Professional/Administrative

Associate Director of Research and High Performance Computing

Full Time

Dean of the Faculty

Information Technology Services - Services and Shared Infrastructure

The Associate Director of Research and High Performance Computing (HPC) provides strategic direction, architecture design, and support for research computing services at Colgate University that are directly aligned with the third century plan to support outstanding faculty through the faculty excellence in research initiative. This position is responsible for understanding research needs across campus through consultation with faculty, staff, and students. They will manage the installation, configuration, and maintenance of research servers and software ensuring optimal performance and uptime.
Normal schedule is daily, Monday through Friday concurrent with the business hours of the office. Schedule flexibility may be possible. Adjustments to the normal schedule to accommodate evening, overnight, weekend and holiday work as required for service maintenance and upgrades. Will facilitate off-hour critical problems and ensure issues are addressed as needed.

Lead research and high performance computing initiatives, manage members of the team, including directly assigned team members, functional team members from other teams, and student workers.
Support servers and workstations for faculty research computing needs including workstations, Linux environments, and high performance computing clusters, storage, and cloud equivalents.
Working closely with faculty gather requirements, recommend, and implement research software; lead these efforts when appropriate, for faculty and student research.
Accountable for research systems uptime and performance; Maximize the usefulness and performance of assigned systems and integration points.
Develop and manage IT research infrastructure governance processes, including the creation of budget proposals through allocation of resources in accordance with institutional policies with attention to the long-range objectives that drive the design of systems across the enterprise.
Ensure faculty research data analysis needs are effectively addressed and consult with faculty on a regular basis.
Develop system interfaces and system integrations as needed following generally accepted practices in programming and software development. Develop custom solutions where necessary and appropriate.
Identify, analyze, diagnose, research, resolve and log in a ticketing system all technical issues and requests.
Assist ITS in the development of best practices and actively engage in improving ITS and its processes.
Participate in professional development activities.
Perform other related duties and projects as assigned.

Responsible for the job evaluation, development and continued professional growth of all direct reports. Responsible for the effective supervision of staff as assigned. Ensures selection and hiring of high quality employees; ensures appropriate distribution of work assignments and high quality of employee work product; ensures fair, accurate and timely performance assessments and feedback to include identifying areas for professional development and documenting and conducting disciplinary measures, as needed. Responsible for ensuring fair and accurate decisions regarding employment status (hire, promotion, salary increases, termination); ensures the creation of effective opportunities and programs for employee mentoring, development and sustained performance.

High Performance Computing

Demonstrates expert skills sufficient to manage day to day maintenance of high performance systems and knowledgeable of high performance computing industry standards. Demonstrates expert ability to apply the research computing system administration field’s concepts, practices, and procedures. Demonstrates ability to create high performance computing clusters around the research and compute needs for faculty. Ability to troubleshoot and evaluate performance issues within assigned service areas.

Server Administration

Demonstrates expert skills sufficient to manage day to day maintenance of physical servers and virtual servers. Demonstrates a vast knowledge of Microsoft and Linux operating systems. Demonstrated ability to install, configure, and backup servers. Ability to troubleshoot and evaluate performance issues with assigned service areas.

Research Infrastructure Planning and Strategy

Demonstrated experience in planning the effective use of research infrastructure services including, compute clusters, cloud services, storage, backup and recovery, and servers (physical and virtual). Demonstrated ability to make decisions informed by industry best practices and long-range planning set by the university.

Vendor Management

Demonstrated ability to collaborate with and consult third-party vendors for support and to maximize value of services and tools. Demonstrated experience in vendor selection and RFP processes. Demonstrates expertise with markets for research infrastructure services such as high performance compute clusters, storage, and cloud services.

Project Management

Demonstrated ability to successfully lead large projects and coordinate team tasks for large projects by creating project plans, develop requirements, and coordinate across teams. Demonstrated ability to navigate and consistently add value in a matrixed organization. Consistently meets deadlines and is collaborative with the team.

Managerial Skills

Demonstrated knowledge of Colgate managerial processes and requirements, to include:

• Demonstrated ability to fairly and accurately assess employee performance in accordance with university practices.
• Demonstrated understanding of federal and state regulations, as they apply to the university policies and guidelines related to human resources sufficient to effectively select new employees, recommend pay actions, determine employment status and initiate or approve employee changes in status.

• Demonstrated ability to develop employee skills, performance, and behaviors.
• Demonstrated ability to effectively coach and communicate with employees on issues of pay, performance and development.

Customer Service

Displays empathy and patience with users of all levels of sophistication. Able to successfully support most users on campus with common issues. Demonstrated ability to diffuse the most challenging situations, remain calm and focused. Demonstrated ability to assess user sophistication and communicate (oral and written) with customers in an appropriate level of detail. Always conveys confidence to the user in ITS ability to solve issues.

Personal Accountability for Results

Takes responsibility for decisions, performance, and outcomes; behaves in a responsible manner with a positive attitude; shows self-awareness and openness to feedback.

Effective Communication

Demonstrates effective written and oral communication skills; shares information and seeks input from others; adapts communication to diverse audiences; protects private and confidential information.

Problem Solving and Decision Making

Analyzes and prioritizes situations to identify and solve problems; generates solutions to improve efficiency and quality; involves others in solving problems and making decisions; factors organizational goals into decisions; makes clear, transparent, and timely decisions.

Change Management

Responds positively to changing university initiatives and readily adapts behavior to maintain effective performance; understands the long-term direction of the university and can relate this to departmental area; adapts to new methodologies; identifies and acts on areas where change is appropriate.

Leadership and Teamwork

Applies skills and knowledge to provide a climate to achieve departmental and organizational success; balances individual and department goals; helps others perform at their best; builds productive relationships to enhance individual and organizational effectiveness; treats others with respect; resolves conflicts among team members.

Creativity and Innovation

Generates, explores, encourages, and implements innovative ways of creating strategic value for the university, division, department, and individual level; critically assesses the effectiveness of new initiatives.

Diversity and Inclusion

Demonstrates respect for people and their differences; understands the benefits of a diverse workforce; earns the trust and respect of others; includes and welcomes others; works to understand the perspective of others; promotes opportunities to experience diversity within our community.

Sustainability

Understands the impact of decision making and personal behavior in achieving the university’s commitment to a sustainable and carbon-neutral campus; supports and advances the university’s sustainability initiatives; influences others to use sustainable practices.

• Minimum five years of experience in IT in either a similar position, server administration, or a technical lead of infrastructure services.
• Experience with Linux/Unix administration in a production environment.
• Experience with MATLAB.
• Experience providing support for research using high-performance computing with on-prem or cloud services.
• Experience working with and knowledgeable of server virtualization (VMWare) and configuration of servers including storage, LDAP, and job schedulers.
• Ability to set priorities, meet deadlines, and work with staff at all levels.
• Ability to work both independently and within a team. Willing to collaborate, share ideas openly and learn.
• Demonstrated visionary leadership and creative thinking.
• Demonstrated project management skills.
• Demonstrated excellence in client contact and strong communication skills.
• Demonstrated understanding of, sensitivity to, and respect for working in a highly collaborative environment with diverse populations.

• Experience with parallel and distributed processing.
• Experience with the development and management of oversight of IT budgeting.
• Experience with Slurm or other cluster management and job scheduling systems.

Bachelor’s Degree in Information Technology field or a related degree preferred, or equivalent additional professional experience in essential duties and responsibilities.

Master’s Degree in Information Technology field is preferred.

Colgate is committed to attracting and retaining a diverse faculty, staff, and student population.

We strive to be an inclusive community — one that embraces and values diversity (in the broadest sense possible) in an environment of mutual respect, communication, and engagement. A variety of cultures and perspectives enriches the quality of campus life, and the opportunity to share different views and experiences is at the core of Colgate’s educational enterprise.

These differences can include but are not limited to: race; ethnicity; gender and gender expression; sexual orientation; socioeconomic status; geographic background; national origin; culture; age; mental, cognitive, and physical abilities; religious beliefs; and political beliefs.

As a result, we ask all candidates seeking consideration for the Associate Director of Research and High Performance position to submit a diversity statement with their application materials.

You can upload the statement under the Diversity Statement document heading.

A diversity statement may be any length (e.g. a short paragraph, a page) explaining your experiences, contributions, and/or commitments related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Examples of topics you may discuss include (but are not limited to): 1) how your experiences or competencies might serve to advance the university’s commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive campus, 2) your experiences working with diverse populations, or 3) how you will contribute to the university’s strategic initiatives in this area (see Colgate’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Plan).

For information on how to write a diversity statement, see our Guidance on Crafting Diversity Statements.

2021S127Posting

No

Normal schedule is daily, Monday through Friday concurrent with the business hours of the office. Schedule flexibility may be possible. Adjustments to the normal schedule to accommodate evening, overnight, weekend and holiday work as required for service maintenance and upgrades. Will facilitate off-hour critical problems and ensure issues are addressed as needed.

12/16/2021

Yes

It is the policy of Colgate University not to discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment on the basis of their race, color, creed, religion, age, sex, pregnancy, national origin, marital status, disability, protected Veteran Status, sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, genetic information, victims of domestic violence and stalking, familial status, and all other categories covered by law. This policy shall apply to all employment actions, including but not limited to recruitment, hiring, upgrading, promotion, transfer, demotion, layoff, recall, termination, rates of pay or other forms of compensation and selection for training at all levels of employment. Colgate University will not discharge or discriminate against employees or applicants who inquire about, discuss, or disclose their own compensation or the compensation of another employee or applicant. Colgate University is an Equal Opportunity Employer. Minorities/Females/Persons with Disabilities/Protected Veterans are encouraged to apply.

CAMPUS CRIME REPORTING AND STATISTICS
The Campus Safety Department will provide upon request a copy of Colgate’s Annual Security and Fire Safety Report. This report includes statistics as reported to the United States Department of Education for the previous three years concerning reported: 1. crimes that occurred on-campus; in certain off-campus buildings or property owned or controlled by Colgate University; and on public property within, or immediately adjacent to and accessible from, the campus and 2. fires that occurred in student housing facilities. The report also includes institutional policies concerning campus security and fire safety, such as policies concerning sexual assault, life safety systems, and other related matters. To obtain a copy, contact the Campus Safety Compliance Manager via e-mail at cusafety@colgate.edu. You may also access the report from the Campus Safety web page at: www.colgate.edu/offices/support/campussafety.