HPC System Engineering Expert

HPC System Engineering Expert
Location: Frascati , Italy Application deadline: 9 November 2026 Reference number: 0599

Your Mission
Are you looking for a new opportunity to take your career to a higher orbit? To join an international group with a successful track record in Space Engineering? A job adapted to your career ambitions and in which you could have an impact for the years to come?

We are looking for a HPC System Engineering Expert to work at our client's premises at the European Space Agency's ESRIN site in Frascati, Italy.

In this role, you will be responsible for supporting the engineering, administration, operation and evolution of a complex High Performance Computing environment.

You will use your Linux-based HPC expertise to tackle complex infrastructure challenges, optimise platform performance and reliability, and drive the continued evolution of the HPC environment.

Tasks and activities
You'll have the opportunity to:

HPC System Engineering and Administration

Administer and maintain Linux/Unix-based HPC clusters, including compute, login/service nodes, GPU/accelerator resources and cluster services.

Install, configure, upgrade and maintain operating systems, drivers, firmware and HPC system components.

Maintain controlled system configurations, technical procedures and configuration consistency across the HPC environment.

Workload and Resource Management

Configure and administer HPC workload-management and scheduling systems such as Slurm, PBS or equivalent technologies.

Manage queues, partitions, reservations, resource allocation and accounting, including fair-use policies.

Analyse workloads and resource consumption to identify bottlenecks and improve utilisation.

Monitoring, Troubleshooting and Incident Resolution

Monitor the health and performance of compute, accelerator, storage and cluster services.

Analyse alerts, logs and system behaviour, performing root-cause analysis of complex hardware, operating-system, network, storage and software issues.

Implement authorised corrective actions and workarounds, coordinating with vendors and technical teams where required and verifying service restoration.

Maintenance and Lifecycle Management

Support the definition and development of the Agency's vision and strategic roadmap for the future Space High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment, particularly its interfaces and administration through the ESA Internal Cloud.

Support the development and maintenance of Power BI dashboards and Power Apps, including data pre-processing and transformation, SQL scripting and configuration of ETL tools on-premises and in Microsoft Azure.

Plan and implement patches, upgrades and configuration changes, including impact analysis, testing and rollback preparation.

Track hardware and software lifecycles, identify technical risks and contribute to infrastructure refresh and HPC platform evolution.

Performance and Capacity Engineering

Monitor and analyse CPU, GPU, memory, storage and workload utilisation, identifying bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement.

Support benchmarking, profiling and performance-tuning activities.

Analyse utilisation, congestion and storage-growth trends to support capacity planning and future infrastructure requirements.

Provide evidence-based recommendations for infrastructure optimisation and evolution.

What we're looking for
Ideally, you will have;

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering or a related field.

At least 5 years of relevant professional experience, including 3 years of hands-on HPC engineering/administration experience.

Strong technical background in Linux/Unix-based HPC environments, including job scheduling, resource accounting, storage and data management.

Experience with parallel computing frameworks such as MPI and OpenMP, and containerisation technologies such as Docker and Singularity.

Strong proficiency in troubleshooting, scripting, automation and secure operational administration.

Experience in performance tuning and optimisation of HPC applications.

Knowledge of scientific computing and applications commonly used in HPC environments.

Strong analytical, problem-solving and organisational skills, with excellent attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple priorities.

Enthusiasm for continuous learning and professional development.

Fluent in English, both written and spoken.

Why Make the Move?

Make an impact where it matters. Contribute to high profile projects supporting organisations such as ESA, EUMETSAT, the European Commission, NATO and national defence programmes.

Work alongside some of Europe's brightest minds. Join an international team of experts who thrive on collaboration, innovation and solving complex challenges that