Associate Director, Research, Operations, and Infrastructure

About The Department

The University of Chicago Booth School of Business is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and second to none when it comes to influencing business education and business practices. Since 1898, the school has produced ideas and leaders that shape the world of business. Their rigorous, discipline-based approach to business education transforms students into confident, effective, respected business leaders prepared to face the toughest challenges. Chicago Booth has the finest set of facilities of any business school in the world. Each of the four campuses (two in Chicago, one in London, and one in Hong Kong) reflects the architectural traditions of its environs while offering a state-of-the-art learning environment. Chicago Booth Is Proud To Claim: an unmatched faculty, degree and open enrollment programs offered on three continents, a global body of nearly 56,000 accomplished alumni, strong and growing corporate relationships that provide a wealth of lifelong career opportunities. As part of the world-renowned University of Chicago, Chicago Booth shares the University's core values that shape the distinctive intellectual culture.

Job Summary

The Associate Director of Research Operations and Infrastructure for Chicago Booth Information Technology oversee daily operations, project management, and maintenance of reliable network, server, storage infrastructures, including high performance computing (HPC) clusters. This role supports data center services and email to ensure high availability in a 24/7 environment. Working collaboratively with faculty and researchers across various departments, the Associate Director develops tailored technical solutions to support and advance cutting-edge scientific research. The position manages research support staff, develops team capabilities, and leads succession planning for IT operations.

Responsibilities

• Leads day-to-day operations and project management for systems and network infrastructure, including hosted Windows and Linux departmental servers; application, database, email, file, and backup services; and core infrastructure services such as DNS, DHCP, and Active Directory.

• Leads and manages a team of system administrators and research support staff, taking responsibility for assigning work, managing workflow, and creating professional development opportunities.

• Manages and maintains the enterprise storage and storage area network (SAN) environment including troubleshooting, performance planning, capacity, and continuity planning.

• Enhances the focus on security administration by working closely with the Booth Information Security team to maintain continuous risk assessments, review critical systems and identified threats, and produce operational policies/procedures documentation.

• Collaborates directly with faculty, research teams, and leadership to understand their unique computational needs and develop tailored technological solutions.

• Affords assistance in the planning, design, and implementation of new systems, storage, automation and virtualization technology.

• Develops and implements strategies to advance research computing capabilities, while assessing and evaluating existing infrastructure to recommend necessary improvements.

• Develops project plans, forecasts budget needs, and manages financial resources effectively to optimize operations and cost-effectiveness.

• Represents the University's research computing interests by fostering partnerships with external organizations, national HPC centers, and other internal IT departments to enhance overall capabilities.

• Maintains Booth's Disaster Recovery infrastructure and documentation, ensuring systems and applications are adequately protected according to their SLAs, and run bi-annual Disaster Recovery tests.

• Maintains Booth's Disaster Recovery infrastructure and documentation, ensuring systems and applications are adequately protected according to their SLAs, and run bi-annual Disaster Recovery tests.

• Maintains Booth's Disaster Recovery infrastructure and documentation, ensuring systems and applications are adequately protected according to their SLAs, and run bi-annual Disaster Recovery tests.

• Maintains Booth's Disaster Recovery infrastructure and documentation, ensuring systems and applications are adequately protected according to their SLAs, and run bi-annual Disaster Recovery tests.

Education

• Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Experience

• Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Technical Skills Or Knowledge

• Proficient managing networked servers with knowledge of switches and firewalls, network services, system utilities, hardware installation, and operating/application system installation.

• Proficient managing high-performance computing (HPC) systems, clusters, and advanced research computing infrastructure.

• Strong understanding of research computing needs, including large-scale data management, analysis, and scientific workflow and job scheduling architectures.

• Familiarity with various programming languages and tools commonly used in research, such as Python, R, MATLAB, Jupyter, and Slurm.

Preferred Competencies

• Demonstrated project management skills to achieve results for multiple, simultaneous projects with competing demands.

• Outstanding leadership and collaboration skills to work effectively with researchers, students, and IT professionals across multiple disciplines.

• Deal with confidential and sensitive research data with tact, discretion, and strict adherence to security protocols.

Working Conditions

This position is currently expected to work a hybrid schedule.