Assistant Director of Research Computing

$104,000 - $117,000/Yr

University of Maryland

Full-time - Mid Level

51-100 employees

Educational Services

About the position

The Assistant Director of Research Computing at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operations of the research computing infrastructure. This role involves guiding the future of high-performance and research computing, collaborating with researchers across various disciplines, and ensuring effective utilization of computing resources to support research success.

Responsibilities

• Support the wide range of disciplines UMBC's RC/CI Offerings.
• Collaborate with researchers and colleagues at other research institutions in applying information technology to research problems.
• Work with researchers from a variety of disciplines to understand their applications and application performance.
• Assist researchers to leverage the parallel CPU and GPU architectures of computing resources supported by UMBC DoIT RC Group.
• Coordinate with cluster administrators concerning the needs of the UMBC research computing community and facilitate user-friendly access to those resources.
• Respond to reported problems and provide solutions.
• Provide guidance to existing and potential users on how to use the cluster for their research projects through both one-on-one consultations and training sessions.
• Facilitate and develop specific training programs aligned to UMBC's advanced cyber infrastructure resources.
• Work closely with DoIT and campus stakeholders to actively pursue infrastructure and research computing related funding opportunities and partnerships.
• Design and implement solutions to support research collaborations, including solutions involving both software and hardware components and different functional and performance requirements.
• Design and architect logical solutions to administer the HPCF and its resources.
• Build tools and support architectures used to facilitate computational workflows and organize experiments in conjunction with best practices.
• Serve as the UMBC Campus NSF Campus Champion, maintaining familiarity with emerging techniques and technologies in research computing.
• Participate in training, education and development activities to improve knowledge and performance and enhance professional development.
• Attend relevant academic and professional conferences.
• Perform additional duties as assigned.

Requirements

• Master's Degree preferably in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related field with at least three years experience working with HPC or parallel computing clusters or three years of experience in RC/CI administration.
• Experience with NVIDIA Bright Cluster Manager or other cluster management software.
• Experience with versioning tools such as Git or Subversion.
• Install and/or configuration of CEPH, parallel or high performance file systems.
• Slurm or other cluster computing job management experience.
• Experience supporting customer requests and working with stakeholders to gather and fulfill project requirements.
• Capable of managing time effectively, working both independently and as part of a team.
• Help develop project plans, effectively create/update issues and keep team members and management informed of changes, impediments, and updates.
• Enthusiasm for learning new skills and adapting to a dynamic environment.
• Strong interpersonal skills, enthusiasm for customer service, and the ability to work with students, staff, and faculty from diverse backgrounds.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.

Nice-to-haves

• Master's or coursework equivalent in a traditionally non-computing, but STEM-related field (e.g., Applied Mathematics, Engineering, Biology, Geology, Chemistry, Physics, etc).
• Five or more years of experience in RC/CI administration.
• HPC knowledge around cluster builds, software, parallel computing, workload management, and cluster management.
• Three years of advanced programming in Python and/or C/C++.
• Familiarity with Linux & modern computing tools (e.g., Jupyter Ecosystem, MATLAB, and/or similar).
• Familiarity with machine learning workflows/pipelines.

Benefits

• Generous Leave which includes accruing 22 Days of Annual Leave, 15 Days of Sick Leave, 15 Holidays, and 3 Personal Days.
• Tuition Remission for 8 credit hours per semester and for eligible dependents after two years of FT employment.
• Life and disability insurance.
• Retirement plans (including the choice of joining the pension plan).
• Professional development opportunities.
• Wellness opportunities.