Computational Physicist

About the role

NIST is seeking a Computational Physicist to support computing infrastructure across the Material Measurement Laboratory. This role enhances the performance and reproducibility of materials science workflows, and involves deploying CPU/GPU resources, administering CTCMS projects, migrating data, and ensuring IT policy alignment. This notice is issued under direct-hire authority to recruit new talent to occupations for which NIST has a severe shortage of candidates.

Responsibilities

• Assist in the deployment, configuration, and maintenance of both CPU and GPU high-performance computing resources across the laboratory.
• Serve as an operational administrator for the NIST Center for Theoretical and Computational Materials Science (CTCMS) to provide technical support for computational projects.
• Implement and test technical strategies aimed at improving the performance and reproducibility of computational materials science workflows.
• Provide technical assistance for the operation of data management systems, including executing data migration activities to new computing platforms.
• Collaborate directly with senior staff to ensure all HPC infrastructure and resources are configured to meet the specific research needs of MML scientists.
• Maintain the technical alignment of all managed computational and data systems with NIST-wide IT and security policies.

Requirements

• Basic education requirement: Degree in physics; or related degree that included at least 24 semester hours in physics. OR combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in physics totaling at least 24 semester hours, plus appropriate experience or additional education.
• Specialized experience (one of the following):
  • 1 year (52 weeks) of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-9 (ZP-II at NIST) level in Linux system administration, HPC cluster operations and resource management.
  • 3 years of progressively higher level graduate education leading to a Ph.D. degree.
  • Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree.
  • Combination of graduate education and specialized experience as defined above.
• Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional, philanthropic, religious, spiritual, community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies, knowledge, and skills and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.