The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) a joint research center of Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, was established in 1986, and for over 30 years has provided university, government and industrial researchers with access to several of the most powerful systems for advanced computational research, communications and data storage available to scientists, engineers and scholars nationwide for unclassified research. PSC advances science across a wide spectrum of fields, including artificial intelligence/machine learning, medical imaging, weather modeling, cell biology, and genomics.

The Advanced Systems and Operations group is responsible for the integration and operations of computational assets central to this pursuit. We are seeking a Hardware and Data Center Technician to join an experienced team and continue our part in pushing forward the boundaries of science. You will also lead all aspects of the daily operations and maintenance of a data center that hosts PSC’s 1500+ computing servers and 10+ high-performance data storage systems. This includes ensuring the availability, reliability, and security of the infrastructure.

Join our growing team at the intersection of technology, research, and software development, as we are committed to assisting the scientific community in solving exciting and complex problems.

Core Responsibilities:

• Provides hardware maintenance for PSC’s 1500+ computing servers and 10+ HPC data storage systems.
• Assists in solving problems and managing customer relationships.
• Provides direction to 3rd-party vendors who deploy and maintain computer equipment.
• Works closely with management on vendor and property owner relationships.
• Monitor, diagnose, and resolve production problems while documenting solutions.
• Participates in disaster recovery testing.
• Provide monthly reporting to PSC and NextTier (property owner) management.
• Uses scripts and software support tools to collect and analyze data, monitor system status, and generate reports.
• Uses common business software (e.g., Google Docs, sheets, slides) to detail and manage operational data and diagrams.
• Works with project leaders on tracking the lifecycle of assets and software, including accurate recycling and inventory tracking.
• Participates in data center tours to funding sponsors, faculty, legislators, college and high school students, vendors, contractors, and colocation prospects.
• Trains staff on data center procedures, policies, and maintenance requirements.
• Handle shipping and receiving for all projects, vendors, and co-location tenants.
• Leads access to the data center for all employees, vendors, and co-location tenants.
• Handle all CMU recyclable assets and schedule all recycling pick-up and re-purposing.
• Perform related duties as assigned.

You should demonstrate:

1. Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
2. Keeps current with new data centers and high-performance computing technologies.
3. Keeps current with applicable laws and regulations for data center safety.
4. Desire to teach and learn for continuing team development.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a combination of education and relevant experience from which comparable knowledge is demonstrated may be considered.
• Experience maintaining computer hardware and peripherals and networking equipment.
• Experience working with data center facility equipment.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with Linux systems administration
• Experience writing and/or extending systems administration software (e.g., utilities, libraries, plugins)
• Experience with parallel file systems (e.g., Lustre)
• Experience in a high-performance computing environment (HPC)
• Experience with configuration management software such as Puppet, Chef, or Ansible
• Experience with virtualization management infrastructure such as oVirt, VMWare, KVM

Requirements:

• Successful background check

About Carnegie Mellon University

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