Executive Director, Research Computing

About the Opportunity

Job Summary:

The Executive Director, Northeastern Research Computing is responsible for the development and delivery of high-performance computing infrastructure and capabilities to Northeastern researchers, teaching faculty, and students throughout the university’s global network. Under the direction of Northeastern Office of the Provost, and in consultation with researchers, the executive director enables innovation through development of leading-edge capabilities and delivery of strong, faculty and student centered, efficient support for established research computing functions.

The Executive Director will be a key strategic partner with Northeastern faculty, students, and staff to advance the institution’s research mission and will report to the Associate Vice Provost for Research Computing. To ensure that essential services are provided to the university community, the executive director may be required to work outside their regular working hours and travel as needed.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Master’s or Ph.D. in a field with a strong scientific computing component, and ten or more years of experience with research computing environment.

• Demonstrated ability to design and implement creative technical solutions in a large academic environment for various stakeholders (e.g., faculty, researchers, students) with potentially competing needs.

• Understand and navigate the decision-making process of a large and global educational, and ability to work effectively under ambiguity and constantly evolving priorities.

• Deep knowledge of high performance computing (HPC), large-scale scientific computing, parallel storage and file system.

• Excellent communication and project management skills, and ability to navigate a complex academic environment and work collaboratively with individuals at all levels.

Key Responsibilities:

Technical Execution and Leadership (60%)

• Lead the implementation and execution of research computing capabilities and day-to-day HPC systems operations located at MGHPCC facility (i.e., data center, compute, storage, networking, and other core capabilities).

• Deploy, monitor, and manage CPUs, GPUs, storage, file systems, networking on HPC systems. Develop and deploy system management and monitoring infrastructure in support of high-performance computing and cyberinfrastructure.

• Lead a team to develop and implement engineering solutions for scientific workflows for data analysis, data reduction, visualization, and long-term preservation of experimental data.

• Design, monitor, and provide continuous improvement to HPC infrastructure and capabilities to help Northeastern research produce impactful computational science research.

• Develop and deploy solutions, in collaboration with team members, to integrate Northeastern’s on-premise HPC infrastructure and data storage with other national computational resources & facilities. 

• Continuously adapt and expand research computing capabilities to support computationally intensive research, emerging scientific and engineering needs from faculty and researchers, and educational activities (e.g., courses).

• Provide strong user support to assist researchers & students in effectively utilizing computing resources and implement framework to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of resource usage.

• Develop strong relationships and collaborate with colleges, university-level impact engines, research centers to ensure research computing capabilities serve our diverse needs effectively.

• Collaborate with Northeastern Research Advisory Committee (RCAC), and the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC) on enhancing HPC capabilities and user experience that expand the impact of Northeastern research within and beyond the university.

• Manage and nurture relationships, as per the guidance from the leadership, with vendors and service providers to ensure Northeastern Research Computing enhances its capabilities in a timely and cost-effective manner

• Provide leadership, mentorship, and guidance to mentor multiple research computing staff to excel. Cultivates and fosters a collaborative team culture that promotes excellence, innovation, and creativity.

• Collaborates with the University Leadership and assists them with university-level strategic planning, development, and refinement of research computing policies and practices. 

Cover Letter:

The applicants are strongly encouraged to include a cover letter highlighting three contributions that you are most proud of.

These contributions or experience can be unrelated to each other and different in nature, but they must highlight your unique strengths, ability to devise and implement out-of-the-box/creative solutions, your work ethic, and ability to innovate under constantly evolving and competing priorities.

Please limit the cover letter to a single page. This component will significantly determine the outcome.

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.  

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.

Compensation Grade/Pay Type:

Expected Hiring Range:

With the pay range(s) shown above, the starting salary will depend on several factors, which may include your education, experience, location, knowledge and expertise, and skills as well as a pay comparison to similarly-situated employees already in the role. Salary ranges are reviewed regularly and are subject to change.