Research Scientist II Job Listing at UT Dallas in Richardson, TX (Job ID 30034)

Description

The High-performance Computing (HPC) Research Scientist will be responsible for guiding customers using complex research computing resources for advanced research purposes. The position will provide leadership in consulting, technical support, and training to users of high-performance computing resources. Responsibilities include leading customers through onboarding on HPC systems; porting, debugging and optimizing code; troubleshooting and providing general assistance in using HPC systems; training faculty and students on use of HPC resources and parallel programming; and tracking the use of HPC resources and the resulting research outcomes and publications. verall, the position provides leadership and guidance on facilitation services and reports to the Director of HPC Facilitation.

Minimum Education and Experience

A minimum of a PhD in a field directly related to research and a minimum of two years of experience/expertise as noted below.

Preferred Education and Experience

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in Computer Science, engineering, science, Mathematics, Data Science or similar quantitative subject areas.
• Expert knowledge of HPC systems, best practices, and research customer support.
• Ability to troubleshoot customer code, porting code, and optimizing code for HPC environments.
• Excellent interpersonal, written, and verbal communication skills are essential.
• Multitasking, ability to work with different teams and with varied customer needs.
• Ability to gather data about the use of HPC systems, analyze the data and prepare reports for leadership.
• Ability to manage support tickets and prioritize, considering varied scope, scale, and technical requirements.
• Ability to define, deliver, and optimize HPC or scientific support services.
• Know multiple programming and scripting languages.
• Extensive knowledge of parallel programming techniques, including shared memory and message passing parallel programming, and knowledge of GPU programming.
• Experience with scientific computing code development and support.
• Knowledge of Linux usage, scripting, Git, development tools and an HPC batch processing system.
• Knowledge of containers (especially Apptainer), Open OnDemand, data modelling and data repositories.
• Experience in using HPC resources within a university or from national cyberinfrastructure resources.
• Previous work with faculty in research projects, worked with and mentored students, written and presented academic/research papers.
• Experience attending conferences, representing one's institution, and gleaning trends and opportunities in the field and industry.
• Demonstrated ability in writing grant papers, identifying opportunities for grants and converting them into grants.
• Demonstrated ability in presenting at conferences either as tutorials, lightning talks, or workshops.

Knowledge, Skills and Ability:

• Ability to program in multiple programming languages like C/C++, FORTRAN, Python, R or similar scientific programming languages.
• Knowledge of parallel programming using the shared memory and message passing techniques. Knowledge of OpenMP and MPI or similar programming directives and libraries.
• Knowledge of GPU programming with CUDA, HIP, oneAPI or OpenMP for GPUs, Python Numba.
• Knowledge of general-purpose scientific libraries like BLAS, NumPy, CuPy, various mathematical, statistical and graphing libraries, TensorFlow, PyTorch, Pandas, or similar widely used libraries.
• Knowledge of HPC job execution environments like SLURM, PBS, or similar. Knowledge of launcher and array jobs.
• Understanding of computer architecture elements that affect code performance, including instruction-level parallelism, multilevel caches, the memory hierarchy, distributed shared memory, high-speed IO, DMA/RDMA, code profiling hardware support, GPU architectures, SIMD programming, and elements of GPU streaming processors.
• Understanding of operating system constructs like threads, namespaces, process isolation, memory-mapped IO, asynchronous execution, and asynchronous IO.
• Comfortable in discussing scientific research topics with faculty and students.
• Comfortable in translating research computing requirements into suitable HPC resources.
• Experience with scientific computing code development and support.
• Knowledge of Linux usage, scripting, Git, development tools and an HPC batch processing system.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

• Lead and guide customers during the onboarding process by sharing information about system capabilities, how to obtain accounts and access the systems (within UTD, across Texas, and national resources), running customers' own programs or packaged software, using the batch system, and monitoring systems usage.
• Guide the customers in porting and optimizing codes, including selection and usage of appropriate development tools to match application requirements within available system resources; porting code to run on HPC systems; and code optimization within the node (shared memory parallelism, OpenMP), across the nodes (message passing, MPI), for GPUs (CUDA, HIP or oneAPI, Numba), and higher-level general-purpose and domain-specific libraries (BLAS, CuPy, PyTorch, etc.).
• Guide customers on appropriate computing tools for general mathematical, scientific, engineering or computing tasks. Guide researchers in research management practices as described in NIST and NSF guidelines.
• Assist customers with troubleshooting and debugging, including common issues, debugging code errors, and debugging performance bottlenecks (profiling, resource usage monitoring, benchmarking).
• Consult and train HPC users about system capabilities, using HPC resources, porting and optimizing code, using packaged software, and debugging routine and complex issues. Assist researchers in defining and managing the scope for secure research practices to meet NIST, NSF, or similar frameworks.
• Track system usage and prepare reports that include resource consumption, what research problems are being solved using HPC resources, track publications like journal articles, conference papers, dissertations, theses, and technical presentations; prepare reports by gathering, analyzing, and reporting the data to HPCRE and university leadership. Propose and execute steps to improve customer understanding, code performance or system optimizations.
• Lead a small team of research scientists, develop the team's technical skills, track developments in the HPC field and plan to incorporate new systems and computing techniques into our service offerings.
• Track usage and performance of HPC facilitation services delivery, gather user feedback, and work on evolving these services to better meet user needs.
• Serve as an escalation point for facilitation services.

Additional Information

With a user-facing role, this position is expected to substantially work in person.

On-call availability for quickly responding to high priority requests and/or support for operations team on testing software after emergency maintenance, both during regular and emergency off-hours.
What We Can Offer
UT Dallas is an Equal Opportunity Employer with an employee-friendly and supportive work environment. Our comprehensive compensation and benefits package that is effective as of your hire date includes:

• Competitive Salary
• Tuition Benefits
• Internal Training
• BCBS PPO Medical insurance – 100% paid for full-time employees
• PPO and DHMO Dental Insurance Plan – PPO plans include ortho benefits
• Vision Insurance
• Long and short-term disability
• TRS Retirement Plan – defined benefit plan offering lifetime annuity upon retirement
• Voluntary Retirement Plan Options – additional savings opportunities with Tax-Sheltered Annuity Plans and Deferred Compensation Plans
• Dental/Vision/AD&D
• Paid time off
• Paid Holidays
• Paid Winter Break
• Fertility Benefits

All UT Dallas employees have access to various professional development opportunities, including a membership to Academic Impressions, LinkedIn Learning, and UT Dallas Bright Leaders Program.

Visit https://hr.utdallas.edu/employees/benefits/ for more information.

If you are looking for a rewarding career opportunity with great benefits? Look no further! Join our team!

Important Message

1) All employees serve as a representative of the University and are expected to display respect, civility, professional courtesy, consideration of others and discretion in all interactions with members of the UT Dallas community and the general public.

2) The University of Texas at Dallas is committed to providing an educational, living, and working environment that is welcoming, respectful, and inclusive of all members of the university community. UT Dallas does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, national origin, disability, genetic information, or veteran status in its services, programs, activities, employment, and education, including in admission and enrollment. The University is committed to providing access, equal opportunity, and reasonable accommodation for individuals with disabilities. To request reasonable accommodation in the employment application and interview process, contact the ADA Coordinator. For inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies, contact the Title IX Coordinator.

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