HPC Storage Architect

THE COMPANY 

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is backed by dedicated leadership and investment, with a clear mission as it operates at the bleeding edge of technology. Its goal is to scale and enhance the high-performance computing (HPC) and cloud infrastructure that supports its clients' research, production, and delivery, enabling breakthroughs that shape the industries of tomorrow. Its engineers build critical infrastructure to eliminate friction in scientific research, simulations, analysis, and decision-making, accelerating discovery and driving faster innovation. 

THE POSITION 

The Architecture team's mission is to build a sound, coherent architecture for the HPC platform. The team takes in product requirements and operational constraints, incorporates technologies explored and validated by Innovation Architecture, and produces reference architectures ready for implementation and rollout. The team is comprised of senior architects with subject matter expertise spanning HPC compute, storage, networking, and orchestration. 

As the HPC Storage Architect, you will own the architecture of highly scalable, highly available, and globally distributed storage systems that support large-scale research workloads. You will research and prototype solutions with built-in monitoring for health, bottlenecks, and performance, recommending optimizations such as I/O acceleration and caching strategies while keeping capacity and data integrity front of mind in every design tradeoff. 

You will work closely with Networking, Compute, and Orchestration architects, along with engineering teams and storage vendors, to ensure every storage decision fits into a coherent, future-proof HPC platform. You will also establish a data-driven approach to continuously evaluating operational needs and constraints, proactively identifying opportunities to improve performance and resiliency. 

Success in this role looks like bringing rigor and clarity to some of the most demanding storage challenges in HPC — from petabyte-scale data pipelines to emerging fabric technologies — while staying ahead of a fast-moving technology landscape. 

RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Design the architecture of highly scalable, highly available, and globally distributed storage systems to support large-scale research workloads. 

• Research and prototype solutions that embed continuous monitoring for health, bottlenecks, and performance, and suggest optimizations such as I/O acceleration techniques or caching strategies. 

• Bring awareness of capacity, security, and data integrity to architecture and design tradeoffs. 

• Assess existing and emerging storage technologies against business and product needs. 

• Guide and drive execution by bringing clarity of the architecture to engineering teams and ensuring high-quality engineering standards are followed. 

• Collaborate with networking, compute, and orchestration architects to propose coherent, complete, and future-proof HPC solutions. 

• Establish a data-driven approach to continuously evaluate operational needs and constraints, and proactively propose improvements. 

• Stay current with emerging technologies and approaches, and apply new knowledge across disciplines. 

REQUIREMENTS 

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, or a related technical field, with 10-12 years of experience. 

• Strong working knowledge of storage architectures, volume management, filesystems, with hands-on experience applying them in an HPC context. 

• Hands-on experience with high-performance storage systems such as VAST, Lustre, or Spectrum Scale, and staging these systems within an HPC cluster. 

• Familiarity with defining data ingest, staging, processing, and archiving strategies for HPC workflows, especially around large petabyte-scale datasets. 

• Hands-on experience running benchmarks and test jobs on pre-production / unproven hardware in a testing environment. 

• Experience designing for reliability, resiliency, and security throughout storage clusters and architecture. 

• Experience with storage benchmarking and performance modeling using tools like IOR, mdtest, or FIO. 

• Exposure to emerging storage trends such as NVMe over Fabrics, CXL, or persistent memory. 

• Experience working directly with clients to capture technical requirements and deliver tailored, scalable system designs across AI/ML, scientific computing, CFD, or genomics workloads. 

It is impossible to list every requirement for, or responsibility of, any position.  Similarly, we cannot identify all the skills a position may require since job responsibilities and the Company’s needs may change over time.  Therefore, the above job description is not comprehensive or exhaustive.  The Company reserves the right to adjust, add to or eliminate any aspect of the above description.  The Company also retains the right to require all employees to undertake additional or different job responsibilities when necessary to meet business needs.

Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Benefits & Perks:

• Company-Paid Lunch Stipend: Lunch is provided via GrubHub

• Company-Paid Benefits: 100% Employer-Paid Medical in our High Deductible Health Plan, Dental and Vision benefits for employees and their families, 16 weeks of Paid Parental Leave, Employee Assistance Program, Life insurance, Short-Term Disability and Long-Term Disability

• 401(k): Company will match 100% of your contributions up to 6%

• Optional Employee-Paid Benefits: Medical insurance in our PPO plan and a variety of other benefits such as Health Savings Accounts (with Company Contribution!), Flexible Spending Accounts, Supplemental Life Insurance, Wellhub and more.

• Time Off:  25 days of Paid Time Off plus 12 company holidays

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER

NORTHMARK STRATEGIES LLC IS AN EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER. THE COMPANY'S POLICY IS NOT TO DISCRIMINATE AGAINST ANY APPLICANT OR EMPLOYEE BASED ON RACE, COLOR, RELIGION, NATIONAL ORIGIN, GENDER, AGE, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY OR EXPRESSION, MARITAL STATUS, MENTAL OR PHYSICAL DISABILITY, AND GENETIC INFORMATION, OR ANY OTHER BASIS PROTECTED BY APPLICABLE LAW. THE FIRM ALSO PROHIBITS HARASSMENT OF APPLICANTS OR EMPLOYEES BASED ON ANY OF THESE PROTECTED CATEGORIES.