Job Information
Los Alamos National Laboratory High Performance Computing Technical Staff for AI/ML (Scientist 2/3) in Los Alamos, New Mexico
What You Will Do
The High Performance Computing Environments Group (HPC-ENV) is seeking multiple curious, thoughtful individuals to expand our artificial intelligence and/or machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities. You will have immediate impact, and in the context of high potential for long-term success and career growth.
This position will be filled at either the Scientist 2 or Scientist 3 level, depending on the skills of the selected candidate. Additional job responsibilities (outlined below) will be assigned if the candidate is hired at the higher level.
Scientist 2 ($101,700-168,200/year)
The cohort's responsibilities will collectively include:
DevOps including CI/CD.
Technical support for both HPC Division peers and users.
Data science and data analysis.
Software development through the full cycle, including requirements generation, design, documentation, implementation, code review, integration/testing, profiling/tuning, debugging, etc.
Evaluation of technologies, products, workflows, research products, etc., and development of recommendations.
Representing HPC-ENV at workshops, meetings, conferences, etc.
Contributing to strategy planning and best practices development.
Mentoring students.
All selected individuals will be expected to actively collaborate, pursue professional development opportunities, and remain familiar with the state of the art.
Because AI/ML for scientific computing is a new area, the selected individuals will help define both the organization's priorities and their own roles.
In general, the Scientist 2 level creatively applies standard principles and technologies, develops new approaches and technologies, and exercises independent technical judgement. This level should maintain up-to-date expertise in their own discipline, both professional and technical, while developing new skills in related disciplines.
Scientist 3 ($122,300-206,300/year)
In addition to those listed for level 2, responsibilities at the Scientist 3 level include:
Leadership of strategy planning and best practices development.
Project leadership.
Mentoring of junior staff.
Generally, the Scientist 3 level identifies and solves complex, often underspecified problems, frequently developing their own innovative, novel approaches to do so. This level leads technical decision-making and defines deliverables. Level 3 should be establishing areas of expert authority, both technical and professional.
About the organization
LANL's High Performance Computing Division (LANL) supports the Laboratory mission by managing a world-class, forward-thinking supercomputing center. We support stockpile stewardship for NNSA/DOE and accelerate scientific discovery for scientists. We design, integrate, and support some of the world's largest supercomputers, with a growing scope of work including large-scale simulations, data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning.
Within HPC, the Environments Group (HPC-ENV) is responsible for the user experience of our supercomputers, ensuring that internal and external customers can effectively accomplish their extreme-scale science goals.
Individuals hired under this posting will be assigned to one or more teams within ENV:
Application Readiness (AR) addresses issues with customers' applications production-run readiness on current and future supercomputers, including collaboration with other HPC teams to identify causes of unexpected behavior and deploy production fixes.
Consulting is a single point of contact for HPC customers, providing direct technical support for users as well as coordinating support escalation and institutional knowledge for the entire division.
Future Tools and Procedures (FTP) is responsible for novel and emerging technologies and workflows, including complex support/troubleshooting, analysis of options, and development/deployment.
Programming and Runtime Environments (PRE) manages the production software stack on HPC's supercomputers, which comprises a wide variety of open source and commercial software, including installation, debugging, liaising with vendors, testing, and operation of related network services.
What You Need
Minimum Job Requirements:
- Demonstrated effective written and oral communication/teamwork abilities.
Demonstrable accomplishments in/using:
Python programming.
AI, ML, and/or statistics principles, workflows, and tools (PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn, NLTK, etc.)
UNIX shells (Bash, Zsh, Fish, etc.) and command line programs.
Containers and container technologies (Charliecloud, Docker, Podman, Singularity/Apptainer, LXC, etc.)
Additional Job Requirements for Scientist 3:
In addition to the requirements above, the higher level requires:
- Demonstrable accomplishments as technical lead on a project.
Education/Experience for the lower level: Positions requires a Bachelor' degree in a STEM field from an accredited college and university and 4 years of related experience, typically with post-doctoral research experience at a university or national lab or equivalent experience directly related to the occupation
Education/Experience for the higher level: Position requires a Master's degree in a STEM field from an accredited college or university and 6 years of relevant experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience directly related to the occupation.
Desired Qualifications:
The ideal cohort, considered as a whole, will have the following qualifications. That is, while competitive candidates will have some subset of them, we recognize that no individual can realistically meet them all. Please apply regardless of the number of desired qualifications you meet.
Background
Formal education, practical experience, or both in the following areas is a plus:
Large-scale production computing environments, including but not limited to HPC.
Customer service and/or public-facing roles (not necessarily technical).
DevOps principles, tools, and workflows.
Evaluating software and/or computing systems on performance or other metrics, and making recommendations for improvement.
Data analysis, including cleaning, pre-processing, feature engineering, model training/validation, etc.
Technologies
We are looking for a team with experience using, supporting, debugging, and/or developing:
Software written in both interpreted (Python, Ruby, Lisp, Lua, shell scripts, etc.) and compiled (C, C++, Fortran, Rust, Julia, assembly, Eiffel, Haskell, Golang, etc.) languages, along with ancillary tools such as source control (e.g., Git).
Parallel programming principles, algorithms, and technologies (CUDA, OpenMP, MPI, Dask, Apache Spark, etc.).
Workflows for CI/CD (GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, CDASH, etc.).
HPC build and deployment systems (Spack, LMOD, etc.)
GPU software in scientific computing environments, e.g. using CUDA.
Configuration management principles and tools (Ansible, Chef, etc.).
Web computing tools such as Open OnDemand, JupyterLab, etc.
Institutional growth
Finally, we want to become a better organization with the help of individuals who have:
Experience, accomplishments, and/or skills relevant or complementary to the position's goals but not listed above. This should be construed broadly, i.e., not necessarily technical/STEM.
Perspectives on computing not yet well represented on the team or its collaborators, both technical and non-technical.
Work Location: The work location for this position is hybrid and is located in Los Alamos, NM. Hybrid is defined as working partially onsite/partially offsite but within 2 hours ground commute of this location. All work locations are at the discretion of management and can change at any time with appropriate notice.
Position commitment: Regular appointment employees are required to serve a period of continuous service in their current position in order to be eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has not served the time required, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. The position commitment for this position is 1 year.
Note to Applicants:
We encourage applicants to include a cover letter. This should directly address the requirements and qualifications above that you meet, referencing them by number.
Where You Will Work
Located in beautiful northern New Mexico, Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) is a multidisciplinary research institution engaged in strategic science on behalf of national security. Our generous benefits package includes:
§ PPO or High Deductible medical insurance with the same large nationwide network
§ Dental and vision insurance
§ Free basic life and disability insurance
§ Paid childbirth and parental leave
§ Award-winning 401(k) (6% matching plus 3.5% annually)
§ Learning opportunities and tuition assistance
§ Flexible schedules and time off (PTO and holidays)
§ Onsite gyms and wellness programs
§ Extensive relocation packages (outside a 50 mile radius)
Additional Details
Directive 206.2 - Employment with Triad requires a favorable decision by NNSA indicating employee is suitable under NNSA Supplemental Directive 206.2 (https://directives.nnsa.doe.gov/supplemental-directive/sd-0206-0002) . Please note that this requirement applies only to citizens of the United States. Foreign nationals are subject to a similar requirement under DOE Order 142.3A.
Clearance: Q (Position will be cleared to this level). Selected applicants will be subject to a background investigation conducted by or on behalf of the Federal Government, and must meet eligibility requirements* for access to classified matter. This position requires a Q clearance. and obtaining such clearance requires US Citizenship except in extremely rare circumstances. Dependent upon the position, additional authorization to access classified information may be required, which may or may not be available to dual citizens. Receipt of a Q clearance and additional access authorization ultimately is a decision of the Federal Government and not of Triad.
*Eligibility requirements: To obtain a clearance, an individual must be at least 18 years of age; U.S. citizenship is required except in very limited circumstances. See DOE Order 472.2 (https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives-documents/400-series/0472.2-BOrder-A/@Aimages/file) for additional information.
New-Employment Drug Test: The Laboratory requires successful applicants to complete a new-employment drug test and maintains a substance abuse policy that includes random drug testing. Although New Mexico and other states have legalized the use of marijuana, use and possession of marijuana remain illegal under federal law. A positive drug test for marijuana will result in termination of employment, even if the use was pre-offer.
Regular position: Term status Laboratory employees applying for regular-status positions are converted to regular status.
Internal Applicants: Regular appointment employees who have served the required period of continuous service in their current position are eligible to apply for posted jobs throughout the Laboratory. If an employee has not served the required period of continuous service, they may only apply for Laboratory jobs with the documented approval of their Division Leader. Please refer to Policy Policy P701 (https://int.lanl.gov/policy/documents/P701.pdf) for applicant eligibility requirements.
Equal Opportunity: Los Alamos National Laboratory is an equal opportunity employer and supports a diverse and inclusive workforce. All employment practices are based on qualification and merit, without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, religion, age, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, marital status or spousal affiliation, physical or mental disability, medical conditions, pregnancy, status as a protected veteran, genetic information, or citizenship within the limits imposed by federal laws and regulations. The Laboratory is also committed to making our workplace accessible to individuals with disabilities and will provide reasonable accommodations, upon request, for individuals to participate in the application and hiring process. To request such an accommodation, please send an email to applyhelp@lanl.gov or call 1-505-664-6947 option 2 and then option 3.