Containerization and Confidential Computing Architect

Argonne National Laboratory

Lemont, USA

Job posting number: #7214689 (Ref:417209)

Posted: February 7, 2024

Job Description

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF) runs some of the world’s largest supercomputers to enable breakthroughs in science and engineering to address some of the world’s most challenging and complex problems.  For years, our bread and butter has been running very large simulations, sometimes consuming the entire machine, that ran for many hours through a batch scheduler.  However, modern workloads are a mix of simulations, AI, and services, often containerized.  We are primarily an open science facility, but even open science can have confidentiality concerns, for instance computational biology may need access to HIPAA data. 

We are looking for someone to take the lead on integrating edge services, containerization, and confidential computing and how to integrate those into our facility infrastructure to best serve our users.  High level use cases might include having a containerized vector database running in the service infrastructure that is accessed and updated by the AI application running on the supercomputer. 

Today, these are run on a set of compute nodes, which is inefficient because it may not make use of the GPUs or other computational resources and it requires the database to be started and stopped for each job, causing potentially 1000s of nodes to sit idle until the database is up.  We wish to be able to run confidential jobs, such as the computational biology application mentioned above on the same supercomputer as non-confidential jobs.  We have a dedicated secure enclave to do this, but it is limited in size because we can’t afford to run two supercomputers one for confidential computing and one for open science. 

If you want to help us solve some of the most exciting computational science problems in the world and have experience in containerization, particularly secure container solutions, running reliable and scalable services in a containerized environment, and/or experience with confidential computing environments such as HIPAA, ITARS, or similar, apply and let’s see what we can do together.

In this role you can expect to:

  • Develop methods for the solution of systems operation and cybersecurity. 
  • Work closely with software development teams, project coordinators, software architects, and systems administrators to see that the solutions are implemented.
  • Ensure that innovative software applications utilize newly discovered techniques.
  • Cultivate relationships with scientists and engineers within the division, lab wide, and with other labs, universities, and industry on computational science, data science, software development, and software tool issues.

Position Requirements

  • Experience in one or more of the following areas: containerization, security advanced computing, parallel tools, data-centric algorithms and tools, scientific visualization, collaborative tools, distributed computing, numerical methods, and/or software development.

  • Ability to effectively create, maintain and support high-quality software.

  • Experienced and skilled in interdisciplinary research involving mathematicians, computer scientists, and discipline scientists.

  • Utilizes independent judgment, the ability to abstract from specific problems to general solutions.

  • Ability to provide project leadership and to generate outside funding for research and development.

  • Systems software development experience (C, C++, Go, Rust, assembler or similar)

  • Experience and knowledge of containerization technologies (Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, OpenShift or similar)

  • Experience and knowledge of secure containerization technologies (gVisor, Kata containers, or similar)

  • Knowledge of HPC Scheduling systems is helpful, but not required

  • Ability to model Argonne's core values of impact, safety, respect, integrity, and teamwork.

This position can be hired at one of two levels (RD4 or RD5), and the requirements for each are as follows:

  • RD4: Bachelor’s degree and 12+ years of experience, Master’s degree and 7+ years of experience, or PhD and 6+ years of experience, or equivalent 

  • RD5: Bachelor’s degree and 15+ years of experience, Master’s degree and 12+ years of experience, or PhD and 10+ years of experience, or equivalent 

Job Family

Research Development (RD)

Job Profile

Software Engineering 4

Worker Type

Regular

Time Type

Full time

As an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer, and in accordance with our core values of impact, safety, respect, integrity and teamwork, Argonne National Laboratory is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace that fosters collaborative scientific discovery and innovation. In support of this commitment, Argonne encourages minorities, women, veterans and individuals with disabilities to apply for employment. Argonne considers all qualified applicants for employment without regard to age, ancestry, citizenship status, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, genetic information, marital status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.

Argonne employees, and certain guest researchers and contractors, are subject to particular restrictions related to participation in Foreign Government Sponsored or Affiliated Activities, as defined and detailed in United States Department of Energy Order 486.1A. You will be asked to disclose any such participation in the application phase for review by Argonne's Legal Department.  

All Argonne offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes an assessment of criminal conviction history conducted on an individualized and case-by-case basis.  Please be advised that Argonne positions require upon hire (or may require in the future) for the individual be to obtain a government access authorization that involves additional background check requirements.  Failure to obtain or maintain such government access authorization could result in the withdrawal of a job offer or future termination of employment.



Argonne is an equal opportunity employer, and we value diversity in our workforce. As an equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer, Argonne National Laboratory is committed to a diverse and inclusive workplace that fosters collaborative scientific discovery and innovation. In support of this commitment, Argonne prohibits discrimination or harassment based on an individual's age, ancestry, citizenship status, color, disability, gender, gender identity, genetic information, marital status, national origin, pregnancy, race, religion, sexual orientation, veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law.


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