Research Computing Specialist

The Instructional & Research Computing Specialist is responsible for facilitating the use of, as well as, supporting and maintaining the physical and virtual computer systems that enable computationally-intensive work at Davidson College. This position works within the Research Computing group inside of the Technology & Innovation (T&I) department at Davidson College, and will collaborate closely with Davidson faculty, Infrastructure, and others to develop and connect computing environments used for instructional, research, and high-performance computing (HPC), be they located on-campus, at other institutions, or on cloud services. As a member of the T&I team, the Specialist/Systems Admin is expected to uphold the department’s mission to “drive digital transformation that advances Davidson’s primary purpose” and contribute positively to a culture of collaboration, transparency, empathy, innovation, and accountability within T&I. 

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

• Help design and implement policies which enable secure and equitable usage of advanced computing resources. 
• Provide leadership and guidance to faculty, staff, and students around topics relating to HPC adoption and usage. Facilitating such adoption and usage as needed. 
• In collaboration with faculty, assist in delivering computational environments and services that support teaching and research activities for key applications. 
• Maintain current knowledge of best practices and future trends in HPC systems and applications and participate in user communities, professional associations, and conferences to share expertise and learn from others. 
• Prepare and provide status, activity, project updates and reports, and other communications to faculty and T&I leadership and campus constituents, as needed or requested. 
• Ensure the computing systems and equipment are secure and up to date. Making emergency changes as needed to address new vulnerabilities. 
• Coordinate with external advanced cyberinfrastructure providers, and serve as facilitator of their usage and adoption. 

Minimum Qualifications

• Associates degree in Information Technology, Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering preferred, and two plus years of relevant work experience with Linux systems and/or Linux system administration. 
• Prior experience maintaining and supporting small-scale, shared-use compute environments. 
• Experience using and supporting Linux systems, preferably Red Hat Enterprise Linux or derivatives such as Alma, Rocky, and CentOS Stream, including patching, and working with other teams to troubleshoot, diagnose, and resolve server problems. 
• Fluency in one or more scripting languages (bash, Python, Perl, etc.) and demonstrated ability to use these for automation, system administration and support. 
• Exposure to HPC applications and workloads, servers, and security considerations. 
• Ability to troubleshoot and interact effectively with other teams and vendor support organizations. 
• Excellent verbal, written, interpersonal, and customer service skills and ability to establish good working relationships with a wide range of people within an academic community. 
• Adaptability and Curiosity - while you are technically strong, your motivation to grow and adapt to new information and challenges is key to your success. 

Desired Skills and Abilities 

• Holds or is pursuing an advanced degree in computer engineering or other STEM field, and/or additional years’ relevant experience beyond the minimum level. 
• Hands-on experience building, maintaining and/or operating HPC and research compute clusters or research data management systems at medium to large scale. 
• Knowledge of the higher education environment for computationally intensive computing (such as Internet2, ESnet, science DMZ architectures, etc.).
• Experience supporting large file transfers for scientific and research data sets, experience with Globus is a plus. 
• Hands-on experience with HPC focused distributed file systems, such as BeeGFS, Lustre 
• Experience with national cyberinfrastructure, either as a user/researcher, or as a designated facilitator.

Information about how to submit an application can be found at https://employment.davidson.edu.