View from Table Mountain near Cape Town.

The South African Center for High Performance Computing (CHPC) is looking for an HPC Engineer with five years of relevant experience, and a combination of soft and technical skills. The successful sysadmin-applicant will have a front-row seat as history unfolds in the region, an opportunity to make a big difference in the lives of many and a chance to work with an amazing team!

As you may have heard, HPC industry eyes are on South Africa as exascale’s likely birthplace. With the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) being built in the great Karoo region, implications for SA and the HPC industry have captured the attention of a broad range of stakeholders. SKA will be the world’s biggest radio telescope, and the most ambitious technology project ever funded (anywhere in the world)! With an expected 50-year lifespan, SKA construction is scheduled to begin in 2018, and early science and data generation will follow by 2020.

With only a few years left to prepare for SKA, CHPC is expanding their portfolio with the addition of a new petascale system.

The HPC Engineer would be a key team-member in the planning of their annual national meeting and SA student cluster challenge. You might recall hearing that SA’s student team won the world title at the International Supercomputing Conference in 2013 & 2014.

Their annual national meetings feature in-depth data science and network infrastructure content, in addition to the traditional HPC tutorials, workshops, plenaries, and student programs. Plus, they’re held in phenomenal venues. The 2016 conference will be in beautiful East London, and in 2014 it was at Kruger National Park, a game reserve the size of New Jersey where people are in cages and animals run free.

If the successful candidate doesn’t already live in Cape Town, CSIR will support relocation expenses (even if they don’t live on the continent). Plus, the job offers 25 paid vacation days each year.

If I were qualified, I wouldn’t be posting this—I would be applying before the March 11 deadline!

Elizabeth Leake
STEM-Trek Nonprofit

The 2015 Student Cluster Challenge Winners will travel to Germany to compete in the International SCC this summer.

Position Details:

The South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has a vacancy for a High Performance Computing (HPC) Engineer. The candidate will be expected to fulfill a significant role in prototyping future HPC technologies, both hardware and software, and to assess its performance and suitability for use in production HPC environments. In addition, the candidate will be expected to contribute to Human Capital Development (HCD) initiatives, e.g. HPC Ecosystem Deployment and the annual Student Cluster Competition (SCC) program. This position is based in Rosebank, Cape Town.

For more information, please visit http://www.chpc.ac.za/index.php/vacancies.

Key responsibilities

• Research in the trends of HPC technologies and understanding the impact in
production environment. This can include, but not limited to: Storage systems;
processing technologies, management tools; network and interconnects; etc.
• Research into tools and techniques that can be applied to HPC
• Deployment and remote management of HPC systems
• Performance evaluation of HPC hardware and software
• Contribute to the Human Capital Development projects managed by the ACE Lab
• Contributions to the CHPC’s operating environment, including consulting on policy
and tools integration between research and technical (operational) divisions
• Mentoring and supervisory work

Qualifications, Skills and Experience

• A Bachelor’s degree in computer science or computer engineering
• A Master’s degree would be an advantage
• Five years relevant experience
• Advanced Linux knowledge
• Advanced knowledge of IP networking
• Programming/Scripting experience with Bash and Python or C/C++
• Ability to read and produce technical documentation
• Ability to produce reports
• Willing and available to travel when necessary
• Knowledge and experience with Infiniband networks
• Experience in parallel programming (Open Multi-Processing (OpenMP) and Message Passing Interface (MPI) libraries in any language)
• Understanding of HPC
• Project management skills and ability to manage logistics
• Comfortable with public speaking

Should you meet the above requirements, please email your CV to jobapplications@csir.co.za with your name and surname, position title and reference number on the subject line, (e.g. John Smith: HPC Engineer: Reference No: 306176).

Send your application before the March 11 deadline, and tell them STEM-Trek sent you!