Solutions Architect

About the role

HBS IT is seeking a Solutions Architect to serve as the technical anchor for our next-generation research computing platforms. This role is part of a "class-defining" environment where you will not just manage systems, but architect the future of how social science research is conducted at one of the world’s leading institutions.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, architecture, and implementation of scalable AWS-based research computing systems, ensuring alignment with security and regulated data requirements to sustain and scale a rapidly expanding research community.
• Define and uphold technical standards for monitoring, health, and integrity of cloud-based research computing environments, including strategic oversight of system upgrades and patching.
• Translate complex research needs and product priorities into sound technical approaches and delivery plans, balancing high-level architecture with hands-on systems engineering to deliver creative institutional or custom solutions.
• Perform hands-on software engineering and develop custom tools to address complex researcher use cases beyond standard platform capabilities.
• Influence the strategic direction of HBS IT research technology platforms by balancing the mitigation of technical debt with the adoption of next-generation tools.
• Build and maintain relationships with external vendors and provide technical oversight and mentorship to strengthen team capability and solution quality.
• Collaborate with key HBS IT partners and university-wide Harvard University IT peers to ensure research solutions align with enterprise infrastructure and security standards.
• Build trust and collaboration by being present on-site and engaging directly with colleagues and various constituents.
• Complete other responsibilities as assigned.

Qualifications

• Minimum of nine years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience.
• Broad knowledge of research computing systems, including storage, cluster computing, network, database, and virtualized systems.
• Experience in the design, development, and deployment of cloud-based applications, within the AWS ecosystem (e.g., IAM, EC2, ECS, Lambda, Security Hub).
• Proficiency with Infrastructure-as-Code (e.g., CloudFormation or Terraform) and configuration management tools.
• Advanced proficiency in coding with Python, R, or other research-relevant languages for developing custom tools and solutions.
• Prominent experience in Linux systems administration and automating workflows through scripting languages (e.g., Bash or Python).
• Demonstrated experience in architecting secure, scalable solutions for diverse and evolving research use cases.
• Proven ability to architect secure, scalable solutions for diverse and evolving research use cases.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to act as a trusted advisor and translate research needs into technical solutions. Demonstrated leadership through mentoring technical staff and coordination of vendor effectiveness.
• Familiarity with High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments and cluster management.
• AWS Certified Solutions Architect or similar cloud certifications (preferred).

Benefits

Harvard offers a comprehensive benefits package that is designed to support a healthy work-life balance and your physical, mental and financial wellbeing. This includes generous paid time off, medical, dental, and vision health insurance coverage, retirement plans with university contributions, wellbeing and mental health resources, professional development opportunities, commuter benefits, discounts and campus perks, and more.