supportability.
• Develop system-level engineering specifications that define how infrastructure components integrate and interoperate.
• Participate in failure analysis, resiliency reviews, and operational readiness assessments ahead of production turnover.
• Collaborate with automation teams to improve deployment consistency, validation, lifecycle management, and operational efficiency.
• Serve as a technical point of escalation for cross-team integration issues, arbitrating architectural tradeoffs where domain priorities conflict.
• Influence engineering direction and platform standards across the organization through design authorship, review, and technical mentorship.

REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent experience.
• 8+ years of experience in systems engineering, product engineering, HPC, cloud infrastructure, distributed systems, or data center infrastructure.
• Deep expertise in at least one infrastructure domain - compute, networking, storage, Kubernetes, or data center infrastructure - with broad working knowledge across adjacent domains.
• Working familiarity with the components of a modern AI/HPC platform, such as GPU compute (NVIDIA H100/H200 class), high-speed fabrics (InfiniBand NDR/HDR, RoCEv2), scale-out storage (VAST Data, WekaFS, Lustre, or GPFS), and Kubernetes or Slurm-based scheduling.
• Experience with infrastructure automation and lifecycle tooling such as Terraform, Ansible, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong understanding of system-level dependencies, architectural tradeoffs, and downstream operational impacts.
• Proven ability to lead technical discussions and drive alignment across multiple engineering teams without direct authority.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical concepts to both engineering and leadership audiences.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with evolving requirements and aggressive delivery timelines.

It is impossible to list every requirement for, or responsibility of, any position. Similarly, we cannot identify all the sk