Area Lead, Research Software Engineering

Harvard’s Research Computing is seeking an Area Lead for their new Research Software Engineering (RSE) role.  Our department has prior success in collaborating with faculty on a short-term basis to provide well-engineered software that enriches research productivity and reliability.  In this position, you will help develop a core team that will build a more lasting partnership between researchers and software experts, one which will allow code to evolve with the research, and ensure that modern standards of reproducible code are kept.  You will also have the opportunity to engage in the national dialogue around forming an RSE Association in the US. Come join our team and help us to build our new approach to supporting computational discoveries!
 
The Area Lead will report to the Director of Research Computing, oversee a team of professional staff, and be part of the Research Computing Leadership group. Management responsibilities include building and developing a diverse and effective team; planning and delegating work effectively; communicating and monitoring performance expectations; motivating and developing direct reports; and ensuring compliance with Harvard policies and procedures.  This position will engage with the FAS Informatics and Scientific Core Applications Group. Most importantly, this position will interact daily with research faculty to assess needs, develop research plans, coordinate and facilitate the development of software algorithms.  It is expected that this position will also lead a set of revolving term-positions that are scaled according to demand for services.                                                                   
 
Harvard University’s Research Computing continues to evolve, expand services and support to their leading research faculty and their collaborators around the world.  These services include maintaining nearly 100,000 cores of high-performance computing, cloud computing, virtual machines, storage, databases, instrumentation core facility workstations and other development platforms as well as directly engaging with researchers through help requests, online chat, office hours, training, and in-depth consultations.  Research Computing has numerous other successful collaborations, including building the MGHPCC (http://www.mghpcc.org/) in Holyoke, MA with leading partner universities. It is with these institutions that the newly NSF-funded NESE project was launched (https://projectnese.org) that will create a regional data science repository.  Boston University and Harvard also have a strong collaboration supporting the US Atlas Project (http://www.usatlas.bnl.gov/) as the North East Tier 2 (NET2) site, which is connected to the Open Science Grid.  The Advanced Cyberinfrastructure, Research & Education and Facilitation project (https://aci-ref.org), has enabled us to develop a team of facilitators. Research Computing at Harvard has a track-record of building partnerships to accelerate research and collaboration.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in sciences or statistical-based research required. Minimum 6 years of experience working in a predominate software development environment, with a minimum of 3 years experience managing code development projects for stakeholders and 3 years experience managing staff.

Additional Qualifications

Education: A M.S. in computationally driven science is highly preferred, as well as 8 years of experience working in a predominate software development environment.
 
Technical Skills:. Knowledge of batch processing, configuration management, and cloud orchestration techniques are essential.  Well versed in software best practices, continuous integration and containerized solutions. Competency in high and low-level programming languages (C/C++, FORTRAN, python, R, ...) is essential along with basic management of large software systems and relational database architectures.  Creating streamlined user interfaces for research design and visualization for research output are necessary.  Superior communication skills coupled with an ability to navigate an academic environment and work collaboratively with individuals at all levels is key.

Additional Information

We regret that Harvard University does not provide visa sponsorship for this position.

All formal written offers will be made by FAS Human Resources.