Director, Research Cyberinfrastructure Center

UC Irvine; Irvine (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

UC Irvine seeks a Director for the Research Cyberinfrastructure Center (RCIC) to provide overall direction and growth of the RCIC. You will lead a team of researchers and professionals, coordinating with OIT and campus partners to deliver high‑performance IT facilities and services for scholarly work.

The role requires strategic vision, experience in academic environments, and strong communication with executives and faculty to enable cutting-edge research infrastructure.

Qualifications

• Broad, thorough knowledge of data communications, HPC, storage, secure data infra and cloud services in a research setting.
• Extensive experience in an academic environment, including hands-on research or supporting research teams.
• Experience with full research project lifecycle: funding, grants, reporting and IDC/overhead calculations.
• Proven leadership of experienced technical professionals and team development.
• Strong vision, strategic planning, and consensus-building across diverse groups.

Responsibilities

• Provide overall direction and leadership for UC Irvine RCIC, serving as focal point for IT services.
• Lead and grow RCIC, reporting to the Vice Provost/CIO with cross-campus collaboration.
• Coordinate with OIT, UCI Libraries, Data Sciences Initiative, Calit2, and schools.
• Oversee research IT services and foster collaborative relationships with related groups.
• Represent RCIC in governance and drive integration with campus services.

Skills

Data communications

Cluster computing

Data storage

High performance computing

High performance networking

Open source software

Research software

Cloud services

Strategic planning

Verbal & written communication

Tools

Infiniband

Open source software

Data center management

Job description

Who We Are

Founded in 1965, UC Irvine is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UC Irvine has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. To learn more about UC Irvine, visit www.uci.edu. The Office of Information Technology (OIT) is responsible for supporting the IT needs of UC Irvine faculty, students, and staff. Our mission is to provide information technology leadership, services, and innovative solutions to promote the research, education, and community service goals of the University. The Research Cyberinfrastructure Center (RCIC), formed in 2018, supports the ever-growing needs of researchers on campus who require access to scalable computing and data resources. Focusing on the specific needs of UCI researchers, RCIC naturally fills the resource gap between small-scale, department-sized resources and national supercomputer centers. Its charter to help researchers be more competitive by providing access to top-quality cyberinfrastructure and adapting as technology evolves over time. Direct interaction with all researchers including graduate students, faculty, postdoctoral, and research staff is an essential component of RCIC’s “DNA”. While resources are managed to high-levels of reliability, RCIC must also evaluate and deploy emerging technologies.

Your Role on the Team

The Director, Research Cyberinfrastructure Center provides overall direction of UCI’s Research Cyberinfrastructure Center (RCIC) serving as focal point and service center for accessing, providing, coordinating and enhancing research Information Technology facilities and services. The Director will provide overall leadership in managing and growing the RCIC. The Director reports to the Vice Provost and Chief Information Officer, with a dotted line report to the Vice Chancellor of Research. OIT supports RCIC administratively and provides data center and other supplementary services. The RCIC Director serves as a member of the CIO’s senior leadership team, to facilitate integration and synergies with educational technology and other campus services. The Director oversees research IT services provided by the RCIC and facilitates collaborative service relationships with other groups that provide related services, in support of all UCI faculty and research staff. The Director is an ex-officio member of the faculty governance mechanisms that will provide RCIC oversight. The Director coordinates within OIT and with partner organizations such as the UCI Libraries, Data Sciences Initiative, Calit2, and academic schools.

Required

What It Takes to be Successful

• Broad thorough, and demonstrated knowledge of technical concepts and operating principles of data communications, cluster computing, data storage, secure data infrastructure, high performance networking (e.g. Infiniband), high performance computing, open source and other research software, and cloud services used in a research computing environment.
• Extensive experience in an academic environment, conducting hands‑on research, and/or supporting research teams.
• Experience with full research project life cycle, including, but not limited to, identifying funding sources, authoring grant proposals, knowledge of funding lines in a grant request (e.g. capital, S&E, etc.), reporting requirements, overhead/IDC calculations, etc.
• Demonstrated experience leading the work of experienced technical professionals, keeping them engaged and developing them into high performing teams.
• Strong research technology vision development and strategic planning skills.
• Demonstrated success working with a diverse group of peers to build consensus to achieve significant objectives in an environment where a variety of occasionally conflicting personalities and strategic goals must be reconciled.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills; the ability to interact professionally and diplomatically with a diverse group including faculty, research staff, Information Technology professionals, and executives; the ability to effectively present technical topics to large groups with potentially varied levels of technical sophistication.
• Experience publishing technical materials in documents, whitepapers, conference or trade group proceedings, or peer‑reviewed journals.
• Ability to apply advanced Information Technology principles, theories, and concepts to manage and provide solutions to complex and multi‑dimensional problems. Demonstrated knowledge of the challenges imposed by big data research, cross‑disciplinary research, distributed computing infrastructure, cloud computing, high‑speed networking; etc.
• Experience in the management of ongoing