Director of Research Computing

Job Summary

Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts & Sciences (FAS) seeks a Director to lead its FAS Research Computing (FASRC) organization. The newly reconceived Director position reports jointly to the Assistant Dean of Research in the FAS Division of Science and to the Vice President for Information Technology & University Chief Information Officer in her capacity as FAS’ chief information officer. The Director will provide leadership in the ongoing development and management of research-computing resources for faculty across all of FAS’ divisions and thus will play an important role in advancing Harvard University’s research mission.

The Director will lead a team of 25 experienced research computing professionals and will foster partnerships with PIs, researchers, and students to best support their research and scholarship. The Director will also work closely with Harvard University’s central technology function, other Harvard University research computing teams, and other partners and service providers to keep FAS research computing at the leading edge in a technically and fiscally sustainable way.

Auto req ID

58936BR

Job Code

384061 IT Manager

Location

USA - MA - Cambridge

Business Title

Director of Research Computing

Sub-Unit

------------

Salary Grade

061

Time Status

Full-time

Union

00 - Non Union, Exempt or Temporary

Basic Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree
• At least eight years of experience managing large-scale advanced research computing environment
• At least seven years of experience managing technical staff
• Experience managing budgets with multiple funding sources

Additional Qualifications and Skills

Success in the role also requires a range of qualities and experiences and a core set of interpersonal skills that will enable success at FAS and in the University’s decentralized organizational environment more broadly. These include:

• A record of commitment to and/or engagement in activities designed to enhance diversity, equity, and inclusion
• Excellent organizational change management and project management skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to explain technical concepts to audiences with a wide range of technical skills and build support among a broad spectrum of users
• The ability to lead a high-performing, customer-oriented team dedicated to advancing the University’s research mission
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills and ability to think creatively
• Ability to work effectively with faculty, staff, and students from a variety of diverse backgrounds
• Ability to adapt within a rapidly changing technical environment
• Ability to operate and communicate effectively while meeting deadlines and completing projects
• Good social skills and the marketing savvy to engage and build support among a broad spectrum of users
• The financial acumen to build the financial model in ways compliant with grant funding and other funding sources
• Some experience collaborating in proposal development and/or grant submission and management (e.g. infrastructure grants)
• Forward-looking views about, for example, opportunities created by AI and/or the implications of data science on academic disciplines
• Engagement with computing in service to education as well as research

Preferred/additional qualifications:

• Advanced degree in science, computer science, and/or engineering
• Experience managing and protecting restricted data
• Experience working with faculty or clients in a computational domain
• Experience using HPC systems as a researcher
• Experience developing and delivering tutorials, workshops, and lectures on high performance computing at the institutional, regional, and national levels

Additional Information

Faculty of Arts & Sciences Research Computing

Research Computing at Harvard is an enterprise that continues to reflect the University’s decentralized heritage, the evolution of research-computing infrastructure and funding opportunities, and the strategic development of its central information-technology organization, Harvard University Information Technology (HUIT) and its University Research Computing team.

Starting in 2007, FAS began consolidating and centralizing research-computing resources within the Division of Sciences and soon began expanding across the School as faculty in the social sciences and humanities began to use advanced computing in their research. The organization came to be called FAS Research Computing and, as more and more faculty across Harvard came to it for support, it extended its services beyond FAS, increasingly in collaboration with HUIT. With HUIT now developing an array of University-wide services and platforms to support faculty beyond FAS, FAS has the opportunity to strategically redefine what resources and services it will continue to support for the Arts & Sciences at Harvard and to broaden the base of users across the School who are advancing their research through computing.

In this context, FAS Research Computing continues to evolve, to expand its offerings, and to support research faculty across the School and their collaborators around the world. It has earned a reputation for building partnerships to accelerate research and collaboration. The Director of FAS RC will continue this legacy.

FAS’ research computing team directly engages with researchers through help requests, office hours, training, and in-depth consultations. FAS resources include a Top500.org high-performance computing cluster, virtual machines, storage, databases, instrumentation core facility workstations, and other development platforms. FAS Research Computing has numerous other successful collaborations, including building the MGHPCC (http://www.mghpcc.org/) in Holyoke, MA with leading partner universities. With these and other institutions, FAS launched the NSF-funded NESE project ( http://nese.mghpcc.org ), which creates a regional cloud storage repository.

FAS is committed to cultivating not only the diversity of its faculty, staff, and students but also to developing an inclusive culture that is vibrant, engaging, and encouraging of innovation as well as intellectual debate. Its values with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion are captured in its statement of commitment: “FAS believes that creating and maintaining an inclusive workplace allows employees from all backgrounds and walks of life to achieve their fullest potential. We also believe an inclusive culture is one that accepts, values, and views as strength the differences we all bring to the workplace.” See here for more information about FAS’s engagement with diversity, equity, and inclusion.

An application should include a resume and cover letter.

Harvard University values diversity, equity, and inclusion, and seeks a leader who is committed to promoting these values throughout the organization. We encourage candidates to address in their cover letters how they might promote these values as the Director of Research Computing and to highlight past professional support of initiatives designed to remove barriers and to increase participation by groups historically under-represented in research computing.

We regret that Harvard University does not provide visa sponsorship for this position.

Harvard University has engaged Opus Partners to support the recruitment of this position. Craig Smith, Partner, and Thomas Lapierre, Senior Associate, are leading the search. Confidential inquiries, applications, and nominations should be submitted by email to Thomas.lapierre@opuspartners.net .

All formal offers will be made by FAS Human Resources.

Department

FAS Research Computing

Pre-Employment Screening

Criminal, Education, Identity

Job Function

Information Technology

Position Description

The Director of FASRC is responsible for providing strategic leadership, fiscal stewardship, and operational oversight for FAS Research Computing. The Director is responsible for broadening the use of FAS computing resources by lowering barriers to entry to HPC and performing outreach to a broad range of faculty from multiple academic disciplines across the School.

The Director works to create a seamless ecosystem that allows researchers to maximize the use of FAS, HUIT, and other Harvard-operated research computing resources with little friction and with minimal administrative overhead so as to manage rapidly changing compute, storage, network, and security needs.

Roles and Responsibilities

• Serves as a key strategic partner for FAS faculty, research departments, and programs in advancing the FAS research mission, and will develop FAS Research Computing Strategic Plan to support faculty research
• Develops, coordinates, implements, and maintains research computing infrastructure (i.e. data center, network, compute, storage, and other core services) to meet the expanding needs of faculty and research programs across FAS
• Leads a team that provides guidance and support to FAS core facilities on instrumentation data capture, compute and storage workflows for data analysis and integration, data reduction/visualization processes, and long-term preservation of useful experimental data
• Closely collaborates with FAS leadership on strategic and operational leadership for the research computing space
• Provides project management oversight and coordination support for Research Computing projects
• Collaborates with HUIT leadership to:
  • Understand computing and data needs, current practices, and opportunities for faculty, researchers, core facilities, and other research programs in FAS
  • Develop and maintain a robust, financially sustainable model for research computing services supporting existing and emerging research areas
  • Work collaboratively with other University offices to ensure that research computing infrastructure complies with applicable federal, state, and granting agency requirements
  • Develop a coherent, sustainable strategy for research computing across the spectrum of Harvard schools and across its entire research ecosystem
• Serves as a member of the Science Dean’s senior team and co-chairs the FASRC Faculty Advisory Committee
• Ensures proactive outreach and training to the FAS research community and fosters direct FASRC relationships with researchers
• Working with other Harvard offices, coordinates data management initiatives including data management planning, best practices, and compliance with funding agency requirements
• Develops and manages budgets for support research computing operations including sponsored projects
• Prepares grant proposals for sponsored opportunities that will promote or enhance research computing systems in the FAS
• Develops relationships with applicable funding agencies and program officers
• Builds and develops a diverse and effective team; plans and delegates work effectively; communicates and monitors performance expectations; motivates and develops direct reports
• Ensures compliance with FAS and Harvard HR policies and procedures
• Abides by, follows, and inculcates in the FASRC team, Harvard University IT technical standards, policies, and Code of Conduct

School/Unit

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

EEO Statement

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Working Conditions

COVID Vaccine Policy: The University requires all Harvard community members to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and remain up to date with COVID-19 vaccine boosters, as detailed in Harvard’s Vaccine & Booster Requirements . Individuals may claim exemption from the vaccine requirement for medical or religious reasons. More information regarding the University’s COVID vaccination requirement, exemptions, and verification of vaccination status may be found at the University’s “COVID-19 Vaccine Information” webpage: http://www.harvard.edu/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine-information/ .

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Harvard University views equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging as the pathway to achieving inclusive excellence and fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive. We strive to create a community that draws upon the widest possible pool of talent to unify excellence and diversity while fully embracing individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures, races, identities, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and values.