Princeton University · 9 hours ago
Senior Director, Advanced Systems (HPC)
Princeton, NJ
Full-time
Onsite
Director/Executive
$205K/yr - $220K/yr
15+ years expPrinceton University is seeking a Senior Director of Advanced Systems in the Research Computing department to lead a team of technical experts in designing and maintaining high performance computing systems. The role involves setting strategic roadmaps, providing technical leadership, and ensuring that the computational needs of the research community are met while remaining current with technology trends.
AlumniEducationHigher EducationUniversities
Hiring Manager
Jessica Jenks, MS HRD
Responsibilities
Provide vision, technical expertise, and direct support for computational research needs in academic departments across the university, including faculty, professional research staff, postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduate students
Participate in and, in some cases, lead committees related to the governance and continued evolution of computational research clusters and services necessary to meet the needs of world class researchers at Princeton
Monitor research and technology trends in high performance computing and research computing support by reading literature and white papers, following relevant periodicals, participating in related forums, and attending relevant conferences
Remain current with the latest advancements in technologies supporting data science, machine learning, deep learning, and AI
Develop and maintain strong and positive vendor relationships to keep abreast of technical advances and act as a primary point of contact for all interactions
Work collaboratively with faculty, academic departments, research computing leadership, and senior administration to develop, evolve, and execute a coordinated strategic direction for deploying, operating, and supporting computational and data resources that meet the evolving needs of research and scholarship at the University
Fully comprehends the challenges facing users of the computational cluster. Monitor ticket queues, coordinate support, and escalate troubleshooting of complicated problems
Leverage team members’ strengths to adapt to new challenges and requirements
Spearheads the technical design and deployment of centralized research computing systems, consulting with faculty to understand their needs, interfacing with vendors to match capabilities to requirements, and leading the technical team to implement systems that provide the best balance of institutional investment and computational performance
Lead the system administration for Princeton’s centralized HPC systems that represent a significant capital investment to support production computational and data science research on campus and to enable researchers to scale to larger regional and national systems. The central HPC systems serve a large percent of the University’s faculty and researchers from a majority of the academic departments
Develop short and long term strategies promoting the growth and support of high performance computing and research computing systems
Utilize scheduling and workload management software (currently SLURM) for job submission, resource allocation, and monitoring within an HPC environment
Design and optimize code for pre-processor and batch scripts for efficient execution of computational workloads
Implement, maintain, and monitor fairshare policies to understand job queue flows and dynamically tune schedulers to improve efficiency
Keep abreast of developments in scheduling and workload management software and its roadmap, and maintain strong relationships with software and workload management software developers and account managers
Sets the direction for the Advanced Systems group; provides leadership and mentorship for staff, creates a positive and motivating work environment, sets clear goals, delegates tasks, monitors team performance, provides feedback and coaching, resolves conflicts, fosters strong interpersonal communication, and identifies opportunities for professional development
Engage, collaborate, and align with colleagues in Researcher Engagement and Advanced Data and Storage Management to ensure shared awareness of campus needs and provide comprehensive support of services supported by all of Research Computing
Promote a diverse, inclusive, and supportive work environment based upon a shared vision
Qualification
Required
15+ years of strong experience designing and managing high performance computing scheduling, hardware, software and storage systems
Strong knowledge of current research computing hardware, software, and storage in the research computing industry, and the ability to stay abreast of trends and future HPC and AI systems and hardware
Strong proficiency in SLURM scheduling and workload management software
Extensive Linux system administration experience
Networking skills (including Ethernet and Infiniband)
Demonstrated ability to work well with a diverse group of people at many different levels, including faculty, research staff, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, undergraduate students, senior administration, IT staff (both at Princeton and at peer institutions)
Ability to facilitate productive conversation with staff through conflict, difference of opinion, and/or change in task prioritization
Experience building cohesive and effective teams by promoting collaboration, self-reflection, and growth
Ability to develop and maintain positive relationships with vendors
The ability to manage and lead IT staff both through direct supervisory relationships and indirectly
Strong communication skills, including written, verbal and presentation skills: effective in a variety of formal presentation settings: one-on-one, small and large groups
Preferred
Experience working in an Academic Environment
AI/Machine Learning/Deep Learning/Secure Research Infrastructure experience
Benefits
Comprehensive benefit program
Company
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private Ivy League university that offers a variety of master’s degrees and Ph. D.s.
5001-10000 employees
H1B Sponsorship
Princeton University has a track record of offering H1B sponsorships. Please note that this does not
guarantee sponsorship for this specific role. Below presents additional info for your
reference. (Data Powered by US Department of Labor)
Distribution of Different Job Fields Receiving Sponsorship
Represents job field similar to this job
Trends of Total Sponsorships
2025 (301)
2024 (220)
2023 (218)
2022 (172)
2021 (207)
2020 (193)
Funding
Current Stage
Late StageTotal Funding
$11.44MKey Investors
US Department of EnergyAlfred P. Sloan FoundationNational Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
2024-06-06Grant· $2M
2023-08-14Grant
2022-02-15Grant· $5.5M
Leadership Team
Amy Robinson Sterling
Executive Director, Eyewire
Anne-Marie Maman
Founding Director - Princeton Entrepreneurship Council
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