Associate Director High Performance Computational

The Scientific Computing and Data team at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai partners with scientists to accelerate scientific discovery for basic and translational science research. To achieve these aims, we support a high-performance computing and data ecosystem along with MD/PhD-level support for researchers. The group is composed of a high performance computing team, a research clinical data warehouse team and a research data services team.

The Associate Director, High Performance Computational and Data Ecosystem, brings a strategic, tactical and customer-focused vision to evolve Sinai’s computational and data-rich environment to be continually more resilient, scalable and productive. The development and execution of the vision includes a deep technical understanding of the best practices for computational, data and software development systems along with a focus on world-class customer service. The Associate Director is a productive partner for researchers and technologists throughout the organization and beyond.

The Associate Director is responsible for architecting, designing and managing the technical operations for Scientific Computing and Data’s computational and data science ecosystem. This ecosystem includes high-performance computing and data systems, Data Ark data commons, electronic health records in the Mount Sinai Data Warehouse, REDCap and other clinical research databases, integration with other technology systems at Mount Sinai, and a software development infrastructure. The Associate Director is highly collaborative, proactive, a problem solver and an effective team builder. This position reports to the Director for High Performance Computational & Data Ecosystem in Scientific Computing and Data.

The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai was awarded nearly $500 million in research funding in 2023, with nearly $200 million of research enabled through the Scientific Computing and Data team. Mount Sinai is ranked 14th nationwide in NIH funding and among the 99th percentile in research dollars per investigator according to the Association of American Medical Colleges

Responsibilities:

Deliver a world-class, sustainable computational and data ecosystem

● Oversee technical operations and system administrations including the design, expansion, monitoring, support, hardware and software configuration, system performance, security, high-availability infrastructure, networking and maintenance for Scientific Computing and Data’s computational and data science ecosystem consistent with best practices. Key components include a 25,000+ core, 500 GPU and 50+ petabyte raw parallel file system,40+ petabyte archival storage system, and a research clinical data warehouse with a high availability infrastructure including 80 servers spanning a diverse set of applications such as REDCap, Jira, Postgres, MySQL, SQL and other Sinai-developed software.

● Develop sustainable technology and process solutions to meet researcher’s needs consistent with institutional policies and budgetary constraints. Work with stakeholders to evaluate multiple solutions, articulating advantages and disadvantages to guide the selection process.

● Lead the integration of HPC resources with laboratory equipment such as genomic sequencers, etc.

● Manage and assist in the troubleshooting, isolation and resolution of all technical issues.

● Manage and assists the team to resolve user support requests from researchers.

● Partner with other peers regionally, nationally and internationally to maintain a world-class research infrastructure for Mount Sinai.

● Assist in the development of research proposals.

● Identify opportunities for automation and the use of AI. Implement these approaches as appropriate.

● Manage the framework for effective system documentation.

● Ensure coordination with Digital and Technology Partners and alignment with all federal and state regulatory guidelines and MSHS institutional processes including cybersecurity.

● Provide after-hours support for critical system issues.

● Identify and track metrics and manage usage reports.

● Prepare and manage budgets for hardware, software and maintenance. Participate in

chargeback/fee recovery analysis and provides suggestions to make operations sustainable

and streamlined.

● Complete projects on scope, schedule and budget.

Develop, foster and grow a high performing technical operations team

● Grow and sustain a team of system focused on operational efficiency and excellence.

● Set priorities for the team. Coach direct reports, subject matter experts and sub-team leads in management and leadership skills, in additional to guidance on building strategies and roadmaps. Inspire and foster an environment of cooperation among different departments and co-workers.

● Ensure that career development and growth paths for team members are developed and in alignment with the team’s needs and personal objectives.

● Ensure that the team works effectively and productively with other team members across Mount Sinai.

● Utilize leadership skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills to facilitate and encourage participation of team members to meet objectives in congruence with approved standards, guidelines and team goals.

● Champion and advocate for the value of diversity, equity and inclusion taking action to increase workplace diversity by promoting and developing staff from under-represented minority groups. Confront racist, sexist or other inappropriate behavior and challenge exclusionary organizational practices and serving as a role model to promote anti-racist behaviors. Use a lens of equity in establishing and promoting policies and procedures

Requirements:

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, engineering or another scientific field. Master's or PhD preferred.
• 8 years of progressive HPC system administration and operations in a research environment. Expert troubleshooting skills.
• Experience with installing and troubleshooting Linux and Windows systems, parallel file systems and VMware.
• Experience managing operations and support teams.
• Proven leadership and management skills, the ability to manage a variety of disparate tasks and priorities independently and troubleshoot complex technology problems.
• Excellent communication skills, analytical ability, strong judgment and management skills, and the ability to work effectively as a liaison between both research and technology teams.
• Strong written, oral, and interpersonal communication skills.
• Experience in creating budgets
• Experience in completing projects on scope, schedule and budget
• Attention to detail; time and project management skills.
• Experience with GPFS and LSF is highly preferred.
• Experience with databases (MS SQL, MySQL, MySQL Galera, Oracle, PostgreSQL, etc.) and web servers is highly preferred.
• Experience with archival storage and tape libraries (TSM) is preferred.
• Experience in a research environment is highly preferred.
• Experience in a healthcare environment is preferred.
• Compliance, HIPAA, GDPR, FISMA
• Experience with financial budgets and providing cost benefit analysis is preferred.

Strength Through Diversity

The Mount Sinai Health System believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are key drivers for excellence. We share a common devotion to delivering exceptional patient care. When you join us, you become a part of Mount Sinai’s unrivaled record of achievement, education, and advancement as we revolutionize medicine together. We invite you to participate actively as a part of the Mount Sinai Health System team by:

• Using a lens of equity in all aspects of patient care delivery, education, and research to promote policies and practices to allow opportunities for all to thrive and reach their potential.
• Serving as a role model confronting racist, sexist, or other inappropriate actions by speaking up, challenging exclusionary organizational practices, and standing side-by-side in support of colleagues who experience discrimination.
• Inspiring and fostering an environment of anti-racist behaviors among and between departments and co-workers.

At Mount Sinai, our leaders strive to learn, empower others, and embrace change to further advance equity and improve the well-being of staff, patients, and the organization. We expect our leaders to embrace anti-racism, create a collaborative and respectful environment, and constructively disrupt the status quo to improve the system and enhance care for our patients. We work hard to create an inclusive, welcoming and nurturing work environment where all feel they are valued, belong and are able to advance professionally.

The Mount Sinai Health System is an equal opportunity employer. We comply with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate, exclude, or treat people differently on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. We are passionately committed to addressing racism and its effects on our faculty, staff, students, trainees, patients, visitors, and the communities we serve. Our goal is for Mount Sinai to become an anti-racist health care and learning institution that intentionally addresses structural racism.”

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