Research Computing Facilitator: National Institute for Computational Sciences - UTK

The National Institute for Computational Sciences (NICS) at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UTK) is seeking a Research Computing Facilitator I for its Scientific Computing Group (SCG). NICS is a part of the Min H. Kao Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science within the Tickle College of Engineering at UTK. NICS operates computing resources and supports the University of Tennessee, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and national science and engineering communities enhancing their capability to address computationally challenging research problems. A critical component of this support includes research computing support for computational science workflows within the SCG. This position reports to the NICS Scientific Computing Group Leader.

The successful candidate will serve as a liaison between NICS and its users, collaborators, and partners and is responsible for the delivery of user-facing services, administration of collaborative and stakeholder projects, and the design of innovative solutions that meet stakeholder needs and challenges. Activities include: 

• Research Computing Facilitation (Intermediate) - Collaborate with NICS projects, partners, and stakeholders to plan, design, analyze, and implement solutions that meet the needs and challenges of their respective projects. Uses innovative solutions to solve problems and modifies solutions to address policy, cybersecurity, or deployment needs. 
• Solution Architect and Project Lead (Entry Level) – Leads, modifies, deploys, implements, designs, tests, and manages critical, high impact, or urgent projects. Provides work direction to project co-workers and researches emerging technologies, methodologies, and solutions for incorporation into existing or developing projects. 
• Customer Service and Training - Provides excellent customer service. Develops and presents customer, end-user, and stakeholder training at the project level and at applicable local, regional, and national venues to promote advances in research computing, increase the visibility and applicability of solutions, and enable solution utilization.
• Community Education and Outreach – Author, co-author, and/or present work including conference papers,  journal papers, white papers, conference posters, brown bag sessions, classroom presentations, etc.
• Grant Proposal Writing - Contribute to University related grants either as PI, Co-PI, or Senior Personnel

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: Master’s degree in science, engineering, computer science, or related discipline. 
• Experience:
  • Three years of experience in performing and/or supporting computational research with high-performance computing (HPC) resources and technologies (e.g., Linux clusters, batch job schedulers, and application installation)
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Broad knowledge and expertise in programming and scripting languages (e.g., Fortran, C/C++ and Python).
  • Broad knowledge and expertise in parallel computing paradigms (e.g., MPI, OpenMP, CUDA, and OpenACC).
  • Broad knowledge of scientific workflows and associated frameworks.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Education: A Ph.D. or equivalent terminal degree in science, engineering, computer science, or related discipline is preferred.
• Experience:
  • Five years of experience in multidisciplinary research activities and projects.
  • Experience with AI model frameworks such as PyTorch and TensorFlow.
  • Experience with container technologies and container orchestration frameworks (e.g., Docker, Apptainer, and Kubernetes)
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Knowledge and experience in artificial intelligence and machine learning methodologies including training and evaluating AI models, evaluating model architecture, or implementing agentic AI workflows.
  • Knowledge and experience managing and utilizing cloud providers including AWS, Google, or Azure.
  • Ability to develop and acquire funding for an independent research program.

OTHER REQUIREMENTS

The successful candidate will always maintain the highest level of professionalism when interacting with internal and external customers. In addition, the candidate must possess the following:

• Ability to communicate effectively, build rapport, and cultivate functional working relationships with students, faculty, researchers, co-workers, and other staff.
• Ability to think critically and creatively about technical and nontechnical challenges utilizing technical documentation and other resources as necessary to increase understanding and/or identify solutions.
• Ability to adapt quickly to rapidly changing technologies and requirements.
• Ability to self-organize and effectively manage time commitments between projects, meet critical project deadlines, and proactively communicate status and issues with project stakeholders and supervisors.

Work Location

• Location: Knoxville, TN

• Hybrid

Compensation and Benefits

• UT market range: MR14
• Anticipated hiring range: $90,000 - $110,000
• Find more information on the UT Market Range structure here
• Find more information on UT Benefits here

Application Instructions

To express interest, please submit an application with the noted below attachments. 

• Resume

• Cover Letter