job listing, supercomputer systems administration

[jet@nas.nasa.gov (J. Eric Townsend)]

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Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) has an immediate opening
for two Parallel Systems Analysts to support the Numerical
Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) Program at NASA Ames Research
Center, including a possible lead analyst position.

The position is for a Systems Analyst in the Parallel
Systems (PS) group of the Computational Services branch.
This group provides support for the NAS parallel systems,
which currently include a 128 node Thinking Machines CM-5, a
128 node Intel iPSC/860, and a 224 node Intel Paragon XP/S.
Other systems may added in late 1993.

While the group is part of a support organization, the
immaturity of parallel supercomputers provides
opportunitities for a significant amount of development
work.  Routine system administration and user assistance is
provided by a separate user services organization, leaving
only the more difficult problems and policy issues to be
resolved by the parallel systems analysts.  Network,
distributed software, and parallel scientific programming
(i.e. FORTRAN) support is also provided by separate groups,
and on-site vendor analysts provide additional assistance.
Current group members are involved in projects ranging from
the development and modification of UNIX tools to kernel
development work, as well as day to day system maintenance
and evaluation tasks.  The parallel systems group also has a
close relationship with the proprietor of the best Indian
restaurant in the known Universe.

The NAS parallel systems operate in a networked (UltraNet,
HiPPI, FDDI, Ethernet) heterogeneous environment that
consists of a Cray Y-MP 8/8256, a Cray C-90, a large mass
storage system, several general purpose support processors,
and over 200 high performance workstations.  UNIX and
UNIX-derivatives are used exclusively.

Located at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View,
California, the NAS Program is recognized internationally as
a leader in large-scale scientific computing.  Its mission
is to act as the pathfinder in advanced, large-scale
computer system capability through systematic incorporation
of state-of-the- art improvements in computer hardware and
software technologies; provide a national computational
capability, available to NASA, industry, DoD, other
Government agencies, and universities as a necessary element
in ensuring continuing leadership in computational fluid
dynamics and related computational aerospace disciplines.

NAS considers parallel supercomputers to be the future of
supercomputing, and opportunities for a motivated individual
are extensive.

Required Skills:

  o Bachelor's degree in computer science or related field,
    or unrelated bachelor's degree with equivalent
    experience.

  o Fluency with C and at least one UNIX shell, and
    excellent UNIX skills.

  o Experience as a system administrator in a UNIX network
    environment.
 
  o Good problem-solving and communications skills.

  o Willingness and ability to learn new skills.

  o U.S. Citizenship.

Desired Skills:

  o Experience with parallel computers.

  o Experience with OSF/1, Mach 3.0, or other
    multiprocessor-capable operating systems.

  o Experience in a large scale scientific programming
    environment.

Note:  Computer Sciences Corporation policy requires pre-employment drug
screening.  Any job candidate who receives an offer letter from CSC must
report for testing within 48 hours.  

Please forward your resume to:

  Eric Townsend
  Computer Sciences Corporation
  NASA Ames Research Center
  M/S 258-6
  Moffett Field, CA  94035-1000

or email

  jet@nas.nasa.gov