Systems Engineering Lead, Servers, Clusters & Supercomputers

Life in Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh (Allegheny County); Hybrid; USD 400,000 - 1,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Sign-on bonus

Year-end bonus

Generous benefits package

Job summary

Pittsburgh Tomorrow is seeking a Systems Engineering Lead to direct the teams that build and run the institution’s compute platforms used for computational drug discovery. The role combines leadership of Linux clusters, GPU systems, and storage with a focus on reliability, security, and usability for researchers.

You’ll guide SLURM and Kubernetes-based operations, scale thousands of cores and hundreds of GPUs, and architect high-performance networks and cloud integrations.

Qualifications

• Strong grounding in Linux fundamentals, including file systems, networking, and processes, plus hands-on Linux Systems Administration.
• Ability to explain technical reasoning to experts and non-specialists alike.

Responsibilities

• Lead the engineering groups responsible for building and running the client's compute clusters and the software stack on top of them.
• Direct the operation of Linux clusters scheduled with Slurm and Kubernetes, at scales from the low thousands of cores into the tens of thousands.
• Scale GPU clusters numbering hundreds of GPUs and storage systems holding tens of petabytes of research data.
• Architect high-performance RDMA fabrics, wide-area networking, and public cloud environments.
• Support the large-scale scientific workflows behind the client's drug discovery research.
• Deliver all of these resources to researchers in a form that is both secure and easy to use.
• Communicate clearly with research users and fellow engineers about priorities, tradeoffs, and system health.

Skills

Linux fundamentals

HPC systems engineering

Distributed systems

Systems software

Software development

Security tools deployment

Education

Graduate/Doctoral work in HPC or distributed computing

Tools

Slurm

Kubernetes

Python scripting

RDMA networking

Public cloud environments

Job description

Systems Engineering Lead, Servers, Clusters & Supercomputers — Leading Research Computing Teams for Computational Drug Discovery

Pittsburgh, PA · Hybrid (three days per week on site, two days optional remote)

The Opportunity

Keeping a research computing estate of this size dependable takes more than individual expertise: Linux clusters whose core counts reach into the tens of thousands, GPU clusters numbering hundreds of GPUs, storage measured in tens of petabytes, and custom supercomputing hardware all have to run as one secure, easy-to-use platform for scientists. This hire will lead the teams that build and run that platform, directing how its infrastructure, software, and networks develop and how well researchers can put them to work.

The client is a New York–based research company in computational biochemistry and drug discovery, with sites at its New York City offices and at data centers in Pittsburgh, PA and Durham, NC. This posting is for the Pittsburgh, PA site..

The Research Environment

The client pairs specialized computing hardware it designed in-house with high-performance commodity systems, machine learning, and other computational methods to model molecular behavior at the atomic level and design highly selective drug candidates. That work spans in-house programs and drug discovery efforts run with outside partners, and much of it runs as large-scale scientific workflows on the infrastructure this role oversees.

What You'll Do

• Lead the engineering groups responsible for building and running the client's compute clusters and the software stack on top of them.
• Direct the operation of Linux clusters scheduled with Slurm and Kubernetes, at scales from the low thousands of cores into the tens of thousands.
• Scale GPU clusters numbering hundreds of GPUs and storage systems holding tens of petabytes of research data.
• Sustain specialized, massively parallel custom supercomputing hardware alongside the general-purpose clusters.
• Architect high-performance RDMA fabrics, wide-area networking, and public cloud environments.
• Support the large-scale scientific workflows behind the client's drug discovery research.
• Deliver all of these resources to researchers in a form that is both secure and easy to use.
• Communicate clearly with research users and fellow engineers about priorities, tradeoffs, and system health.

What You Bring

<>Required

• Strong grounding in Linux fundamentals, including File Systems, Networking, and Processes, plus hands‑on Linux Systems Administration experience.
• Ability to explain technical reasoning to experts and non‑specialists alike.

<>Also Valued

• Five or more years of relevant experience.
• A background in leading and managing engineering teams (helpful, not required).
• Expertise in any of the following: Large‑Installation Systems Administration, HPC Systems Engineering, Python programming and scripting for Distributed Systems, High‑Performance Data‑Parallel Computing, Systems Software, Software Development, and Security Tool Deployment.
• The client weighs versatility, intellectual curiosity, and a record of strong accomplishment more heavily than depth in any single area above.

Paths Into This Role

Candidates whose graduate or doctoral work centered on high-performance or distributed computing, operating systems, computer networking, or large-scale scientific computing in fields such as Computational Physics or Computational Chemistry will find that training maps closely onto this work.

Compensation & Total Rewards

• Expected annual base salary: $400,000–$1,000,000, set according to factors such as experience, education, and location.
• Sign-on and year-end bonuses as variable pay.
• A generous benefits package with relocation support.