Site Reliability Engineer II (SRE) - HPC Operations

Essnova Solutions, Inc.
Location: California – Onsite at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (NERSC)
Job Type: Full-Time, Contract
Compensation: $80.00 per hour
Schedule: Five days per week, Midnight–8:00 AM (Overnight/Owl Shift)
Requisition ID: ASKUSR0148805

About the Position

Essnova Solutions, Inc. is seeking an experienced Site Reliability Engineer II (SRE) to support the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

NERSC provides high-performance computing (HPC) and data infrastructure supporting more than 11,000 researchers across the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science programs.

The selected candidate will join NERSC's Operations Technology Group, supporting a 24/7 mission-critical computing environment. This position focuses on infrastructure monitoring, incident response, system reliability, automation, and continuous operational improvement.

This position requires onsite work five days per week during the midnight–8:00 AM shift. Remote or hybrid arrangements are not available.

Key Responsibilities

• Monitor HPC computing systems, storage, networking, and data center infrastructure to maintain operational availability.
• Review and respond to alerts, troubleshoot technical issues, and escalate incidents to appropriate support teams.
• Develop, maintain, and enhance monitoring tools, alerting pipelines, and automated response systems.
• Create scripts and software solutions to automate routine operational tasks, improve reliability, and prevent recurring incidents.
• Integrate HPC system APIs with monitoring and notification platforms.
• Support observability technologies such as Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, and Alertmanager.
• Configure and maintain applications and monitoring tools to support growing infrastructure demands.
• Utilize ServiceNow for incident tracking, documentation, and service management workflows.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, engineering, networking, and operations teams to resolve complex technical issues.
• Coordinate monitoring and diagnostic activities during scheduled maintenance.
• Conduct physical and logical inspections of data center equipment, including cooling systems, power distribution units, and environmental infrastructure.
• Maintain accurate documentation of incidents, outages, maintenance activities, and corrective actions.

Required Qualifications

• Experience supporting large-scale data centers, critical IT infrastructure, or high-availability computing environments, or willingness to work within a 24/7 onsite operations team.
• Strong hands-on knowledge of Linux operating systems, shell environments, and command-line tools, including SSH.
• Experience developing scripts or software using Python, Perl, C, C++, Java, or comparable programming languages.
• Understanding of software development practices, automation, and troubleshooting methodologies.
• Knowledge of network protocols, network security, firewalls, and access control lists (ACLs).
• Experience troubleshooting infrastructure and application reliability issues.
• Ability to work collaboratively across multiple technical teams.
• Strong analytical, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Ability to learn and implement new monitoring, automation, and infrastructure management technologies.
• Ability to work onsite during the required overnight schedule.
• U.S. citizenship is required for this assignment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting high-performance computing (HPC) clusters, scientific computing environments, or large-scale enterprise data centers.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Prometheus, VictoriaMetrics, or Alertmanager.
• Experience implementing or customizing ServiceNow.
• Familiarity with IT Service Management (ITSM) practices and service lifecycle management.
• Experience building monitoring pipelines and automated incident response workflows.
• Familiarity with building management systems, cooling infrastructure, and power utilization.
• Practical experience developing or deploying Agentic AI solutions or autonomous automation tools to streamline technical tasks and improve proactive system monitoring.

Physical Requirements

The position includes hands-on data center operations. Essential physical requirements include:

• Safely lifting up to 20 pounds.
• Climbing and balancing on ladders up to six feet.
• Working in restricted underfloor spaces approximately 3 feet 11 inches in height.
• Completing required safety training and demonstrating the ability to safely enter, exit, and self-rescue from designated workspaces.
• Performing physical and environmental inspections of data center infrastructure.

Reasonable accommodations will be considered for qualified individuals with disabilities in accordance with applicable law.

Compensation and Benefits

Pay Rate: $80.00 per hour

This position is compensated on an hourly basis. Actual compensation will be confirmed during the hiring process.

Eligible employees may receive benefits in accordance with Essnova Solutions, Inc.'s applicable benefits plans and policies. Specific benefits, eligibility requirements, and applicable paid leave will be communicated during the recruitment process.

Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Statement

Essnova Solutions, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all qualified applicants and employees without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, marital status, military or veteran status, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

All employment decisions are based on job-related qualifications, merit, and business needs.

Reasonable Accommodations

Essnova Solutions, Inc. is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants and employees with disabilities and sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances, in accordance with applicable law.

Applicants requiring an accommodation during the application or interview process may contact Essnova Solutions, Inc. to request assistance.

California Applicant Privacy

Essnova Solutions, Inc. respects the privacy of job applicants and handles personal information collected during recruitment in accordance with applicable privacy laws, including the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), where applicable.

Applicants may request information regarding the collection and use of their personal information through the company's designated privacy contact.

About Essnova Solutions, Inc.

Essnova Solutions, Inc. is a federal government contractor providing specialized technical, engineering, and professional services to support federal agencies, national laboratories, and mission-critical government programs.

We are committed to delivering high-quality technical solutions while supporting the professionals who make these missions possible.

Join Essnova Solutions, Inc. and contribute to the reliable operation of world-class scientific computing infrastructure supporting groundbreaking research at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.