Research Software Engineer

UT-Battelle; Oak Ridge (TN); On-site; USD 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

UT-Battelle's NCCS at ORNL seeks a Research Software Engineer to develop federated data platforms and persistent services on on-prem Kubernetes clusters, supporting AI/ML campaigns and data lifecycles from ingestion to publication.

You will implement deployment recipes, RESTful portals, and ML deployment workflows, collaborate with Platform engineers, and contribute to security, RBAC, and reliability across OLCF compute infrastructure.

Qualifications

• BS degree in a related field with 3+ years of experience or equivalent.
• Experience developing data management platforms and full stack apps.
• Knowledge of CI/CD, GitOps, and Kubernetes in production.
• Familiarity with PHP, Python, and modern JavaScript frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Develop, operate, and maintain federated data platforms and portals.
• Design web portals, API services, and Kubernetes deployment recipes.
• Collaborate with Platform engineers to ensure security, RBAC, and reliability.

Skills

Full stack development

API development

Kubernetes

CI/CD

GitOps

Data management

Collaborative work

MLOps

Education

BS in CS or related field

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD tooling

GitHub/GitLab

React/JS frameworks

Python

PHP

Job description

Overview

The National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL), which hosts several of the world’s most powerful computer systems, is seeking highly qualified individuals to play a key role in developing, and deploying data management tools and persistent services that support scientific and AI/ML campaigns that run on NCCS computing infrastructure, including the world’s first exaflop system, Frontier.

Requisition Id 16231

The Team

As a Research Software Engineer (RSE) in the Data and Platform Services (DAPS) group, you will work within the HPC Operations Section and closely collaborate with other Lead Software Engineers on various software engineering projects. The DAPS group designs and operates data management platforms, tools, and services for the end-to-end data lifecycle from ingestion to publication and supports several large initiatives and facilities at ORNL. Our primary development and deployment platform is the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) Slate Service, built on Kubernetes and Rancher, which provides a container orchestration service for running critical operation applications and user-managed persistent applications that run alongside our OLCF supercomputer systems and other OLCF managed HPC clusters.

The Role

As a Research Software Engineer, you will implement, operate, and maintain federated data platforms, data management portals, data processing pipelines, API gateways, and persistent services for the entire data lifecycle on our on-premises Kubernetes clusters, with a strong focus on scalability, reliability, and maintainability. You will also assist with AI initiatives at OLCF, integrate key data engineering and MLOps technologies, be an individual contributor for small-medium sized projects, and collaborate with Platform engineers in delivering a robust set of production services for OLCF users. This role requires: significant experience with full stack application and API development, working knowledge of Kubernetes and containerization. Knowledge of current AI/ML tools and workflows is preferred but not required.

Major Duties/Responsibilities

Application Development and Deployment

• Gain working expertise with federated data management (e.g., Pelican, Rucio), data catalog solutions (e.g. CKAN, DKAN, Schema.org), streaming data (e.g., Kafka), and data movement (XRootD, Globus, S3) tools and technologies.


• Design and implement web portals and API services for data management using a combination of modern web technologies.


• Develop, implement, and maintain Kubernetes deployment recipes for data portals, catalogs, API gateways, and other ancillary services like key-value stores and databases.


• Implement solutions for MLOps including model lifecycle management and storage, as well as integration with existing platforms like MLFlow.

Collaboration

• Partner closely with internal platforms, cybersecurity, and account management teams to ensure the platform meets security, compliance, role-based access controls, and usability expectations.


• Participate in cross-functional projects related to platform enhancements and cluster lifecycle automation.


• Be able to represent the DAPS team with internal collaborators and partners across the lab.

Basic Qualifications

• BS degree and 3+ years of relevant experience or equivalent experience.


• At least two years of experience with data management platform and tools development.


• At least two years of experience with full stack application and API development.


• Experience with CI/CD tooling, GitOps, and Kubernetes.


• Experience with code review and familiarity with tools like git, GitHub and GitLab.

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent interpersonal/communications skills, and the ability to work as part of a team.


• Experience implementing and maintaining highly available systems/services.


• Experience with PHP, Python, modern Javascript frameworks (React, AngularJS, NodeJS).


• 5+ years of experience in addition to the degree.


• Experience with modern software practices such as test-driven development, Agile software development practices and a firm, proven knowledge of software development lifecycles.


• Demonstrated activity within the broader open-source software community.

This position will remain open for a minimum of 5 days after which it will close when a qualified candidate is identified and/or hired.

ORNL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans, are encouraged to apply. UT-Battelle is an E-Verify employer.