Director, Data Services & Project Operations, Research Computing Services

Reporting to the Senior Director, RCS, the Director for Data Services and Project Operations, RCS, oversees the portfolio of RCS projects for HBS faculty members and works collaboratively across the team to ensure that projects are staffed appropriately, completed in a timely manner, and meet the highest quality standards and that there is excellent communication with faculty clients. In an individual contributor role, the Director for Data Services and Project Operations provides direct support to faculty for a range of data, methodological and statistical needs. Responsibilities include:

Overseeing the Portfolio of RCS Projects for Faculty:

• Oversees the portfolio of RCS projects for HBS faculty members, working collaboratively with the team to ensure these services meet the highest standards of quality and client satisfaction. 
• Works closely with the RCS Coordinator to process the departmental work queue, triaging new project requests and managing the assignment of project work to team members to ensure that projects are staffed appropriately.  Reaches out to faculty members as appropriate to scope out individual projects. 
• Meets regularly with data and statistical teams to monitor progress of projects for faculty. Works collaboratively with the team to allocate resources, prioritize projects, manage problem resolution, and ensure projects are completed in a timely manner and with a high level of service quality. 
• May act as liaison between faculty members and RCS staff in order to ensure that expectations are well understood, that there is excellent communication with faculty clients, and that services meet client expectations. 
• Strives to ensure that faculty are well supported and feel well supported. 
• Leverages deep project management experience and collaborates with the team to identify and implement processes and guidelines to improve management of projects for faculty. 
• Fosters and facilitates collaboration and peer-to-peer learning among team members. 
• Manages outside contractors providing programming and data services for faculty. 
• Maintains an understanding of research computing technologies, software, and infrastructure, working closely with the Senior Director, Director of Technology Operations, and Coordinator. 
• Reviews and approves security plans around data use agreements.  
• Directly supervises data analysts.

Providing Direct Faculty Support:

• Provides direct support to HBS faculty members, helping them navigate available resources. 
• Works with faculty to understand and assess their research computing needs and recommends applicable technologies, approaches, and solutions. Consults with faculty members on research plans and challenges, and recommends resources to address their research needs. 
• Performs data and analytic/statistical project work directly for faculty.   
• Provides short-term consulting to faculty on a range of data and analytic/statistical topics. 

Basic Qualifications

Applicants must be experienced and effective managers with 10+ years of experience, including 5+ years of relevant experience managing people and projects.

PhD required, preferably with a quantitative focus in the social sciences. 

Technical skills in programming (e.g., Stata, SAS, SQL, Python); data acquisition, cleaning, processing, analysis, and visualization; statistical/analytic techniques; and research methods required. 

Additional Qualifications

Applicants must demonstrate a deep understanding of the research process.

Applicants must demonstrate a strong customer service orientation, the ability to effectively manage a team and motivate team members, excellent project management skills, a highly collaborative style, and the ability to think creatively and strategically regarding the application of technology to academic research.  

Additional Information

Harvard Business School, whose mission is to educate leaders who make a difference in the world, is seeking an experienced manager with a strong background in data management and quantitative social science research to serve as Director for Data Services and Project Operations, in its Research Computing Services (RCS) group within the Division of Research and Faculty Development (DRFD). 

The Division of Research and Faculty Development (DRFD) is the School’s largest administrative unit with approximately 270 full-time and part-time staff. The organization was formed in 2002 to fully integrate the activities underlying faculty support and development.  HBS is unique among top business schools, perhaps in higher education more broadly, in having a unit like the DRFD – one that funds faculty research internally, provides centralized research services, and combines nearly all faculty-related administration and services under one umbrella.  From the time a prospective faculty member is identified as a recruiting candidate, and whether a faculty member spends six months or their entire career at HBS, the DRFD team’s focus is to support the success of each individual and contribute to an environment where they can thrive and do their best work in service of the School’s mission.

RCS is a centralized service within the DRFD that supports faculty for all their research computing needs. These services include managing access to and support for the research computing infrastructure and research computing software as well as a full range of research computing services provided directly to faculty in conducting their research including data collection, acquisition, processing, and manipulation; statistical programming and methodological consulting; and data analysis, visualization and presentation of data. The portfolio of services contributes to the School’s ability to attract and retain faculty. Members of RCS team provide consultation services to faculty and other researchers, work on specific research projects for faculty members, and support the research computing infrastructure at the School. 

Cover Letter is Required.

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