Postdoctoral Research Associate - HPC System Architecture and Intelligent Storage Design

About the role

The National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is seeking a postdoctoral research associate in High-Performance Computing (HPC) system architecture and intelligent storage design.

Specific Areas Of Research Interest

• Telemetry collection and analysis to inform system optimization, workload characterization, and predictive fault tolerance in HPC systems.
• Architectural exploration and performance modeling of high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DDR memory systems in the context of data-intensive scientific computing.
• Redesign of storage systems to meet evolving demands in AI/ML and edge-to-HPC workflows, including support for data movement, retention policies, and user-defined storage behaviors.

Major Duties And Responsibilities

• Collaborate with internal and external researchers on a variety of data and storage-related research projects for use cases in HPC, scientific AI, and scientific edge computing.
• Conduct I/O and storage performance characterization of HPC and scientific AI applications or libraries on multi-tier HPC storage systems.
• Collect, analyze, and leverage telemetry data from HPC systems to support data-driven design decisions and performance tuning.
• Explore trade-offs in DDR and HBM usage patterns, and propose architectural improvements for mixed-memory and bandwidth-intensive workloads.
• Design and evaluation of ephemeral, user-configurable, and composable data and storage systems.
• Design system-level approaches for time-sensitive or data-intensive processing of data originating at scientific edge systems using large-scale HPC/AI computational and storage systems.
• Coauthor peer-reviewed publications, technical reports, and presentations.
• Seek membership and service opportunities in professional, academic, and research organizations.

Basic Qualifications

• A PhD in computer science/engineering or relevant area with an education and a research track record in HPC/AI/edge systems and storage research within past five years.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ability to work independently to design and deploy methods at scale.
• Familiarity with hardware-software co-design, memory hierarchies (DDR, HBM), and system-level telemetry tools.
• Experience in HPC and associated software development for applications, middleware, and/or system software.
• Flexibility to adapt to diverse R&D projects and tasks.
• Effective communicator in both verbal and written forms.
• Ability to collaborate with scientists, engineers, and sponsors.
• Interest in mentoring student internships.

Special Requirements

• HSPD-12 PIV badge: This position requires the ability to obtain and maintain an HSPD-12 PIV badge.