HPC Unix Engineer

What you will do

As an HPC Unix Engineer, you are responsible for managing, optimizing, and supporting our High Performance Computing (HPC) infrastructure within a critical ICT environment. You will help ensure the performance, scalability, and stability of compute clusters, with a focus on SLURM, Open OnDemand, and advanced HPC tooling. You’ll work within a multidisciplinary team, supporting users with demanding workloads across simulation, EDA, and numerical modeling domains.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Support & Incident Management

• Provide 2nd-line support for Linux and HPC environments, resolving issues related to job scheduling, software usage, and cluster performance.
• Analyze and troubleshoot performance issues, resource management challenges, and job failures.
• Support users through Open OnDemand portals, including both interactive and batch workloads.
• Follow ITIL-based processes for incidents, changes, and service requests.
• Monitor and analyze system and job metrics using tools like Prometheus and Grafana.
  

HPC System Management

• Manage SLURM clusters, compute nodes, GPU resources, and workload optimization.
• Perform OS patching, configuration management, and automation using Ansible, Bash, and Python.
• Maintain and integrate parallel and shared filesystems such as NFS, Lustre, and S3 object storage.
• Handle user access, quota control, and secure network configurations in a multi-user environment.
• Administer FlexLM license management systems.
  

Software, Containers & Build Frameworks

• Work with container technologies such as Apptainer/Singularity, Podman, ENROOT, and Pyxis.
• Manage  scientific software builds (Ansys, Cadence, COMSOL, Matlab, Mentor, Synopsys) using tools like EasyBuild and environment modules via lmod.
• Optimize deployments using Azure CycleCloud; experience with cloud-integrated compute clusters is a plus.

What we do for you

We offer you the opportunity to join one of the world’s premier research centers in nanotechnology at its headquarters in Leuven, Belgium. With your talent, passion and expertise, you’ll become part of a team that makes the impossible possible. Together, we shape the technology that will determine the society of tomorrow.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and proud of our open, multicultural, and informal working environment with ample possibilities to take initiative and show responsibility. We commit to supporting and guiding you in this process; not only with words but also with tangible actions. Through imec.academy, 'our corporate university', we actively invest in your development to further your technical and personal growth.

We are aware that your valuable contribution makes imec a top player in its field. Your energy and commitment are therefore appreciated by means of a market appropriate salary with many fringe benefits.

Who you are

• You have proven experience with HPC environments, parallel computing, and job scheduling (preferably with SLURM).
• You have strong problem-solving and analytical skills.
• You have solid experience in scripting and automation (Ansible, Bash, Python).
• You have a good understanding of performance tuning, cluster monitoring, and system hardening.
• You are familiar with Open OnDemand and Azure CycleCloud is a plus.
• Exposure to EDA and engineering software workflows in an HPC context is a strong asset.