L2 Technical Support Engineer

This is an incredible opportunity to be part of a company that has been at the forefront of AI and high-performance data storage innovation for over two decades. DataDirect Networks (DDN) is a global market leader renowned for powering many of the world's most demanding AI data centers, in industries ranging from life sciences and healthcare to financial services, autonomous cars, Government, academia, research and manufacturing.

"DDN's A3I solutions are transforming the landscape of AI infrastructure." – IDC 

“The real differentiator is DDN. I never hesitate to recommend DDN. DDN is the de facto name for AI Storage in high performance environments” - Marc Hamilton, VP, Solutions Architecture & Engineering | NVIDIA 

DDN is the global leader in AI and multi-cloud data management at scale. Our cutting-edge data intelligence platform is designed to accelerate AI workloads, enabling organizations to extract maximum value from their data. With a proven track record of performance, reliability, and scalability, DDN empowers businesses to tackle the most challenging AI and data-intensive workloads with confidence. 

Our success is driven by our unwavering commitment to innovation, customer-centricity, and a team of passionate professionals who bring their expertise and dedication to every project. This is a chance to make a significant impact at a company that is shaping the future of AI and data management. 

Our commitment to innovation, customer success, and market leadership makes this an exciting and rewarding role for a driven professional looking to make a lasting impact in the world of AI and data storage. 

The Advanced Support Team (AST)/Level 2 Filesystem Support is part of DDN’s support organization. The primary focus of the AST is to support DDN’s customers with troubleshooting and repair during the lifetime of their DDN storage solutions. Also, escalations to the DDN engineering/development team are managed by AST team members.

The Advanced Technical Support Engineer will mainly be responsible for filesystem support of DDNs EXAScaler solutions.  These solutions are based on the Lustre Parallel Filesystem. To achieve quick turnaround times on cases the employee will need to manage their own queue, triage tickets, collaborate with peers and the DDN field team.

Duties and Responsibilities:

The essential duties and responsibilities include but are not limited to: 

• Ability to work Flexible Weekly shifts, which may include weekends.
• Resolve Lustre file system issues on large, scalable customer systems and ensure customer satisfaction.
• Create test plans and procedures for customer upgrades and troubleshooting.
• Work with engineering for enhancing product quality using customer feedback and use cases.
• Review product documentation, both for internal and external customer needs.
• Work with the DDN Education team to provide training where needed.
• Assist in development/maintenance of internal tools.
• Demonstrate a thorough technical understanding of clients’ needs.
• Clearly communicate complex technical topics to the varied knowledge levels of customers.
• Develop positive and trustworthy relationships with customers.
• Ability to multi-task and manage competing priorities, ensuring all objectives are accomplished.
• While this is a remote working position, it does require some travel and occasion customer on-site working.
• As this is a customer facing role it requires flexibility; and also includes a one-week on-call team rotation approximately every 20 weeks.

Skills and Experience:

This employee must have considerable knowledge of parallel file system operations, disk-based storage systems, operating systems (mostly Linux), networking and troubleshooting technique.  Required are strong communication skills, including;  ability to connect with customers via phone, virtual meetings and in written correspondences.

Minimum Requirements: 

• Must have 5+ years’ experience in a similar technical role.
• Experience supporting post-sales efforts is essential to success in this position.
• Proven in-depth technical knowledge and problem analysis skills.
• Excellent customer interfacing skills.
• Solutions orientated with an aptitude from analytical thinking and problem solving.
• Proven skills and a solid team player.
• Good verbal and written communication skills (English, second language beneficial).

Essential Technical Requirements

• 5+ years of experience working with Lustre Parallel Filesystems; administration/implementation/support.
• Strong knowledge of Linux architecture and fundamentals.
• Good understanding of the technical fundamentals of the system infrastructure including
  • Storage systems
  • Linux operating system
  • networking
  • parallel file systems
• Demonstrable understanding of data storage concepts: RAID/Erasure Coding, block storage, parallel file systems, etc.
• Understanding of networking concepts: Infiniband, Ethernet, IP, TCP, routing, etc.

Preferred Technical requirements include:

• Other parallel filesystems such as SpectrumScale or StorNext
• Experience reading, writing and debugging shell and Python or Perl scripts
• Networking (InfiniBand Definite Plus)
• Experience working with NAS protocols: NFS, CIFS, SMB, S3, FTP, sftp
• Experience working with authentication protocols (ActiveDirectory, LDAP).

DDN has a very strong orientation towards these 4 characteristics and any successful employee will demonstrate these capabilities: 

Self-Starter - Takes independent action to identify and solve problems. Seeks out relevant information needed to make decisions. Gets involved with new initiatives. 

Success/Achievement Orientation - Delivers quality results consistently. Targets, achieves (or exceeds) measurable results. Sets challenging goals, focuses on critical priorities, and is accountable. 

Problem Solving - Recognizes problems and responds with a systematic assessment that identifies and addresses cause of issue. Practical, realistic, and resourceful. 

Innovative - Builds and improves key business processes that enhance the effectiveness of DDN. Generates new ideas, challenges the status quo, and solves problems creatively.

DataDirect Networks, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer.  All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity, gender expression, transgender, sex stereotyping, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, protected Veteran Status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

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