Senior Technical Lead of Research Infrastructure

Job Summary The Office of Information Technology encourages applications for a Senior Technical Lead of Research Infrastructure This role provides technical leadership and hands-on expertise for research computing infrastructure, including HPC systems (Alpine), research storage (PetaLibrary, scratch), and Blanca clusters. The Lead serves as the senior technical expert and primary mentor for HPC Specialists and Storage System Administrators within the Research Infrastructure Technology (RIT) team. This position also translates architectural direction from the Associate Director into practical implementation, leads complex technical work, and develops team capabilities through direct mentorship and guidance. CU is an Equal Opportunity Employer and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment. We are committed to creating a workplace where all individuals are treated with respect and dignity, and we encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply, including protected veterans and individuals with disabilities. Who We Are Vision:OIT will be valued by campus as a strategic, inclusive and innovative partner in advancing learning and discovery in order to enable CU Boulder to be an outstanding public university.Mission:OIT enables campus priorities by providing high-value IT services and solutions.Values:Trust, as a foundation for how we engage with one another and with campus partners, along withCuriosity in how to better support the campus and our partner’s while Encouraging empowerment and authentic engagement among ourselves andCelebrating a culture that promotes a sense of belonging while acknowledging that each person is unique and valued.Strategy:OIT will advance learning and discovery by delivering high-value reliable IT services and solutions that:Provide a fluid and adaptable academic and student experienceEnable research competitiveness andDeliver core infrastructure and enterprise IT services for business efficiency. What Your Key Responsibilities Will Be Technical Leadership & ImplementationThe Senior Technical Lead translates architectural direction into hands-on infrastructure solutions, serving as the team's primary technical escalation point when complex HPC and storage challenges arise. This role shapes day-to-day technical decision-making for infrastructure operations and improvements, while establishing and maintaining the technical standards, procedures, and standard practices that guide the team's systems work. The position tackles sophisticated multi-system issues that span infrastructure domains and champions automation, monitoring, and operational improvements that strengthen system reliability.Systems Administration & OperationsThis position performs hands-on administration of HPC clusters, storage systems (ZFS, RAID, GPFS, Lustre), and parallel computing infrastructure, leading complex system changes, upgrades, and optimizations. This role conducts hardware repairs, OS configuration (Linux/Unix), and software updates while optimizing system performance, resource utilization, and data-transfer capabilities (Globus). The position manages compute resources and job schedulers (SLURM), automates infrastructure provisioning through configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet, Chef), and develops monitoring and observability platforms (Nagios, Grafana) to maintain system reliability.Team Mentorship & Capability DevelopmentThe Senior Technical Lead mentors HPC and Storage System Administrators on technical skills and problem-solving approaches, providing hands-on guidance during complex implementations and troubleshooting. This role develops team capabilities through pairing, code reviews, and guided learning while building team confidence to handle infrastructure challenges independently. The position coaches team members on user documentation and knowledge-sharing, supports cross-training initiatives to reduce single points of failure, and champions a collaborative problem-solving culture within the RIT team.Documentation & Knowledge Management The Senior Technical Lead maintains technical runbooks, procedures, and troubleshooting guides while documenting system configurations and implementation details. This role creates and updates architectural diagrams for team reference, work with the team to build knowledge base and wiki, and conducts technical knowledge-sharing sessions for the RIT team.Multi-functional Collaboration & SupportThe Senior Technical Lead coordinates with User Support (UST), Data Center Operations (DCOPS) and other teams on technical issues, participates in sprint planning and Agile processes, and provides technical input on infrastructure planning and vendor evaluations. This role supports the Associate Director with technical assessments and recommendations, and advises researchers on optimal infrastructure use when brought up. The position is expected to use open source and community projects to enhance infrastructure capabilities.Professional Development This position will maintain professional expertise in the field by reviewing trade publications lists, studying the latest vendor trends, reviewing pertinent mailing lists and attending seminars, training sessions and conferences. This position will identify and elect relevant training opportunities that would be most beneficial to the organization. What You Should Know This position is in a hybrid position, working Tuesdays on campus.This position carries an expectation to respond to critical issues outside of normal business hours within a reasonable timeframe, consistent with Research Computing's "best effort" service commitments.Visa sponsorship is not available for this position. What We Can Offer The salary range is $99,700 to $112,145 annually. Benefits At the , we are committed to supporting the holistic health and well-being of our employees. Our comprehensive includes medical, dental, and retirement plans; generous paid time off; tuition assistance for you and your dependents; and an ECO Pass for local transit. As one of Boulder County’s largest employers, CU Boulder offers an inspiring academic community and access to world-class outdoor recreation. Explore additional perks and programs through the program. Be Statements Be collaborative. Be groundbreaking. Be Boulder. What We Require Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Engineering or related field. A combination of education and relevant experience as described below may be substituted for a degree on a year-for-year basis.5+ years experience:in IT infrastructure administration with deep technical depth in HPC or storage systems;working with HPC clusters or large-scale research storage environments;including 3+ years in a senior technical role with mentorship or technical leadership responsibilities. What You Will Need Exceptional ability to work effectively both within a team and independently, as circumstances warrant.Ability to follow through with assignments and commitments in a timely and professional manner.Ability to work from a set of requirements to build complex computing systems.Ability to develop and advocate independent solutions and system designs.Experience in system and related network administration of complex computer systems, specifically Linux systems and preferably Linux clusters.Experience diagnosing and repairing computer hardware.Experience with batch queueing systems, preferably Slurm.Experience with network interconnects (e.g., Intel Omni-Path Architecture, Mellanox InfiniBand, RoCE). What We Would Like You to Have Master's Degree or equivalent experience.Background in higher education or research environments.Linux Professional Institute (LPIC) or Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE).Demonstrated experience in system and related network administration of complex computer systems, specifically Linux systems and preferably Linux clusters.Demonstrated experience with an on-premises clustered virtualization environment. For example: OpenStack (preferred)OpenNebulaOvirtProxmoxExperience with Linux network file systems, particularly NFSv3.