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.
About UCSF
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It is the only campus in the 10-campus UC system dedicated exclusively to the health sciences. We bring together the world’s leading experts in nearly every area of health. We are home to five Nobel laureates who have advanced the understanding of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, aging and stem cells.
Pride Values
UCSF is a diverse community made of people with many skills and talents. We seek candidates whose work experience or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to professionalism, respect, integrity, diversity and excellence – also known as our PRIDE values .
In addition to our PRIDE values, UCSF is committed to equity – both in how we deliver care as well as our workforce. We are committed to building a broadly diverse community, nurturing a culture that is welcoming and supportive, and engaging diverse ideas for the provision of culturally competent education, discovery, and patient care. Additional information about UCSF is available here .
Join us to find a rewarding career contributing to improving healthcare worldwide.
Equal Employment Opportunity
The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.
Salary Information
The final salary and offer components are subject to additional approvals based on UC policy.
Your placement within the salary range is dependent on a number of factors including your work experience and internal equity within this position classification at UCSF. For positions that are represented by a labor union, placement within the salary range will be guided by the rules in the collective bargaining agreement.
To learn more about the benefits of working at UCSF, including total compensation, please visit: https://ucnet.universityofcalifornia.edu/compensation-and-benefits/index.html
