DataDirect Networks

High-performance storage for unstructured data

Lab Administrator

System AdministrationConfirmed live in the last 24 hours

Full-timeColumbia, MD, USA$65k - $100k /yrIn-person

About the Job

Requirements

Strong Linux administration experience with Ubuntu, RHEL, or CentOS.
Knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, VLANs, bonding/LACP, and basic troubleshooting.
Experience with storage systems such as SAN/NAS; parallel filesystems such as Lustre or GPFS are a plus.
Ability to write Bash and Python scripts for automation.
Experience with monitoring tools such as Prometheus/Grafana, Nagios, or Zabbix.
Understanding of hardware components, including CPUs, NUMA architecture, PCIe, NICs, and RDMA.
Good documentation and communication skills.

Responsibilities

Install, configure, and maintain lab hardware, including servers, storage arrays, NICs, and switches, and software, including OS images, drivers, and monitoring tools.
Manage user access, accounts, and permissions across lab systems.
Monitor system health, performance, and capacity, including CPU, memory, storage, and network utilization.
Troubleshoot hardware and software issues and coordinate with vendors for support and RMAs.
Maintain network diagrams, asset inventories, configuration baselines, and standard operating procedures.
Implement and enforce security policies, including patching, firewall rules, and access controls.
Manage backups, disaster recovery procedures, and data retention policies.
Support researchers and engineers with environment setup for experiments, benchmarks, or testing, including provisioning compute nodes, storage volumes, and network configurations.
Track licensing, warranties, and hardware lifecycle from procurement through decommissioning.
Coordinate lab scheduling and resource allocation when the lab is shared across teams.

Desired Qualifications

Familiarity with virtualization or containerization technologies such as KVM or Docker.
Experience with high-performance computing or artificial intelligence infrastructure, including InfiniBand, RDMA, or GPU clusters.
Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible or Puppet.

Role Summary
Responsible for the setup, maintenance, security, and day-to-day operation of a technical/research lab environment (servers, storage systems, networking equipment, and lab-issued workstations), ensuring high availability, performance, and compliance with organizational policies.

Key Responsibilities

Install, configure, and maintain lab hardware (servers, storage arrays, NICs, switches) and software (OS images, drivers, monitoring tools)

Manage user access, accounts, and permissions across lab systems

Monitor system health, performance, and capacity (CPU, memory, storage, network utilization)

Troubleshoot hardware/software issues and coordinate with vendors for support/RMAs

Maintain documentation: network diagrams, asset inventories, configuration baselines, SOPs

Implement and enforce security policies (patching, firewall rules, access controls)

Manage backups, disaster recovery procedures, and data retention policies

Support researchers/engineers with environment setup for experiments, benchmarks, or testing (e.g., provisioning compute nodes, storage volumes, network configs)

Track licensing, warranties, and hardware lifecycle (procurement to decommissioning)

Coordinate lab scheduling/resource allocation if shared across teams

Required Skills/Qualifications

Strong Linux administration experience (Ubuntu/RHEL/CentOS)

Networking fundamentals (TCP/IP, VLANs, bonding/LACP, basic troubleshooting)

Experience with storage systems (SAN/NAS, parallel filesystems like Lustre/GPFS a plus)

Scripting ability (Bash, Python) for automation

Familiarity with virtualization/containerization (KVM, Docker) is a plus

Experience with monitoring tools (Prometheus/Grafana, Nagios, Zabbix)

Understanding of hardware components (CPUs, NUMA architecture, PCIe, NICs/RDMA)

Good documentation and communication skills

Nice to Have

Experience with HPC/AI infrastructure (InfiniBand, RDMA, GPU clusters)

Experience with configuration management (Ansible, Puppet)

About the Company

DataDirect Networks

High-performance storage for unstructured data

DDN provides high-performance data storage systems and software for data-intensive environments, including unstructured data, HPC, and AI workloads. Its products combine hardware and software to manage the data lifecycle, with A³I for GPU-optimized AI, EXAScaler as a parallel file system, IntelliFlash hybrid arrays, and Infinia for fast inference. The company differentiates itself through a dedicated focus on HPC/AI storage, close collaboration with NVIDIA, and a strategy of expanding software-defined storage and file systems via acquisitions. Its goal is to help customers scale data storage and AI workloads efficiently across enterprises, government, academia, and cloud providers.

Company size: 1,001-5,000
Company stage: Growth Equity (Venture Capital)
Total funding: $309.9M
Headquarters: Los Angeles, CA
Founded: 1998

Recently Posted Jobs

Explore more opportunities at DataDirect Networks

See more jobs