Hybrid workflows combining traditional HPC and novel ML methodologies are transforming scientific computing. This paper presents the architecture and implementation of a scalable runtime system that extends RADICAL-Pilot with service-based execution to support AI-out-HPC workflows. Our runtime system enables distributed ML capabilities, efficient resource management, and seamless HPC/ML coupling across local and remote platforms. Preliminary experimental results show that our approach manages concurrent execution of ML models across local and remote HPC/cloud resources with minimal architectural overheads. This lays the foundation for prototyping three representative data-driven workflow applications and executing them at scale on leadership-class HPC platforms.

Heterogeneous scientific workflows consist of numerous types of tasks that require executing on heterogeneous resources. Asynchronous execution of those tasks is crucial to improve resource utilization, task throughput and reduce workflows' makespan. Therefore, middleware capable of scheduling and executing different task types across heterogeneous resources must enable asynchronous execution of tasks. In this paper, we investigate the requirements and properties of the asynchronous task execution of machine learning (ML)-driven high performance computing (HPC) workflows. We model the degree of asynchronicity permitted for arbitrary workflows and propose key metrics that can be used to determine qualitative benefits when employing asynchronous execution. Our experiments represent relevant scientific drivers, we perform them at scale on Summit, and we show that the performance enhancements due to asynchronous execution are consistent with our model.