Job Description

Application Deadline: This position will be posted until November 16, 2021.

Relocation: Relocation assistance is available for this position.

Work Authorization: UCAR/NCAR will sponsor a work visa to fill this position.

Hiring Salary Range: $133,984 - $167,479
Full Salary Range: $133,984 - $217,723

Benefits: UCAR affirms its continuing commitment to developing, providing, and administering its employee benefit programs with due consideration for equal employment opportunity and diversity guidelines.
UCAR's rich package of employee benefits includes medical, dental, vision, education assistance, retirement, and life insurance. UCAR offers a variety of programs designed to assist with work-life balance including flexible work alternatives, paid time off and 14 weeks of paid parental leave.

Vaccine Requirements: As required by Executive Order 14042, all Federal Contractor employees are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 regardless of the employee’s duty location or work arrangement (e.g., telework, remote work, etc.), subject to such exceptions as required by law. Effective immediately, UCAR requires all new employees to be fully vaccinated prior to entering on duty, subject to such exceptions as required by law.

If selected, you will be required to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and submit documentation of proof of vaccination by December 8, 2021 or before appointment or onboarding with UCAR, if after December 8, 2021. UCAR will provide additional information regarding what information or documentation will be needed and how you can request of UCAR a legally required exception from this requirement.

Where You Will Work:

NCAR’s Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) is a leader in supercomputing and data services necessary for the advancement of atmospheric and geospace science. CISL’s mission is to remain a leader at the forefront of ensuring that research universities, NCAR, and the larger atmospheric, oceanographic, and related research communities have access to the computational resources they need for their research. To fulfill the need for a stronger workforce at the intersection of High Performance Computing (HPC) and geoscience problems, CISL engages in education and outreach activities to inspire and attract a diverse future workforce.

What You Will Do:

Provides technical consulting leadership on the use of the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) high performance computers (HPC), to the national scientific computing community of more than 1,100 scientists and programmers on their large scientific codes. Leads the Consulting Services Group (CSG) to resolve difficult application problems. Develops training and documentation for users of CISL's high performance computers on complex topics. Works with CISL system administrators, users and developers collaboratively to utilize CISL computational resources efficiently. Presents performance characteristics, configurations and settings of CISL's computational resources and advises on best possible usage in user forums and conferences and learns similar best practices from peer groups of peer scientific computing facilities.

Responsibilities:

Advanced User Support

Provides advanced-level high-performance computing (HPC) consulting and technology guidance to the Earth System Science (ESS) community of users. Works directly with users of CISL HPC compute and storage systems to enhance scientific workflows by advising on a variety of topics, including technical problem resolution in areas such as parallel computation, accelerators and code refactoring, optimization and tuning, batch job submission, porting, secure file transfer, data analysis and post-processing, visualization, and large-scale data sharing and archiving. Provides front-line advanced support for special projects and computing campaigns. Serves as a technical resource for Tier 1 Help Desk staff, taking possession of more difficult problems. Responsible for one or more half-day help desk sessions per week, more in unusual circumstances. Handles consulting contacts in person, via phone, or via email, managing contacts via a trouble ticket system.

Technical Issue Resolution

Leads CSG team efforts to resolve difficult technical user problems with CISL’s HPC production user environment, which often requires working with NCAR software engineers, system administrators, and vendor support staff in a team environment, exchanging ideas, discussing alternative solutions and providing required user support. Works proactively in team environments and juggles multiple team assignments specific to different problems as necessary.

Application Performance and Optimization

Profiles and evaluates performance of user applications or benchmark codes to ensure efficient use of CISL HPC resources, and may provide code modifications as required. Debugs and profiles large-scale scientific parallel programs (primarily Fortran or C/C++), especially MPI and OpenMP applications. Gather information to reproduce problems for compiler and system environment problem reports and follow through on resolution. Leads or participates in acceptance testing of new HPC systems, running benchmark application test suites and reporting results to management. Applies technical skill and diplomacy in working with users, system administrators and engineers, vendors, and staff on such issues.

Software Installation and Development

Builds and maintains local and vendor software packages and provides secondary compiler support as needed. Builds and maintains relevant Open Source and proprietary vendor software packages. Designs, develops and maintains tools/scripts for users and colleagues for monitoring efficient usage and workflows. Tests new CISL software installations and web applications, such as user and data portals.

Training and Documentation

Develops and presents training for users on the use of CISL HPC and HPS systems, supported software and applications, and detailed system information. Gather technical information and support the development of user documentation on complex topics such as multi-processor computation, data analysis, GPU porting and refactoring, data post-processing, visualization, peta-scale data storage and management, compilers, profilers and debuggers. Works with CISL technical writers to inform them of requirements, to supply corrections and updates, and to contribute to the documentation suite via the group’s wiki and shared Google documents.

Professional Development

Leads and significantly contributes to research and authors technical reports and publications and presents papers at conferences. Keeps abreast of technical and user support trends at peer high-performance computing centers and may communicate with peers at external HPC centers.

What You Need:

Education and Years of Experience

Master’s degree in computational science, atmospheric science, or engineering, and extensive and progressive relevant experience, and/or education, which is typically gained by twelve or more years of work experience. May include formal supervisory experience.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Demonstrated and proven experience in programming languages like FORTRAN, C/C++, and Python.
Excellent English oral and written communication skills
Experience overseeing multiple projects and teams to reliably meet individual and team deadlines.
Demonstrated ability to complete the planning, management and oversight of activities related to supporting Earth System Science (ESS) user community within a HPC environment.
Demonstrated record of good interpersonal relations especially with groups of users of HPC systems and communication with people at all levels of an organization.
Demonstrated ability in assessing priorities among technical groups and issues, resulting in effective action, as well as demonstrated ability to provide technical leadership and guidance to a diverse staff of scientific and computational professionals.
Demonstrated mentoring of staff in their personal development and experience in developing partners and collaborations.
Willingness and ability to travel on occasion domestically and internationally.

Desired

Experience running or working with one or more of NCAR's flagship models or codes, for example, CESM, WRF, or other large scientific application codes
Experience with parallel software development tools such as profilers, optimizers, and debuggers
Familiarity with programming GPGPU languages, such as CUDA and OpenACC, and porting CPU applications to GPUs

Applicant notes:

One page cover letter required, to include the following:
- Describe the dominant culture(s) in your HPC experience, i.e. business, science, research, university, etc.
- Describe your experience with managing an HPC team.
An Inclusion Statement will be required for all applicants applying to this position. This statement should address past efforts, as well as future vision and plans to advocate for and advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in the organization and/or field of work.
A pre-employment screening is conducted in conjunction with an offer for employment. This screening may involve verifying or reviewing any of the following relevant information: restricted parties screening, employment verification, performance records of internal candidates, education verification, reference checks, verification of professional licenses, certifications, and Motor Vehicle Records.  UCAR complies with the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).
Please note that while the position description details both minimum requirements as well as desired skills and experience, we want to remind applicants that you do not need to have all the desired skills and experience to be considered for this role. If you have the passion for the work along with experience in a related field, you are encouraged to apply. We can provide on-the-job training for the rest.
For more information about our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, here is the link to the Office of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Strategic Plan and to the ODEI landing page.