Research Computing Support Engineer

Systems Admin/Programmer III

UF Information Technology (UFIT) is currently seeking a professional-level research support engineer to join Research Computing, a unit within UFIT. This employee will provide advanced support for faculty with computational needs for research and education while optimizing the use of HiPerGator services in a hybrid position at Research Computing (RC), a unit under UFIT. RC is responsible for building, operating, and maintaining the University of Florida supercomputer called HiPerGator, #51 in the top 500 list and the fastest supercomputer owned and operated by a university in the USA.

Employment with UFIT provides an excellent opportunity to work with other employees dedicated and focused on understanding and interpreting the technological needs of the University of Florida’s innovative and inspirational community.

UF has been operating HiPerGator, for close to a decade. It has grown in power over the years and is currently ranked #51 in the November 2023 top 500 list. It is the fastest supercomputer owned and operated by a university in the USA. HiPerGator has become a critical service for UF because of the growth of the community of researchers, faculty, students, and collaborators that UFRC serves not only in size but also in the breadth of research domains. The workloads running on HiPerGator cover a wide range of research disciplines, from physical science and engineering to medicine and drug discovery, as wells as arts and humanity. The demand for HiPerGator’s computing power to carry out Artificial Intelligence (AI) Machine Learning (ML) research on large data sets has also dramatically increased with UF’s AI Initiative and the recent success of AI methods such as Deep Learning (DL) in scientific research.

This position is a crucial part of the powerful supporting infrastructure for research and teaching provided by HiPerGator services. UF is a comprehensive university offering degrees and carrying out research across a spectrum of disciplines, such as medicine, physical science, engineering, agriculture, business, law, arts, humanity, and many more. Researchers are constantly trying new ideas and need a flexible and powerful computational and data management platform. This position will join a team with diverse skills to meet the distinct needs of researchers. We are seeking a person who is excited to join the effort to help advance the university’s research and education mission and is willing to learn new subjects and techniques as they carry out their job. This position will be required to design efficient workflows for researchers to use existing HiPerGator services, and to design and develop new features or new services with colleagues in RC according to each researcher’s needs. There will be ample opportunity for training on the job for the new skills required for the variety of tasks.

We are seeking a person who is looking for an exciting career in supporting the research by world-class faculty and their students and collaborators in their quest to solve some of the problems facing the world today.

Research teams come to UFIT Research Computing with rich data sets and a set of questions, often formulated in general terms, and with models and software that require high-performance computer hardware. This position is required to help them navigate the technical hardware and software capabilities of HiPerGator to realize their research and education objectives.

Some key responsibilities and characteristics of this position are:

• Understand and explore the problems researchers intend to solve and develop effective workflows to run on HiPerGator towards a solution. These problems can come from a very diverse set of domains and each position may need to team up with colleagues in Research Computing with matching expertise and experience
• Design new services and new features to existing services to support researcher’s workflows and participate in the implementation in collaboration with colleagues in Research Computing
• Design, implement, test, and validate the proposed workflows with the researchers: this may involve scripting, programming, using the SLURM scheduler, and using software tools available on HiPerGator
• Explore, evaluate, and test software, operating systems, and applications on workstations in labs that are used for research and often interoperate with HiPerGator services
• Work with the training team to create training materials and may conduct trainings for the new features and services that are developed

About UF Information Technology

Reporting to the Vice President and Chief Information Officer, UF Information Technology is comprised of eight departments: Academic Technology; Applications, Development, and Integrations; Business Center; Customer Experience and Resource Planning; Data Platform and Analytics; Information Security Office; Infrastructure and Communication Technology; and Research Computing. With established governance advisory committees and a set of well-defined, transparent processes aiding decision-making, UFIT strives to provide exceptional IT services in support of UF’s mission. For more information about UFIT and its goals and governance, visit http://www.it.ufl.edu/vp-cio-office/strategic-plan/.

Learn more about UFIT at https://it.ufl.edu/ and @GoGatorsUFIT.

About the University of Florida

UF is one of the nation’s top-5 universities and a dynamic and rewarding place to work. The University seeks to recruit and retain a diverse workforce as a reflection of its commitment to serving a diverse global community. UF is in Gainesville, one of Florida’s most livable cities. Known for its natural attractions (wetlands, forests, springs, wildlife) and cultural offerings (music, theater, visual arts, and historic districts), the area also is gaining a reputation as a thriving hub for high-tech start-ups, as well as invention and research collaborations. We are excited about what’s happening here and know you will want to be a part of it.

Benefits

Full-time TEAMS employees will accrue vacation leave at a rate of 6.769 hours biweekly/22 days annually and sick leave at a rate of 4 hours biweekly/13 days annually. In addition, employees are eligible for ten paid holidays each year.

Vacation-accruing TEAMS employees are eligible for four personal leave days/32 hours per year, assuming full-time status, and are intended to give the flexibility to enable units to close from December 26 to 31 when possible, determined on a unit-by-unit basis.

In addition to paid time off, the University of Florida offers a very competitive benefits package.

UF Information Technology is committed to attracting, hiring, and retaining a diverse workforce and values diversity of thought, background, and experience.

Achieving a top-5 public university ranking means we make it a priority to employ and work with people with diverse experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives to discover new ways to leverage technology for teaching, learning, research, and the business needs of a comprehensive land-grant institution.

Every Gator has a part to play, and we invite you to join us as we build a community founded on belonging, inclusion, and the freedom to thrive.

$70,000 – $90,000; commensurate based on education and experience.

Bachelor's degree in an appropriate area and two years of relevant experience; or a high school diploma or equivalent and six years of experience. Appropriate college coursework or vocational/technical training may substitute at an equivalent rate for the required experience but does not negate the minimum degree requirement(s).

The ideal candidate will possess the following education, experience, and skills:

• Bachelor’s or Associate’s degree in any scholarly domain: science, technology, engineering, arts, or mathematics (STEAM).
• Provide excellent service through professional and courteous interactions with internal and external stakeholders while meeting business needs
• Thrive in a fast-paced, customer-focused, critical production, support, and development environment
• An appreciation for and support of diversity in the workplace in all its forms

EXPERIENCE
A variant of Linux, ideally RedHat Enterprise Linux or CentOS Linux; building complex workflows such as common in gene sequencing and machine learning; parallel programming for shared memory (threads, OpenMP) and distributed memory (MPI, CUDA); programming experience in scripting languages such as bash, Perl, Python and in compiled languages FORTRAN and C/C++; resource schedulers such as Kubernetes or Slurm; contemporary workflow management systems such as Nextflow or Snakemake; contemporary web application frameworks, deployment, and CI

SKILLS
Excellent written and verbal communication skills, outstanding communicator; interpersonal skills and the ability to work collegially and interact effectively with a diverse constituency; can explain highly technical subjects to people without that particular technical background; excellent organizational skills and the ability to prioritize and complete simultaneous projects with minimal supervision; accuracy, attention to detail and a customer service-oriented approach and mindset

ABILITIES
Work collaboratively and build strategic relationships with both other IT staff on campus and with faculty and their collaborators; think critically and creatively; possess a high standard of integrity, and be motivated to incorporate best practices into the organizational structure

This position will be based in one of our Gainesville offices and may include a hybrid schedule of 3 days in the office (Wednesday required), and 2 days remote.

Applicants are required to submit the following with their application:

• Cover Letter
• Resume or CV
• Professional References (Minimum of 3)

Applications must be submitted by 11:55 p.m. (ET) of the posting end date.