Technical Advisor for High Performance Computing

Priority will be given to the following designated employment equity groups: women, Indigenous peoples* (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) and persons with disabilities.

* The Employment Equity Act, which is under review, uses the terminology Aboriginal peoples.

City: Mississauga (Ontario)
Organizational Unit: Knowledge, Information and Technology Services (KITS)
Classification: CS-3 
Duration: Continuing
Language Requirements: English essential 

Notes:

• Assignments and secondments may be considered according to NRC's policies.
• An Underfill Assignment is a possibility.
• A pool of qualified candidates will be established for a one-year period.

*This is a repost, do not apply if you have already applied

Great Minds. One Goal. Canada's Success.

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is the Government of Canada's largest research organization supporting industrial innovation, the advancement of knowledge and technology development. We collaborate with over 70 colleges, universities and hospitals annually, work with 800 companies on their projects, and provide advice or funding to over 8000 Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) each year.

We bring together the brightest minds to deliver tangible impacts on the lives of Canadians and people around the world. And now, we want to partner with you.  Let your expertise and inspirations make an impact by joining the NRC.

At the NRC, we know that diversity enables excellence in research and innovation. We are committed to a diverse and representative workforce, a safe and respectful work environment, and contributing to a more inclusive Canadian innovation system.  We welcome all qualified applicants and encourage you to complete the employment equity self-declaration questions during the job application process.

NRC welcomes all qualified applicants and encourages candidates to self-declare as members of the following designated employment equity groups: women, visible minorities, Aboriginal peoples and persons with disabilities.

Please advise of any accommodation measures required to enable you to be assessed in a fair and equitable manner. They are available to all candidates for further assessment. Related information received will be addressed confidentially.

Help bring research to life and drive your career forward with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), Canada's largest research and technology organization.

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 Computer (HPC) cluster maintenance and support. 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 the operations of the cluster so that scientists can run large scale analyses with 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:

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

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:

Degree from a recognized college or university specializing in Computer Science or Engineering with computational emphasis.

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

• Significant and recent experience in HPC cluster administration. This includes:
  • Installation, replacement, configuration and optimization of hardware as well as maintenance.
  • Configuring all enterprise grade cluster networking components including ethernet and high-performance networking such as InfiniBand.
  • 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).
  • Maintaining and configuring node operating systems (e.g. Ubuntu, Red Hat Entreprise Linux) and scheduler (e.g. SLURM)

• Recent experience with virtualization (e.g. VMWare), containerization (e.g. Docker, Singularity). 
• Recent experience with backup solutions and system imaging.
• Recent experience supporting users in a research organization.
• Recent experience with Active Directory.

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

Secret (II)

English Essential  

Information on language requirements and self-assessment tests

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

• Knowledge of clustered 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 Linux system administration and management.
• 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. 

• Technology support - Client focus (Level 2)
• Technology support - Communication (Level 2)
• Technology support - Conceptual and analytical ability (Level 2)
• Technology support - Initiative (Level 2)
• Technology support - Teamwork (Level 2)

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

View all competency profiles

Relocation assistance will be determined in accordance with the NRC's directives.

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 comprehensive health and dental plans, pension and insurance plans, vacation and other leave entitlements.

• To ensure a prompt and efficient processing of applications, candidates must provide, along with their résumé, a detailed covering letter explaining how they meet each of the requirements of this position (education, experience, language requirements) by providing concrete examples. In addition, the candidate is encouraged to describe in detail when, where and how he/she gained the experience.
• Candidates who have Second Language Evaluation (SLE) test results with the Public Service Commission should include these results with their application.
• A pre-qualified list may be established for similar positions for a one-year period.
• Preference will be given to Canadian Citizens and Permanent Residents of Canada. Please include citizenship information in your application.
• The incumbent must adhere to safe workplace practices at all times.
• We thank all those who apply, however only those selected for further consideration will be contacted.

Please direct your questions, with the requisition number (19931) to:
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: 343-596-8193
Closing Date: March 27, 2024 - 11:59 PM Eastern Time

For more information on career tools and other resources, check out Career tools and resources

*If you are currently a term or continuing employee at NRC, please apply through the SuccessFactors Careers module from your NRC computer.