Senior Datacenter Systems Architect

We are seeking a high-level UNIX/Linux Systems Engineer to architect, own, and operate our next-generation, on-premise private cloud and GPU compute infrastructure supporting global engineering teams in Hillsboro, OR. This is a strategic, deep-technical systems architect position responsible for designing, scaling, and optimizing a world-class HPC/GPU datacenter environment.

You will drive end-to-end systems design, oversee compute, network, and storage architecture, and take full ownership of reliability, automation, performance, and deep multi-layer troubleshooting across thousands of nodes running bare-metal and virtualized workloads.

What You’ll Lead

• Architect, scale, and optimize complex UNIX/Linux-based compute clusters, GPU farms, and high-density datacenter systems.
• Own the design and strategy for on-prem HPC/GPU compute environments including OS architecture, distributed storage, network tuning, and interconnects.
• Perform deep-dive troubleshooting across all layers — kernel, network stack, RPC/NFS, storage protocols, firmware, drivers, bootloaders, and orchestration systems.
• Lead automation efforts using Python, Bash, Ansible, and IaC to eliminate manual processes and improve system reliability.
• Drive configuration standards for compute, network, and storage layers across bare-metal systems.
• Collaborate with architects, system software teams, networking teams, and hardware engineering to ensure platform scalability.
• Own operational excellence: uptime, performance tuning, incident response processes, and long-term platform strategy.
• Mentor and technically lead junior engineers and datacenter technicians.

What We Need to See

• 8–15+ years in UNIX/Linux systems engineering, system administration, or HPC/compute infrastructure roles.
• Expert-level knowledge of Linux internals (kernel, storage subsystems, networking stack, groups, system, NUMA, etc.).
• Proven experience architecting and running large-scale compute clusters or farms (HPC, HCI, GPU clusters, or bare-metal automation environments).
• Deep understanding of compute, network, and storage architectures end-to-end.
• Demonstrated skill in root-cause analysis at multiple layers, including:
• NFSv3/v4 deep troubleshooting
• Packet-level analysis
• Kernel performance tuning
• Distributed storage (NetApp, Ceph, Lustre, BeeGFS, etc.)
• Strong networking fundamentals: TCP/IP, VLANs, BGP, LACP, RoCE/RDMA, NIC offloading.
• Strong automation skills: Python, Bash, Ansible, Terraform, or IaC tools.
• Experience with PXE provisioning, Kickstart, bare-metal deployments, and OS image pipelines.
• Certifications strongly preferred:
• UNIX/Linux certs (RHCE, RHCSA, Linux Foundation)
• Networking certs (CCNP, CCIE, JNCIP, etc.)
• Storage certs (NetApp NCIE/NCDA or similar)

What Makes You Stand Out

• Experience designing GPU clusters or accelerator-dense environments.
• Deep experience with distributed filesystems, block storage tuning, or NFS debugging.
• Strong background in systems and platform performance engineering.
• Ability to continuously evaluate emerging technologies and build long-term architectural recommendations.
• Experience leading and mentoring infrastructure teams.

Sustainable Talent is a M/F+, disabled, and veteran equal employment opportunity and affirmative action employer.