Director for Emerging Technologies and Research

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Our Commitment

Texas A&M University is committed to enriching the learning and working environment by promoting a culture that respects all perspectives, talents & lived experiences. Embracing varying opinions and perspectives strengthens our core values which are: Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity, and Selfless Service.

Who We Are 

The Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) is an interdisciplinary research center advancing computational and data-enabled science and engineering with a broad mission for advancing research, education, outreach, training and service. HPRC provides a computational backbone enabling AI (Artificial Intelligence) and HPC (High Performance Computing) research and offering advanced computing infrastructure and AI/HPC software tools. Since its inception in 1989, HPRC has infused computational and data analysis into the research and creative activities of every academic discipline at Texas A&M. With a focus on reliability, throughput, usability, and outreach, HPRC has maintained an expansive AI and HPC (High Performance Computing) ecosystem. Today HPRC supports 5,000 active researchers and is leading software and training efforts to make advanced computing accessible to researchers across Texas A&M. With dozens of research grants of more than $30 million in external funding in the past years, HPRC has been playing a critical role in supporting computational sciences and high-impact data & AI-enabled research. HPRC is a nationally recognized leader in providing AI/HPC, including cluster design and deployment, systems administration, user support, applications engineering, and data management. HPRC has deployed and operated several large-scale scientific computing systems and a couple of which were among the top150 largest supercomputing systems in the world at the time of deployment. HPRC’s participation in the NSF supported national Cyberinfrastructure initiatives, such as NAIRR (National AI Research Resource) Pilot and ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support), brings unique experiences as a national resource provider of both hardware and expertise, demonstrating an ability to serve a broad range of scientific communities. To learn more, visit https://hprc.tamu.edu/.

What We Want

We are seeking a skilled and dependable Director of Emerging Technologies and Research who has a proven ability to prioritize and manage complex and innovative projects and establish vision and direction within a fast-moving, challenging, and energetic AI/HPC environment. The ideal candidate must have  a strong background in HPC, AI and data science, and proven experience in leading and developing high-performing research teams. The candidate must have exceptional and proven ability to influence, collaborate, and communicate with internal and external stakeholders at all levels. The role will be overseeing the HPRC research and user services effort; maintaining a high-quality user experience for faculty and researchers at Texas A&M and nationally; building and developing stronger research collaborations across campus and nationally; enabling the computational and data-enabled research projects of faculty, researchers and students by utilizing large and complex HPRC systems and data resources; researching and evaluating emerging technologies in advanced computing and AI; representing TAMU HPRC on local, regional and national events and activities.

What You Need To Know

Salary: Compensation will be commensurate to the selected hire’s experience.

Cover Letter/Resume: A cover letter and resume are strongly recommended.

Position Details:

• This position may require up to 10% or more travel.

• This position may require work beyond normal office hours and/or work on weekends.

• This position is partially funded from grant and/or contract funding, but it is not contingent upon continuation of funding from these grants and/or contracts. This position is contingent upon satisfactory job performance.

Qualifications

Required Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a science/engineering field or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Ten years of progressively responsible management experience in research computing or computational sciences including three years of supervisory experience, and experience using High Performance Computing (HPC) systems with an emphasis on distributed computing technologies and computational methods and experience with NSF-funded or other major national or international HPC systems such as ACCESS.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong working knowledge of HPC and Cloud systems.

• Strong analytical and computational skills.

• Strong project and team management skills.

• Ability to cultivate and maintain professional working relationships.

• Ability to multi-task and work cooperatively with others.

Preferred Qualifications

• Ph.D. in relevant science or engineering discipline requiring strong analytical and computational skills.

• Five years of experience in managing large HPC projects and user support staff.

• Knowledge of resource management systems such as SLURM, and PBS; job scheduler such as Moab, SLURM; different compilers on multiple platforms; and HPC resource capabilities at Texas A&M, within the state of Texas and at the national level (NSF centers, DOE programs, etc.).

• Experience in High Performance Computing usage at universities and other national HPC centers.

• Experience in building, optimizing, and supporting various scientific libraries and codes for HPC systems.

• Experience in conducting research using HPC and cloud computing resources for modeling and simulation.

• Extensive experience in writing proposals and securing research grants.

Responsibilities

• Research and Enablement - Provides consultation support to faculty, staff, and students in the use of scientific software applications and various high performance computing technologies, resolves problems, and improves the level of HPRC user services. Leads and participates in research projects as Principal Investigator (PI) and Co-PI funded by National Science Foundation (NSF), Texas Workforce Commission (TWC), National Security Agency (NSA) and other funding agencies. Leads or participates in proposal development, research collaborations, and research program development activities. Interfaces effectively with TAMU faculty and researchers to understand their HPC-related research needs and to develop solutions to satisfy these needs. Builds and develops strong research collaborations across campus, regionally and nationally. Enables the computational and data-enabled research projects of faculty, researchers and students by utilizing large and complex HPRC systems and data resources. Consults with the computational and data sciences research community to facilitate a coordinated approach to addressing future HPC and data science needs/issues in supported research projects. Leads HPRC training programs with new pedagogical approaches and develop technical and educational publications.

• Directs User Support and Visualization Services - Directs and develops the HPRC User Services with a mission to provide new researchers a robust suite of support services for high-performance computing and big data analysis solutions. Ensures that HPRC user services, helpdesk, portal and websites are operating correctly.  Develops and implements techniques for evaluating program activities. Assists the HPRC Executive Director to perform highly and complex managerial work within HPRC and provides direction and guidance on strategic operations and planning of the user services team and Helpdesk group. Establishes the strategic plan and goals and objectives. Prepares budget estimate recommendations for HPRC clusters and IT infrastructure installations, operations, and equipment. Introduces new researchers to HPRC, directs help services, supports a ticket system, and provides web documentation. Directs visualization services for scientific, mathematical, and design visualization and modeling with a mission to provide an entry-point for students and faculty to integrate visualization into their academic portfolios and curricula. Directs day-to-day operations for the HPRC User Services. Identifies new software, hardware, and techniques. Ensures that HPRC systems are operating correctly. Reports problems and works with support staff to resolve them. Oversees and manages HPRC application software installations, training, staffing, public outreach, documentation, user policies, and user support. Develops and implements techniques for evaluating program activities. Develops, implements, and evaluates policies and procedures and oversees compliance with policies and procedures.

• Supervision - Provides supervision and professional development of HPRC User Services consultants, staff, research scientists, undergraduate student workers, and graduate student research assistants required to operate the growing HPRC User Services. Hires, trains, assigns duties, schedules work, monitors performance, and evaluates HPRC user services department personnel.

• Emerging Technologies and Representation - Researches and evaluates emerging HPC, AI, quantum computing, and data analysis technologies related to the advanced Cyberinfrastructure, hardware, software, networking, provisioning, composability, and cloud computing. Leads or participates in proposal development securing funding in emerging technologies. Facilitates awareness and use of partner programs such as NSF ACCESS and NAIRR. Represents HPRC in local, regional, national, and international initiatives with a high degree of professionalism. Participates in training and professional development activities. Participates in the VISION project and other initiatives from Texas A&M University System.

Other Requirements and Factors

• Ability to move light, medium or heavy objects such as training, presentation and outreach materials.

• Ability to travel independently to other and/or remote locations by driving and/or flying on commercial airlines.

• This position is security sensitive.

• This position requires compliance with state and federal laws/codes and Texas A&M University System/TAMU policies, regulations, rules and procedures.

• All tasks and job responsibilities must be performed safely without injury to self or others in compliance with System and University safety requirements.

Why Texas A&M University? 

We are a prestigious university with strong traditions, Core Values, and a community of caring and collaboration.  Amenities associated with a major university, such as sporting and cultural events, state-of-the-art recreation facilities, the Bush Library and Museum, and much more await you.  Experience all that a big city has to offer but with a reasonable cost-of-living and no long commutes. 

• Health, dental, vision, life and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M contributing to employee health and basic life premiums

• 12-15 days of annual paid holidays 

• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month

• Automatically enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas 

• Health and Wellness: Free exercise programs and release time

• Professional Development: All employees have access to free LinkedIn Learning training, webinars, and limited financial support to attend conferences, workshops, and more 

• Employee Tuition Assistance and Educational Release time  for completing a degree while a Texas A&M employee

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Veterans/Disability Employer.