Job Opportunities

HPC Systems Administrator
Unix Systems Administrator
Computational Postdoc Fellowships

HPC Systems Administrator

The HPC Systems Administrator is a member of the University of Chicago's Computation Institute (CI) who will participate in the technical operation, support, and continued development of the first-class High Performance Computing (HPC) facilities in order to enhance the productivity of the scientific staff and research colleagues. Special emphasis of this position is to lead efforts in building and maintaining the CI HPC systems and clusters, creating technical documentation for end-users and internal use, and providing technical support to the users of the CI resources.



The primary work location is the Prudential data center (130 E. Randolph, Chicago, IL), but with regular attendance at the University and Argonne National Laboratory.

Master's degree OR a Bachelor's degree with at least two years of relevant experience or at least six years of relevant experience required; knowledge and expertise in UNIX systems administration, with emphasis on Linux required; knowledge of systems administration tools and languages, such as Perl, Python, C, PHP and shell scripts required; expertise in installation, configuration, and management of large numbers of computers preferred; knowledge and expertise in technologies such as TCP/IP and related protocols and networked file systems, including NFS required; knowledge of installation, configuration, management and use of high performance computers such as clusters of Linux boxes, large SMPs and hybrids preferred; knowledge of installation, management and use of software such as compilers, scientific applications and job resource managers preferred; knowledge and expertise in database technologies, specifically MySQL, DB2, MSSQL and Oracle required; knowledge of backup strategies and technologies including tape and optical media preferred; familiarity with the hardware and software of mass storage systems preferred; knowledge of parallel and cluster file systems such as Windows Cluster, PVFS, Lustre, GPFS and GFS preferred; knowledge of high performance networking technologies such as Myrinet and Infiniband preferred; knowledge of the use of MPI implementations such as MPICH and LAMS preferred; familiarity with biological and health sciences problems, approaches and applications preferred; problem solving skills under time related stress required; customer support skills, possessing innate abilities in diplomacy and tact required; ability to communicate well with people of diverse backgrounds and computer knowledge required; ability to work effectively as a member of a team required; flexibility in dealing with assignments and in working on several projects simultaneously required; ability to work with large groups of colleagues that are geographically dispersed required. Willingness to work evenings and weekends and on call schedule as needed required. A resume and reference contact information are required to be considered for this position.
[Apply Online] (requisition #082788)



Unix Systems Administrator

A candidate is sought for a position in Unix systems administration for the University of Chicago Enrico Fermi and Computation Institutes. The successful candidate will join a team building and operating the Midwest ATLAS Tier2 Center (www.mwt2.org), a collaborative project with Indiana University, which provides high performance, data intensive computational resources to a community of students, faculty and researchers associated with the ATLAS project at the CERN Large Hadron Collider.

Bachelor's degree or advanced degree in Computer Science, Computer or Electrical Engineering, or in a closely related field in the physical or natural sciences preferred; minimum of three years experience in Unix systems administration, network administration, server installation and configuration required; experience in one or more of the following: cluster management tools, network file systems, kernel rebuilding/customization and systems troubleshooting required; a resume and reference contact information are required in order to be considered for this position.
[Apply Online] (requisition # 082521 )


Computational Postdoctoral Fellowship

Advanced computers are revolutionizing our ability to address complex problems in science and engineering. To stimulate research in computational science, Argonne has inaugurated an exciting new Computational Postdoctoral Fellowship program for outstanding new Ph.D.s.

Fellows will carry out research in a computational science or engineering discipline, selected from a wide variety of areas including biological science, chemistry, earth science, engineering, materials science, nuclear energy, physics, and energy science. The home research division of each fellow will be determined based on discipline and areas of interest.

Fellows will develop and implement advanced computational approaches aimed at scaling applications for high-end computing systems. Using these advanced approaches, the fellows will conduct large-scale simulations on leadership-class computers with the objective of producing breakthrough research in the scientific disciplines of interest. Fellows will interact with both divisional researchers and staff of the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) to best utilize high-performance computers.

The ALCF operates a 557-teraflop IBM Blue Gene/P system for production scientific and engineering computing and a 13.9-teraflop IBM Blue/Gene P system for system software development, software testing, and tool and application porting. Argonne also has a teraflop-class computing cluster, called Jazz, to facilitate mid-range computing in all of the scientific programs of the laboratory.

Ph.D. requirements must be completed by commencement of appointment. Fellows must have received their Ph.D. recently. Interested candidates should apply to cpf-fellow@anl.gov. The subject line should include the candidate's name and discipline of interest. Application packages must consist of the following:

  • Curriculum vitae
  • Research proposal (< 2 pages)
  • List of publications and significant presentations

A multidisciplinary selection committee will review application material. Fellows will be selected based on their academic background, knowledge of and expertise in high-performance computational science, and possible impact to a particular research program as described in their proposal. Fellowships are awarded for a one-year term, with possible renewal for a second year.

A U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC.

Argonne is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity in our workforce.