Research Computing Specialist

Position Summary

The purpose of this position is to lead the day-to-day facilitation of Humboldt’s High Performance Computing Center and research computing services by consulting with faculty, students, and campus partners to understand research needs and map them to appropriate technology options.

Key Responsibilities

• Research Computing Consultation and Faculty Partnership – 25%

• Consult with faculty, students, and research partners to understand research computing needs.
• Translate research goals into technical requirements, workflows, and service options.
• Guide users through available research computing, HPC, cloud, data, and related ITS services.

• HPC Center Service Facilitation and Project Coordination – 20%

• Lead day-to-day facilitation of Humboldt’s High Performance Computing research services.
• Coordinate research computing projects from intake through implementation.
• Partner with ITS teams, faculty, and campus partners to define scope, track progress, identify barriers, and support successful delivery of research technology solutions.

• Technical Assistance – 20%

• Provide technical guidance for research computing workflows.
• Write and review scripts, code, documentation, and related technical deliverables for quality, reproducibility, maintainability, and alignment with service standards.
• Help faculty and students apply appropriate tools, platforms, and technical practices.

• Training, Outreach, Presentations, and Service Adoption – 15%

• Develop and deliver training, presentations, demonstrations, and outreach to faculty, students, and campus groups to increase awareness and effective use of research computing services.
• Promote HPC and related services in support of research, student projects, and creative activities.

• Student Assistant Lead Work Direction and Mentoring – 10%

• Provide lead work direction, training, mentoring, task coordination, and review of work for student assistants supporting research computing services, projects, documentation, and outreach.

• Research Computing Documentation, Website Content, and Service Information – 5%

• Maintain current and accurate user-facing documentation and website content for research computing services.
• Develop guides, service descriptions, training materials, intake information, and communications that help users understand and access available services.

• Other Duties as Assigned – 5%

• As Listed In Classification Standards

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Thorough and advanced knowledge of business systems analysis concepts, principles, protocols, and best practices.
• Demonstrated competence in independently applying advanced judgment to resolve difficult and complex technical problems and issues.
• Advanced analytical skills to investigate and research new systems and technologies and to develop complex information technology systems and solutions.
• Excellent project management skills, with the ability to manage multiple complex projects and ensure successful delivery within scope, budget, and timelines.
• Advanced communication and interpersonal skills to build and foster strong relationships and drive change initiatives.
• Advanced skill in mentoring and overseeing the work of others.
• Ability to effectively communicate with a diverse population.

Minimum Qualifications

• Equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in a related field and four years of relevant experience.
• Additional experience which demonstrates acquired and successfully applied knowledge and abilities may be substituted for the required education on a year-for-year basis.
• An advanced degree in a related field may be substituted for the required experience on a year-for-year basis.

Preferred Qualifications

• Advanced experience designing, implementing, optimizing, or administering research computing, high performance computing (HPC), AI/ML computing environments, GPU-enabled infrastructure, cloud-based research platforms, or large-scale data-intensive research workflows.
• Experience deploying, administering, supporting, or developing services within the National Research Platform (NRP) or comparable large-scale distributed research computing environments.
• Advanced experience developing, reviewing, optimizing, or maintaining Python-based applications, automation tools, scientific workflows, data-processing pipelines, or research computing services.
• Experience developing, troubleshooting, optimizing, or supporting distributed computing applications, parallel processing frameworks, multi-node workloads, containerized research environments, or GPU-accelerated computing solutions.
• Experience configuring, optimizing, or supporting NVIDIA GPU infrastructure, CUDA-enabled applications, AI/ML model training environments, GPU resource scheduling, or performance tuning activities.
• Experience administering, troubleshooting, automating, or maintaining Linux-based research computing, high performance computing, or scientific computing environments.
• Experience serving as a technical advisor to faculty, researchers, or research teams by evaluating computational requirements, designing research technology solutions, and recommending advanced computing strategies, services, or architectures.
• Experience supporting faculty research, student projects, grants, creative activities, sponsored projects, or research data management practices.
• Experience designing and delivering technical training programs, workshops, user communities of practice, or outreach initiatives related to research computing, AI/ML, data science, or advanced technology services.
• Experience leading complex technology initiatives involving project management, service development, process improvement, requirements analysis, stakeholder engagement, organizational change management, and service adoption strategies.