HPC Hardware Engineer, Firmware Management

NorthMark Strategies • Dallas, TX

1d • Hybrid

About The Position

NorthMark Compute & Cloud (NMC²) is seeking an HPC Hardware Engineer focused on firmware management to own the firmware lifecycle across a large, heterogeneous fleet of HPC and AI infrastructure. The role covers CPU and GPU servers, rack-scale systems including NVIDIA A100/H200, HPE GB200, and Dell GB300 NVL72 platforms, as well as BlueField DPUs and ConnectX adapters. The engineer will track vendor releases and advisories, qualify firmware for compatibility and performance, identify regressions, and maintain approved fleet-wide baselines.

The position emphasizes vendor-neutral automation for firmware packaging, provisioning, and rack-aware deployment. It combines Redfish and IPMI with vendor tools such as iLO, iDRAC, OneView, and NVIDIA utilities, using reusable workflows and declarative configuration. The engineer will collaborate with Data Center Operations, Networking, Software Engineering, and external vendors to investigate faults, validate fixes, and maintain fleet health. Success means preventing firmware drift, keeping release history auditable, and enabling safe hardware onboarding and upgrades with minimal manual intervention.

This is a hybrid role based out of NMC²'s Dallas, Texas office (Victory Commons). Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States without employer sponsorship now or in the future.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent practical experience.
• Strong DevOps experience managing heterogeneous HPC hardware at scale, spanning CPU/GPU servers and rack-scale systems.
• Hands-on experience with Redfish, IPMI, and vendor management interfaces such as iLO, iDRAC, OneView, or equivalent NVIDIA utilities.
• Proficiency in Python and experience with Linux systems administration, Ansible, Jenkins, and Git in a production automation context.
• Experience with workflow orchestration tools such as Temporal, including designing for controlled concurrency, retries, and failure recovery.
• Familiarity with firmware packaging and release processes, such as HPE Service Pack for ProLiant and NVIDIA BlueField BFB bundles, and safe rollout practices such as canaries and phased deployment.
• Demonstrated ability to work directly with hardware and firmware vendors to diagnose regressions, escalate defects, and validate fixes.
• Strong ownership mindset and ability to identify inefficiencies and drive automation solutions from proposal through production adoption.
• Excellent cross-functional communication skills and ability to coordinate with data center operations, software engineering, and external vendor teams.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States without the need for employer sponsorship, now or at any time in the future.

Nice To Haves

• OpenStack/Ironic experience is preferred.
• Terraform and cloud-init experience is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Own the firmware lifecycle, including monitoring vendor releases and security advisories, assessing applicability, qualifying compatibility and performance, and detecting fleet regressions.
• Maintain approved firmware baselines across heterogeneous hardware, including NVIDIA A100/H200 GPU servers, HPE GB200 and Dell GB300 NVL72 rack-scale systems, BlueField DPUs, and ConnectX adapters.
• Develop vendor-neutral provisioning and firmware automation using reusable workflows and declarative configuration, combining open-source tooling, Redfish/IPMI, and vendor interfaces such as iLO, iDRAC, OneView, and NVIDIA utilities.
• Build and maintain automation using Python, Ansible, Jenkins, Git, and Temporal, including hardware inventory APIs, rack-aware upgrade orchestration, automated testing, controlled concurrency, retries, and failure recovery.
• Manage firmware packaging and safe fleet deployment, including custom HPE SPPs, BlueField BFB bundles, versioned release manifests, and controlled artifact promotion.
• Use representative lab testing, canaries, phased rollouts, health checks, and recovery procedures to support firmware releases.
• Automate end-to-end hardware onboarding and provisioning across servers, racks, and data centers, including inventory validation, management configuration, and firmware readiness; use OpenStack/Ironic, Terraform, and cloud-init where applicable.
• Work with vendors and data center teams to investigate firmware regressions and complex hardware faults, escalate defects, validate fixes, and establish safe repair procedures.
• Build secure, observable, and supportable services using secrets management, least-privilege access, hardware-health telemetry, actionable alerting, and firmware drift detection.
• Identify recurring fleet risks and manual work, propose scalable automation, and drive solutions through validation into production adoption.
• Document operational procedures and firmware standards so other engineers and on-call responders can safely operate the systems.

Benefits

• Company-paid lunch stipend, with lunch provided via GrubHub.
• 100% employer-paid medical coverage in the High Deductible Health Plan, plus dental and vision benefits for employees and their families.
• 16 weeks of paid parental leave.
• Employee Assistance Program.
• Life insurance.
• Short-term disability and long-term disability coverage.
• 401(k) match of 100% of employee contributions up to 6%.
• Optional employee-paid PPO medical insurance and other benefits, including Health Savings Accounts with a company contribution, Flexible Spending Accounts, supplemental life insurance, and Wellhub.
• 25 days of paid time off plus 12 company holidays.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time