Technical advisor for High Performance Computing

Discover the possible

Anything is possible at the National Research Council (NRC). As Canada’s leading research and technology organization, our world-renowned research pushes the boundaries of science and engineering to make the impossible, possible. Every day we explore new ideas through innovative research and help companies discover possibilities that impact Canada’s future and the world.

At the NRC, you’ll also discover new possibilities. Our supportive workplace fosters a culture of creativity, welcoming fresh perspectives and innovation at all levels. We value teamwork. You’ll collaborate across multiple fields and with the brightest minds to find creative solutions. Most importantly, you’ll discover what’s possible within you as you grow, make valuable contributions and progress in your professional journey. From ground-breaking discoveries to a life-changing career, discover your possible at the NRC.

The Role

We are looking for a vibrant and dynamic technical advisor to join the Knowledge, Information, and Technology Services Branch (KITS) to support research centers with High Performance Computing (HPC) end user support (analyst duties) and cluster maintenance. The advisor would be someone who shares our core values of impact, accountability, leadership, integrity and collaboration.

Working closely with KITS IT personnel, the candidate’s role will be to ensure end user support and operations of the cluster so that scientists can run large scale analyses efficiently and minimal disruptions. The candidates will also, on a regular basis, meet the users and address evolving configuration requirements and how they can be met within the departmental rules and regulations. The day-to-day duties will include, but not limited to:

•  End user support

o    Application support (installation and runtime)
o    Job debugging
o    Script debugging
o    Platform migration

• Hardware configuration, monitoring and repair on nodes, switches and storage appliances
• Operating system patching and configuration 
• Scheduler configuration and monitoring

Screening Criteria

Applicants must demonstrate within the content of their application that they meet the following screening criteria in order to be given further consideration as candidates:

Education

Bachelor degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Technology or Information Systems.

For information on certificates and diplomas issued abroad, please see Degree equivalency

Experience

• Significant* and recent** experience in running jobs on a batch cluster

o    Running single and multi-application analysis pipelines (e.g., Computational fluid dynamics, bioinformatics)

• Troubleshooting shell scripts, job files
• Troubleshooting Message Passing Interface (MPI) issues in the pipelines mentioned above. 

o    Recent** experience with the Nvidia CUDA platform.

• Recent** experience with containerization (e.g., Docker, Singularity). 
• Experience in HPC cluster administration. This includes:

o    Installation, replacement, configuration and optimization of hardware as well as maintenance.
o    Configuring all enterprise grade cluster networking components including ethernet and high-performance networking such as InfiniBand.
o    Maintenance of core HPC components such as head nodes, compute CPU nodes, compute GPU nodes, storage appliances and file systems such as IBM Scale (GPFS).
o    Maintaining and configuring node operating systems (e.g., Ubuntu, Red Hat Enterprise Linux) and scheduler (e.g., SLURM)

Assets: 

• Experience in customer service.
• Experience with Kubernetes as a user, administrator or both.

* Significant is defined as at least 3 years of experience.
** Recent is defined as within the last five years.

Condition of Employment

Secret (II)

Language Requirements

English essential

Information on language requirements and self-assessment tests

Assessment Criteria

Candidates will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

Technical Competencies

• Knowledge of HPC cluster environments and distributed scientific computing.
• Advanced knowledge of computer hardware, systems architecture and operating system principles of Linux based systems, system administration tools, shell programming (e.g., Bash) and interpreted languages such as Python.
• Knowledge of batch schedulers (e.g., SLURM)
• Working knowledge of data communications, TCP/IP & IB networking, and of system and network security.

Assets: 

• Knowledge of the Linux system and middleware operating environment, such as compilers, debuggers, libraries, profilers.
• Knowledge of app deployment management (e.g., Ansible, Docker Compose, Kubernetes)
• Parallel programming libraries (e.g., Open MPI)
• Knowledge of cloud solutions, virtual machines and container solutions.
• Strong teamwork and customer service skills. 

Behavioural Competencies

Competency Profile(s)

For this position, the NRC will evaluate candidates using the following competency profile: Technology Support

View all competency profiles

Compensation

Salary under review 

From $89,548 to $112,660 per annum.

An incumbent occupying a position within the CS Group is currently entitled to receive a terminable allowance of $212 per month.

NRC employees enjoy a wide-range of competitive benefits including a robust pension plan, comprehensive health and dental coverage, disability and life insurance, office closure at the end of December, and additional supports to enhance your well-being throughout your career and beyond.

Notes

• This position is being advertised internally and externally simultaneously; however, first consideration will be given to internal NRC applicants.
• Preference will be given to Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents of Canada. Please include citizenship information in your application.
• Candidates who have Second Language Evaluation (SLE) test results with the Public Service Commission should include these results with their application.
• The incumbent must adhere to safe workplace practices at all times.
• Overtime may sometimes be required.
• A pre-qualified list may be established for similar positions for a one-year period.
• We thank all those who apply, however only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.