Research User Computing Lead

KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology); Thuwal; On-site; SAR 300,000 - 420,000; Full time

Job summary

KAUST (King Abdullah University of Science and Technology) invites applications for a Research User Computing Platforms Lead to guide Linux workstation architecture, provisioning, security, and lifecycle management. The role ensures high‑performance Linux workstations and remote services support faculty, researchers, and students across research and teaching activities.

While primary focus is Linux, you will supervise Windows and macOS engineers to ensure consistency and reliable service across

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, IT, engineering, or related field.
• Master’s degree in a relevant technical or management discipline preferred.
• Red Hat RHCE or LPIC, Puppet Certified Professional or equivalent configuration-management certs preferred.

Responsibilities

• Set architecture and technical direction for KAUST’s Linux workstation fleet, including provisioning, patching, access control, and lifecycle management.
• Establish infrastructure-as-code, GitOps, automation standards for the Linux platform team; provide direction for Windows and macOS endpoints.
• Lead build‑vs‑buy decisions for provisioning tools, credentials management, observability, and fleet operations; document rationale and risks.
• Own design and continuous improvement of physical and remote workstation platforms to ensure secure, high‑performance access for users.
• Oversee platform operations, including bare‑metal and virtual provisioning, patch orchestration, inventory, drift detection, and service continuity.
• Own security and compliance posture, including host hardening, audit logging, and alignment with NIST 800-171 and CIS Benchmarks.
• Define hardware standards and lifecycle plans balancing research priorities with budget and user disruption.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the Linux workstation platform team and other engineers; ensure clear roles and engineering practices.
• Serve as senior escalation point for complex platform, provisioning, and cross‑platform issues.
• Collaborate with faculty, researchers, vendors, and IT teams to translate needs into sustainable platform capabilities.
• Partner with network, IAM, storage, and advanced computing teams to deliver secure, compliant services.
• Provide regular updates to senior IT leadership on platform direction and investment needs.
• Perform other duties within the position’s scope as required.

Skills

Linux systems

Infrastructure as code

GitOps

Puppet/Ansible

Team leadership

Endpoint security

Vendor collaboration

Education

Bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field

Master’s degree in technical/management discipline

Tools

Puppet

Ansible

Git

CI/CD for infrastructure

Job description

The Research User Computing Platforms Lead provides hands‑on technical leadership for KAUST’s Linux scientific workstation platform, with responsibility for its architecture, provisioning, configuration, automation, security, and lifecycle management. The role ensures that high‑performance Linux workstations and remote workstation services effectively support faculty, researchers, and students across research and teaching activities. While the primary focus is Linux, the role also supervises and provides technical direction to Windows and macOS engineers supporting the wider end‑user computing fleet, ensuring alignment, consistency, and reliable service delivery across platforms.

Responsibilities

• Set the architecture and technical direction for KAUST’s Linux scientific workstation fleet, including configuration management, provisioning, inventory, patching, access control, security, and lifecycle management.
• Establish infrastructure-as-code, GitOps, automation, and engineering standards for the Linux platform team, and provide technical direction for the Windows and macOS endpoint platforms supported by the team.
• Lead and document build‑vs‑buy and tooling decisions for provisioning, configuration management, secrets management, observability, and fleet operations, including rationale, risks, and tradeoffs.
• Own the design and continuous improvement of physical and remote scientific workstation platforms, ensuring secure, high‑performance access for faculty, researchers, students, and teaching users.
• Oversee platform operations, including bare‑metal and virtual provisioning, patch orchestration, inventory, drift detection, observability, reliability, and service continuity for active research users.
• Own the security and compliance posture of the workstation fleet, including host hardening, secrets management, audit logging, compliance baselines, and alignment with frameworks such as NIST 800-171 and CIS Benchmarks.
• Define hardware standards, refresh cycles, model validation, driver compatibility, firmware and BIOS automation, and lifecycle plans while balancing research priorities, budget constraints, and user disruption.
• Lead, mentor, supervise, and develop the Linux workstation platform team, including Windows and macOS engineers, ensuring clear roles, objectives, performance expectations, and shared engineering practices.
• Serve as the senior technical escalation point for complex platform, provisioning, access‑control, hardware, and cross‑platform endpoint issues.
• Work directly with faculty, researchers, students, vendors, and internal IT teams to understand requirements, manage expectations, and translate research and teaching needs into sustainable platform capabilities.
• Partner with network, security, IAM, storage, and advanced computing teams to deliver integrated, secure, and compliant platform services.
• Provide regular updates and recommendations to senior IT leadership on platform direction, risks, lifecycle planning, investment needs, and service improvements.
• Perform other applicable tasks and duties assigned within the realm of the employee’s knowledge, skills, and abilities in the field of the position.

Qualifications

• Essential: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, or a related field.
• Preferred: Master’s degree in a relevant technical or management discipline.
• Preferred certifications: Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE), Linux Professional Institute Certification (LPIC), Puppet Certified Professional or equivalent configuration‑management certification.
• Preferred certifications: Networking or security certification relevant to NAC/802.1X, such as CCNA or Aruba certification; ITIL Foundation or higher; security certifications such as CISSP, CISM, or CompTIA Security+.

Required Skills

• Extensive experience in Linux systems, infrastructure, endpoint engineering, or platform engineering, with a strong record of owning systems at scale.
• Hands‑on production experience with declarative configuration management, preferably Puppet or Ansible, and a demonstrated infrastructure‑as‑code and GitOps mindset using Git workflows, code review, and CI/CD for infrastructure.
• Experience managing large Linux endpoints or workstation fleets, ideally 500+ endpoints, including Ubuntu and Rocky Linux in enterprise, research, academic, or scientific computing environments.
• Experience with network‑based provisioning, patch management, endpoint security, observability, hardware lifecycle management, firmware/BIOS automation, and security/compliance baselines.
• Working knowledge of network access control, including 802.1X, RADIUS, certificate‑based authentication, endpoint supplicant configuration, and provisioning or break‑glass scenarios.
• Evidence of technical leadership, including setting architecture, making consequential tradeoffs, mentoring engineers, improving engineering practices, and supporting hiring or team development.
• Experience working directly with faculty, researchers, students, technical teams, vendors, and leadership to gather requirements, manage expectations, and balance competing priorities.
• Experience supporting high‑performance or GPU‑enabled scientific computing environments, including NVIDIA/CUDA, performance tuning, and workload‑specific desktop requirements.