Research HPC Systems Administrator

Department Contact: Allen Purcell, 575-646-3170 purcell@nmsu.edu

Internal or External Search: External - Open to all applicants

Advertising Summary: Join New Mexico State University as our High-Performance Computing (HPC) Systems Administrator and play a critical role in advancing groundbreaking research across diverse disciplines. In this dynamic position, you'll manage and optimize cutting-edge computing infrastructure, support researchers tackling complex computational challenges, and help shape the future of scientific discovery. If you're passionate about automation, large-scale computing environments, and empowering innovation through technology, this is your opportunity to make a lasting impact.

Position Details

Position Title: Research HPC Systems Administrator

College/Division: Information Technology

Department: 450280-IT SYSTEM ADMINISTRATION

Location: Las Cruces

Offsite Location (if applicable):

Target Hourly/Salary Rate: $67,161.67 - To commensurate with experience

Appointment Full-time Equivalency: 1.0

FLSA Status: Exempt

Bargaining Unit Announcement: This is NOT a bargaining unit position with American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME).

Contingent Upon Funding: Contingent upon funding

Standard Work Schedule: Standard (M-F, 8-5)

If Not a Standard Work Schedule: 

Job Duties and Responsibilities: Administer, maintain, and optimize NMSU’s research high-performance computing (HPC)
cluster, including compute nodes, login nodes, storage systems, networking interfaces, and
supporting services. Manage and tune the Slurm workload manager — job scheduling,
partitions, QoS settings, node configurations, troubleshooting, and end-user support. Oversee
and maintain parallel file systems (PanFS), ensuring reliability, performance, and data integrity.
Monitor system performance and resource utilization, and identify and resolve performance
bottlenecks. Perform software installation and environment management (modules, conda,
Spack) and apply system and security updates using modern automation tools (e.g., Ansible,
Puppet, Terraform). Develop documentation, training materials, and workshops to help
researchers adopt the cluster effectively, and assist with building, deploying, and scaling
containerized workloads (Singularity/Apptainer, Docker). Ensure system security, compliance,
backups, monitoring, and data-protection best practices, and assist with integrating the HPC
environment into campus identity, networking, monitoring, and storage systems. Contribute to
long-term research-computing capacity planning and the procurement of new technology.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience: 
Associate's Degree + 9 years of relevant experience or a Bachelor's degree + 7 years of relevant experience. Master's degree or higher preferred.

Equivalent Qualifications: 
Equivalent combinations of education and experience will be considered. Relevant research computing experience, internships, professional training, and industry-recognized computing or information technology certifications may be substituted for portions of the required experience, as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications: 

Special Certification/Licensure: 

Working Conditions and Physical Effort

Environment: Work is normally performed indoors.

Physical Effort: No or very limited physical effort required.

Lifting Requirements: Requires handling of average-weight objects up to 10 pounds or some standing or walking.

Risk: Work environment involves some exposure to hazards or physical risks, which require following basic safety precautions.