Storage Systems Engineer

• Shift Length: 8 hours
• Budgeted Job Salary Range: 135,000 -196,000
• Campus Location 1: Mission Center Building (SF)
• Bargaining Unit: TX
• Employee Class: Contract
• FLSA Status: Exempt
• Job Code and Payroll Title: 006375
• Workplace: Flexible 1 Day On-Site
• FTE%: 100

This is a two-year contract of employment, inclusive of benefits. 

The Academic Research Services team at UCSF is seeking an Storage Systems Engineer (SYS ADM 4) to serve as a technical resource in the design, deployment, and operation of large-scale(multi petabytes) research storage and data infrastructure. This role will work in close partnership with the FAC Storage Lead to support UCSF’s evolving research ecosystem, including Physical/Virtual Compute, CoreHPC, the Research Analysis Environment (RAE), and large institutional storage initiatives.

This position is primarily responsible for architecture, implementation, and lifecycle management for the Facility for Advanced Computing (FAC), storage and systems, including support for large storage environments based on ZFS, NFS v3 and v4 & SAMBA(SMB) NSF-funded infrastructure, and OS Nexus–aligned data platforms. The role ensures seamless integration between storage systems and the Physical/Virtual Compute as well as  CoreHPC compute cluster, enabling performant, reliable, and scalable data access for AI, data science, and computational research workloads.

The Storage Systems Engineer will:

• Work with the FAC Storage lead to continue supporting the design and evolution of storage architecture on ZFS across on-prem and hybrid environments, including ZFS, NFS, SMB VAST, parallel filesystems, and enterprise storage platforms

• Develop and maintain data movement strategies and tooling (e.g., rsync, rclone, Globus, NFS, SMB workflows) to support large-scale data ingestion, migration, and lifecycle management

• Ensure tight integration between storage and Physical/Virtual Compute as well as  CoreHPC compute cluster systems, optimizing throughput, latency, and reliability for distributed workloads

• Support and scale storage systems backing major institutional initiatives (FAC storage(ZFS), OS Nexus integration)

• Collaborate closely with DevOps, networking, and security teams to deliver cohesive research infrastructure solutions

• Design and implement monitoring, performance tuning, and capacity planning strategies for storage and data systems

• Troubleshoot complex issues across storage, networking, and compute boundaries

• Participate in system upgrades, migrations, and expansion efforts with minimal disruption to researchers

• Provide guidance to researchers on data organization, transfer strategies, and performance optimization

• Evaluate and recommend emerging storage technologies and architectures

This role may lead storage-focused projects and contribute to cross-functional initiatives that improve the scalability, usability, and reliability of UCSF’s research computing ecosystem.

Department Overview 

Academic Research Systems (ARS) serves the needs of the UCSF research community by providing an integrated repository of HIPAA compliant clinical and life sciences data and a centralized, secure, professionally managed infrastructure for the storage and management of research data. ARS empowers medical scientific investigations by offering secure computing environments, data capture, management and analysis tools, and support services which meet researchers’ needs.

The Research Infrastructure team of the Academic Research Service (ARS) focuses on large scale research platform support, high performance computational and storage services for UCSF researchers so they can address complex computational, AI,  and data science problems.

Responsibilities

%

of time

Essential Function (Yes/No)

Key Responsibilities

(To be completed by Supervisor)

25

Storage Architecture & Infrastructure

Design, deploy, and operate large-scale storage systems, including ZFS, VAST and parallel filesystems.
Define standards for performance, redundancy, and scalability on ZFS filesystems
Lead the evolution of institutional storage platforms, including FAC storage environments.Primarily ZFS

Manage Active Directory integration with storage and compute systems

15

Data Movement & Migration

Architect and execute large-scale data migrations.
Develop and maintain data movement workflows using tools such as rsync, rclone, and Globus.
Optimize data transfer processes across storage and compute environments.

15

Virtual/Physical Compute & HPC Integration & Performance

Integrate storage systems with the CoreHPC compute cluster 
Optimize I/O performance for AI, machine learning, and HPC workloads.
Support efficient data access patterns for distributed and scheduled workloads.

Manage & Configure VMWare, Bare Metal Servers

30

Operations & Reliability

Implement monitoring, alerting, and capacity planning for storage systems & operating systems like Linux/Windows
Troubleshoot issues across storage, network, and compute infrastructure.
Perform system maintenance, patching, and lifecycle management.

10

Researcher Enablement

Advise researchers on data workflows and storage best practices.
Support onboarding of projects with large-scale data requirements.

5

Collaboration & Strategy

Collaborate with DevOps, networking, and security teams.
Evaluate and recommend new storage technologies and architectures.

100%

Qualifications

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor's degree in a related area, such as computer science or engineering, and 6+ years of experience with storage infrastructure support and management, or 10+ years of related experience with large-scale storage systems
• Demonstrated skill (5 years +) deploying, managing, and troubleshooting ZFS (or similar) InfiniBand-based clusters
• Strong knowledge of ZFS, high-performance parallel filesystems, and storage such as GPFS, Lustre, Vast, DDN, etc
• Advanced knowledge of computer security best practices and policies, including demonstrated experience securing research cyberinfrastructure systems to meet NIST 800-171 / 800-223, HIPAA, or IS-3 requirements
• Knowledge of HPC job scheduler system design and operation, such as SLURM or PBS,
• Ability to elicit and communicate technical and non-technical information in a clear and concise manner.
• Self-motivated and works independently and as part of a team. Demonstrates problem-solving skills. Able to learn effectively and meet deadlines.
• Understanding of system performance monitoring and actions that can be taken to improve or correct performance.
• Demonstrated advanced knowledge, skills, and abilities associated with system problem identification and resolution. Experience with design, configuration, operation, repair, and tuning of technology systems.
• Advanced experience writing and editing the most complex scripts used to perform system maintenance and administration.
• Demonstrated testing and test planning skills. Demonstrated ability to create automated testing.
• Ability to write technical documentation in a clear and concise manner. Ability to develop runbooks defining complex technical processes in a clear and concise manner

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Expert knowledge of Virtual Machines, Bare Metal Servers & HPC systems infrastructure design
• Knowledge of the design, development and application of technology and systems to meet business needs.
• General knowledge of other areas of IT. E.g., Active Directory, Domain Controllers, Network Infrastructure.
• Demonstrated skills associated with adapting equipment and technology to serve user needs. Demonstrated comprehensive understanding of how system management actions affect other systems, system users and dependent/related functions.
• Professional certification in enterprise storage technologies (e.g., NetApp, Dell EMC PowerScale, IBM Storage Scale, VAST, Pure Storage)

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