Lead HPC Engineer

The opportunity
At WEHI, computing power turns data into discoveries. Our researchers use Milton, our high performance computing environment, to analyse genomic, imaging and other large-scale data that is changing how we understand and treat cancer, infection and immune disease.

We're looking for a Lead HPC Engineer to be WEHI's technical authority for Milton. You'll keep it secure, reliable and well used today, and you'll lead the technical work to take WEHI to its next platform. Over the next three years WEHI will set a new compute and AI strategy, procure and build a new platform, and migrate every research workload onto it. You'll be at the centre of each step.

This is a hands-on role, you'll own the platform, work with other technical teams and see the results in the science.

What you'll do

• Run Milton day to day: Slurm, NVIDIA GPU compute, VAST Data and Lenovo storage, Quantum StorNext and tape, and an NVIDIA Spectrum network fabric
• Look after capacity, performance, patching, backup, and data centre power and cooling
• Act as technical lead for WEHI's 2028+ Compute and AI Strategy: on-premises, hybrid or cloud
• Lead the technical side of procuring and building the new platform, then migrating workloads to it
• Automate with infrastructure-as-code, and document so knowledge is shared
• Work with our Research Computing Platform team and researchers to get the most from HPC and AI

What you'll bring

• 5+ years running Linux HPC or large-scale research computing infrastructure, ideally as the senior or lead engineer
• Strong production Slurm administration
• Experience with parallel or scale-out storage (VAST, Lustre, GPFS or StorNext)
• GPU and CUDA stack experience, and an understanding of HPC networking (InfiniBand, RoCE or high-speed Ethernet)
• Ansible or similar, plus Bash and Python
• Research software environments: Apptainer, Spack, EasyBuild or Conda
• The ability to explain technical trade-offs clearly to scientists, leaders and vendors

Experience with life science workloads, cloud HPC, AI inference platforms, or building a new HPC platform would be a real plus.

Why WEHI

• Your work directly speeds up medical research
• A rare chance to shape a platform from strategy through to cutover
• Hybrid working from our Parkville campus

Terms of appointment
This position is an ongoing role in a full time capacity. Salary is Professional Services Employee Level 9 ($141,910 - $153,610). Very attractive salary packaging options are available for general living expenses, meal entertainment, novated leasing and more. 12% superannuation payable, plus up to a further 5% after the first 6 months of service via our matching superannuation scheme.

General enquiries can be directed to recruitment@wehi.edu.au. A position description is available here.

How to apply
Apply with your resume and a short cover letter outlining your HPC experience

Application Closing Date: The closing date for applications is 30 November 2026. However, we will be reviewing applications as they are received, and WEHI reserves the right to appoint a suitable candidate prior to the closing date. We encourage you to submit your application as soon as possible to avoid missing this opportunity.

WEHI - Brighter together

WEHI is where the world's brightest minds collaborate and innovate to make discoveries that will help us to live healthier for longer. Our medical researchers have been serving the community for more than 100 years. We bring together people with different skills and experience who are committed to long-term discovery. Our teams of researchers are committed to solving the most complex health problems, making transformative discoveries for cancer, infectious and immune diseases, developmental disorders and healthy ageing.

WEHI is a place where people are able to shine. People who are inquisitive, who are committed, who are passionate. People who want to make a difference. And we are committed to ensuring they have the tools to flourish, personally and professionally. We are a community of researchers, students and professional service staff who work towards achieving discoveries that improve human health. We are driven by collaboration, curiosity and creativity. We are committed to making a positive difference to the lives of people in Australia and around the world. We are WEHI. We are brighter together.

WEHI's commitment to diversity and inclusion

At WEHI we strive to foster a flexible working environment that encourages individual differences and promotes collaboration and creativity. We recognise that talent does not sit within a single identifiable group in our society and that WEHI's ability to shape contemporary scientific thinking and deliver leading professional services relies on a diversity of thought within our organisation. Our action to promote gender equality has been recognised with an Athena SWAN Bronze Award from Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) and we offer a range of support for women researchers.

Our commitment to celebrating diversity and addressing inequities is further demonstrated through our Diversity and Inclusion Strategy, Gender Action Plan, Reconciliation Action Plan and our WE-Pride network for LGBTQIA+ staff and students. We actively encourage applications from, people with a disability, culturally, religiously and linguistically diverse people and people with diverse genders and sexualities. Should you require support during the recruitment process due to special needs or consideration, please contact the People and Culture team.

WEHI's commitment to Indigenous employment

WEHI is working to create a future where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples will be engaged at the scientific frontier, making exciting discoveries and decisions about the future of health in this country, and part of a leading professional services workforce supporting the realisation of these discoveries. We are committed to creating a culturally safe workplace and offering career development and leadership opportunities to First Nations staff and students. We strongly encourage any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to apply.