The Role
Supercomputing File System Specialist – Executive Level 1 (S&T Level 5)
The Supercomputing File System Specialist functions as the supercomputing data service manager reporting directly to the Discipline Lead Supercomputing Operations. This team manages, installs, operates and maintains data management systems and services across the Supercomputing Program. This role will provide advice to researchers as well as assist with data analytics and the storage and management of visualisation data.
The Supercomputing File System Specialist will collaborate with existing research projects to assist in their data collection and transition into data management frameworks while working with new research projects to ensure optimal placement of data subsets throughout the lifecycle of the project. The Supercomputing File System Specialist will maintain currency in supercomputing and big data issues associated with data transfer and management of Petabytes of data in relation to Defence research projects.
As the file system service manager, the Supercomputing File System Specialist will lead a team of Supercomputing Systems administrators to undertake the installation, operation and maintenance of the data service, typically with petabytes to exabytes of data under management. They will manage the data in accordance with Defence Science Technology Group (DSTG) Data Management Framework, International and Australian standards, and Defence security requirements for classified data. They will understand research workflows and map them to technologies of best fit.
They will provide oversight to their domain of expertise, with the following key responsibilities:
* Responsible for secure, reliable and performant Supercomputing Data services for DSTG;
* Serve as the lead data management subject matter expert (SME) to the Supercomputing Systems team by utilising extensive data infrastructure and data services experience;
* Accountable for managing and leading a team of data management service experts, including providing clear and consistent communication, setting clear performance and behavioural standards, managing performance, delegating responsibility and guiding and developing people;
* Use significant judgemental skill to plan and perform complex to highly complex system administration duties towards broad Supercomputing objectives;
* Utilise problem solving approaches to complex Supercomputing issues with limited guidance, including issues unique to the supercomputing service configuration and issues arising from utilising leading-edge supercomputing technologies in a production service;
* Under limited guidance investigate and maintain currency in supercomputing technology and best practices and extend these to meet Defence scientific research requirements;
* Use considerable judgemental skill to drive and support ongoing development of the data framework, detailed design, and systems implementation of Supercomputing data management;
* Design, manage and provide high performance data services to support Supercomputing operations, with technologies spanning high bandwidth and low latency networks and storage devices;
* Contribute to security accreditation of the Supercomputing data services, support security audits and investigations, and work towards continuous improvement of security;
* Develop strong positive relationships within the Supercomputing community;
* Enhance science and technology (S&T) capability through targeted collaboration and/or interaction with other supercomputing organisations, academia, industry, military stakeholders, and other research agencies in Australia or overseas.
Supercomputing Software Specialist – Executive Level 1 (S&T Level 5)
The Supercomputing Software Specialist, working under limited guidance from management, is a supercomputing specialist who interfaces researchers and Digital Science and Scientific Computing (DSSC) support staff to the Supercomputing Infrastructure Team. Utilising both their research experience and technical knowledge, they will translate researcher requirements and issues from a variety of research domains to resolve researcher issues and to implement software solutions.
The Supercomputing Software Specialist will deliver on specialised software engineering initiatives to deliver increased workflow throughput and productivity for computationally intensive research projects towards Defence research outcomes. They will utilise their specialised knowledge to lead exploration and implementation of enhancements to the novel architecture of the Supercomputing service, focussing on software performance, security, system reliability and automation.
Position Duties:
* Responsible for a secure, reliable and performant Supercomputing service for DSTG;
* Serve as the Supercomputing Software Engineering SME to the Supercomputing infrastructure team, utilising software engineering experience within a Supercomputing context and an understanding of researcher use of Supercomputing systems;
* Use significant judgemental skill to plan and perform complex to highly complex Supercomputing system administration duties towards broad Science and Technology objectives;
* Utilise problem solving approaches to complex Supercomputing issues with limited guidance, including issues unique to the DSTG Supercomputing service configuration and issues arising from utilising leading-edge supercomputing technologies in a production service;
* Under limited guidance investigate and maintain currency in Supercomputing technology and best practices, and extend these to meet Defence scientific research requirements;
* Drive initiatives within the Supercomputing Infrastructure team to provide a robust, secure and performant Supercomputing service that meets and continues to meet researcher needs;
* Build workflows within the complex Supercomputing environment to boost the efficiency and reproducibility of Defence research projects;
* Use in-depth knowledge of established principles to identify and resolve bottlenecks in compute, data and network performance within the Supercomputing service;
* Responsible to continually improve Supercomputing service reliability through acceptance testing and regression testing, including standard performance metrics, user application benchmarks and previously resolved service issues;
* Contribute to security accreditation of the Supercomputing data service, support security audits and investigations, and work towards continuous improvement of security;
* Develop strong positive relationships within the Supercomputing Infrastructure Team, and the wider DSSC community;
* Enhance S&T capability through targeted collaboration and/or interaction with other DSTG teams, academia, industry, military stakeholders, and other research agencies in Australia or overseas.
This role has been identified as requiring access to International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) controlled technologies. The ITAR is United States (US) law that controls the manufacture, sale, use and access of defence and military end-use articles on the United States Munitions List. It is the policy of the US to deny exports of ITAR controlled technologies to proscribed countries. This may also apply to access by persons who hold or have held a citizenship, or current permanent residency, of said countries. Defence utilises workforce mechanisms to mitigate these restrictions, which will require applicants provide details of all current citizenships and permanent residencies, as well as previously held citizenships. Defence collects citizenship details to confirm an applicant's eligibility for the role and to maintain compliance with international obligations.
About our Team
Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) hosts the Defence Supercomputing Capability, which provides Defence and national security agencies with a world-class, secure, multi-tenanted collaboration ecosystem at the scale of supercomputing. The capability enables Innovation, Science and Technology (IS&T) outcomes that support timely authoritative advice, allowing well informed decision-making through advanced modelling, simulation, data processing, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The Supercomputing Branch covers the end-to-end management of the Supercomputing Capability including strategy, design, technology refresh and all aspects of operations from infrastructure up to user workflows, researcher training and support.
Supercomputing Infrastructure (SI) oversees the day-to-day operations of the data centre, including managing Supercomputing (SC) systems and networking. Their responsibilities encompass a wide range of tasks, such as installing, integrating, and maintaining SC systems, monitoring system usage, ensuring optimal performance and reliability, and collaborating with senior systems staff to meet researchers' specific needs.
SI also configure batch queuing systems for parallel computing, collect system utilisation statistics, identify and resolve operational issues, and provide expert advice relating to computers, storage, networking, data centre facilities and interfaces (power and cooling). SI are required to undertake capability development, benchmark test suite maintenance and development, and participate in technical refresh activities.
Our Ideal Candidate
We are seeking applicants who have a technical background in supercomputing infrastructure and data management. The right person will have an in-depth understanding and appreciation for the intricacies of managing high-performance data services, including the secure handling of petabyte- to exabyte-scale datasets within classified environments.
They will ideally be formally qualified in engineering, information and computing sciences, or a related academic discipline, or will have significant practical experience in supercomputing operations and data frameworks.
They will have experience leading teams and managing projects with an emphasis on delivery of quality outcomes whilst ensuring safe work practices are maintained. The leader will provide support and guidance to the team to ensure they are sensitive to Defence strategic direction and equipped to excel in their capabilities, particularly in the context of secure, reliable, and performant supercomputing data services aligned with Defence research workflows and standards.
Application Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 January 2026
For further information please review the job information pack, reference DSTG/09324/25 on