HPC Architect - Classified Compute

The Field Intelligence Operations Division in the National Security Sciences Directorate at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory is seeking qualified applicants for an experienced High Performance Computing (HPC) Architect to design, integrate, and evolve advanced computing capabilities supporting classified national security missions. This position serves as a senior technical authority for HPC architecture and will help translate mission and scientific computing requirements into secure, scalable, resilient, and high-performing computing environments. The HPC Architect will work across compute, storage, networking, cybersecurity, facilities, applications, and data center infrastructure to develop integrated solutions capable of supporting demanding computational workloads in classified environments. The successful candidate will combine deep HPC technical expertise with systems-level architectural thinking. This role is particularly suited for an individual who can evaluate complex requirements, identify technical dependencies and tradeoffs, establish architectural direction, and guide engineering teams from concept through deployment and sustainment. Major Duties/Responsibilities: Develop end-to-end architectures for classified HPC and advanced computing environments, including compute, storage, high-speed networking, management infrastructure, software, and supporting services. Translate scientific, engineering, AI/ML, and national security mission requirements into scalable HPC architectures and technical roadmaps. Serve as a technical lead for the design and deployment of new HPC systems and associated data center infrastructure. Develop architecture diagrams, technical specifications, design packages, bills of material, capacity models, implementation strategies, and technology roadmaps. Evaluate CPU, GPU, accelerator, memory, interconnect, storage, and emerging computing technologies against mission requirements. Architect high-performance storage solutions, parallel file systems, data movement capabilities, and storage hierarchies appropriate for large-scale computational workloads. Design and evaluate high-speed network fabrics and interconnects supporting compute, storage, management, and data-transfer requirements. Establish architectural standards for HPC management networks, provisioning, scheduling, monitoring, logging, configuration management, and administration. Evaluate HPC workload characteristics and develop capacity, scalability, performance, and lifecycle projections. Conduct architectural trade studies and make recommendations based on performance, security, resiliency, lifecycle, cost, schedule, and mission impact. Work with facilities and data center personnel to identify rack space, power, cooling, cabling, floor loading, redundancy, and environmental requirements associated with HPC deployments. Develop technical requirements for procurements and participate in vendor evaluations, technical reviews, acceptance testing, and system commissioning. Provide architectural oversight during installation, integration, testing, accreditation, transition to operations, and lifecycle refresh activities. Partner with cybersecurity and Information Assurance personnel to incorporate security requirements into system architecture from initial design rather than after deployment. Support Risk Management Framework (RMF), Authority to Operate (ATO), configuration management, vulnerability management, and security-control implementation activities. Ensure architectural solutions appropriately address segmentation, least privilege, privileged access, encryption, logging, auditing, supply-chain considerations, and other security requirements applicable to classified environments. Collaborate with systems engineers, Linux engineers, network architects, storage engineers, cybersecurity professionals, DevSecOps engineers, application teams, scientists, and mission stakeholders. Establish reference architectures, engineering standards, technical patterns, and reusable designs to improve consistency across classified computing environments. Lead or participate in design reviews, architecture review boards, technical interchange meetings, readiness reviews, and troubleshooting efforts. Mentor engineers and provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary HPC projects. Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend investments that improve computational capability, reliability, security, maintainability, and mission effectiveness. Deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. Promote equal opportunity by fostering a respectful workplace – in how we treat one another, work together, and measure success. Basic Qualifications: BS in computer science, computer engineering, electrical engineering, information technology, computational science, or a related technical discipline and a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience. Equivalent combination of education and experience may be considered. Extensive experience designing, engineering, administering, or supporting HPC or large-scale Linux computing environments. Demonstrated experience with several of the following: Linux-based HPC environments CPU/GPU accelerated computing HPC cluster architecture High-speed interconnect technologies Parallel and distributed storage Workload management and scheduling Configuration and provisioning technologies High-performance networking Data center infrastructure Monitoring and performance engineering Demonstrated ability to develop system architectures spanning multiple infrastructure domains.