Job Details

Senior HPC Systems Administrator (HR Title: Systems Administrator III)

Position Number: 6368340
Location: Dallas, TX
Position Type: Computing - Network/System Administration

Senior HPC Systems Administrator (HR Title: Systems Administrator III)

Salary Range:

Salary commensurate with experience and qualifications

About SMU

SMU's more than 12,000 diverse, high-achieving students come from all 50 states and over 80 countries to take advantage of the University's small classes, meaningful research opportunities, leadership development, community service, international study and innovative programs.

SMU serves approximately 7,000 undergraduates and 5,000 graduate students through eight degree-granting schools: Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, Cox School of Business, Lyle School of Engineering, Meadows School of the Arts, Simmons School of Education and Human Development, Dedman School of Law, Perkins School of Theology and Moody School of Graduate and Advanced Studies.

SMU is data driven, and its powerful supercomputing ecosystem - paired with entrepreneurial drive - creates an unrivaled environment for the University to deliver research excellence.

Now in its second century of achievement, SMU is recognized for the ways it supports students, faculty and alumni as they become ethical, enterprising leaders in their professions and communities. SMU's relationship with Dallas - the dynamic center of one of the nation's fastest-growing regions - offers unique learning, research, social and career opportunities that provide a launch pad for global impact.

SMU is nonsectarian in its teaching and committed to academic freedom and open inquiry.

About the Department:

SMU supports some of the state's leading high-performance computing (HPC) clusters. The M3 cluster boasts 1,077 TFLOPS, 181 nodes, 22,892 CPU cores, 122,880 accelerator cores, and 200Gb/s bandwidth. Meanwhile, the NVIDIA DGX SuperPOD offers 1,644 TFLOPS, 20 nodes, 2,560 CPU cores, 1,392,640 accelerator cores, and 200Gb/s bandwidth. Both clusters feature cutting-edge CPUs, accelerators, and networking technologies, high memory capacity per node, and provide advanced interactive experiences through the Open OnDemand Portal.

About the Position:

This role is an on-campus, in-person position.

The Senior System Administrator at Southern Methodist University (SMU) is responsible for the design, implementation, and management of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems supporting the university's research community. As part of a two-person team, this role ensures the reliability, performance, and scalability of HPC infrastructure. Duties include maintaining hardware and software, providing technical support, collaborating with faculty and research staff, monitoring system performance, and ensuring compliance with IT policies. The position plays a key role in supporting computational research and advancing SMU's research mission.

Essential Functions:

HPC System Administration: Design, plan, deploy, and administer HPC services to support research at SMU. Install and maintain cluster environments, provision systems using automated installation methods, and manage distributed parallel file systems, NFS storage, and storage interconnect .
Automation and Software Support: Develop and maintain scripts and tools to automate administrative tasks using shell scripting, Python, and C. Compile, install, and port software as needed to support research activities. Build and deploy both open-source and commercial software required by researchers.
Project Planning and Communication: Plan and manage technical projects. Communicate effectively with end users and stakeholders, provide regular updates, and manage expectations throughout the project lifecycle.
Documentation: Maintain comprehensive documentation for system configurations, procedures, and changes. Create and update system administration guides for both routine and complex tasks.
System Troubleshooting and Optimization: Diagnose and resolve system and operational issues. Collaborate with researchers to troubleshoot and optimize workloads on HPC systems. Participate in on-call support for research infrastructure.
Vendor Coordination: Work with hardware and software vendors to resolve technical issues. Ensure firmware and software versions are up to date and aligned with best practices for HPC systems.
Professional Development: Stay current with trends, technologies, and best practices in research computing and high-performance computing.

Qualifications

Education and Experience:

Bachelor's degree is required.

A minimum of six years of full time Linux system administration experience in a large computing environment is required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

Candidate must demonstrate to have a clear, professional communication in order to work with team members and customers of diverse technical abilities. Candidate with experience with container technologies and orchestration platforms preferably Kubernetes is desired. Familiarity with reporting and monitoring tools and knowledge of large distributed parallel file systems is preferred. Candidate must demonstrate to have experience installing and maintaining clustered environments and provisioning systems using automated installation methods. Candidate must possess the ability to develop and maintain scripts and tools to automate administrative tasks using shell scripting, Python and C.

Candidate must also demonstrate strong written communication skills. Candidate must possess strong problem-solving skills with the ability to identify and analyze problems, as well as devise solutions. Must also have strong organizational, planning and time management skills.

This position participates un a 24-hour, 7-day on-call support rotation and off-hours maintenance windows.

Physical and Environmental Demands:

Sit for long periods of time

Deadline to Apply:

Open until filled.

EEO Statement:

SMU will not discriminate in any program or activity on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, genetic information, veteran status, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression. The Executive Director for Access and Equity/Title IX Coordinator is designated to handle inquiries regarding nondiscrimination policies and may be reached at the Perkins Administration Building, Room 204, 6425 Boaz Lane, Dallas, TX 75205, 214-768-3601, accessequity@smu.edu.

Benefits:

SMU offers staff a broad, competitive array of health and related benefits. In addition to traditional benefits such as health, dental, and vision plans, SMU offers a wide range of wellness programs to help attract, support, and retain our employees whose work continues to make SMU an outstanding education and research institution.

SMU is committed to providing an array of retirement programs that benefit and protect you and your family throughout your working years at SMU and, if you meet SMU's retirement eligibility criteria, during your retirement years after you leave SMU.

The value of learning at SMU isn't just about preparing our students for the future. Employees have access to a wide variety of professional and personal development opportunities, including tuition benefits.

Primary Location: USA-TX-Dallas

Job: Information Technology

Organization: Information Technology Services

Schedule: Regular

Shift: Staff

Employee Status: Individual Contributor

Job Type: Full-time

Job Level: Day Job

Travel: No

Job Posting: Jul 8, 2025, 7:28:43 PM

To apply, visit https://smu.taleo.net/careersection/ex/jobdetail.ftl?job=INF00000186&tz=GMT%2B00%3A00&tzname=UTC