Computational Scientist
Chicago, IL

Job Description

Please make sure to read the job posting in its entirety as it reflects both the University roles and responsibilities, followed by the specific description.

Department86755 Research Computing Center

About the UnitThe University of Chicago Research Computing Center (RCC), a unit in the Office of Research and National Laboratories (RNL), provides high-end research computing resources to researchers at the University of Chicago. It is dedicated to enabling research by providing access to centrally managed High Performance Computing (HPC), storage, and visualization resources. These resources include hardware, software, high-level scientific and technical user support, and the education and training required to help researchers make full use of modern HPC technology and local and national supercomputing resources. The Office of Research and National Laboratories oversees the conduct of sponsored research, research program development, multi-institutional research institutes, national laboratory board, and contract management functions. RNL supports the development and coordination of research-related communications and educational programs at The University of Chicago. RNL oversees the management of two Department of Energy contracts for Argonne National Laboratory and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. When combined with the Lab R&D budgets, the office oversees approximately $1.4 billion in sponsored research. RNL works closely with individual scholars, departments, and divisions to encourage, seed, and coalesce research across the University, Argonne, and Fermilab campuses.

Job FamilyResearch

Responsible for all aspects of research projects and research facilities. Plans and conducts clinical and non-clinical research; facilitates and monitors daily activities of clinical trials or research projects. Directs engineering and technical support activities to develop and maintain tools and computational methods needed to gather and analyze data.

Career Track and Job LevelResearch Computing

Creates research focused user interfaces web front-ends, back-end services that scale, and integrate scientific workflows that automate and accelerate the scientific output of multi-institutional collaborative projects. This role involves software development in support of research projects involving data acquisition, ingestion, and integration from heterogeneous sources (metadata extraction from a corpus of diverse data sets, both structured and unstructured data).

P2: Requires knowledge and experience in own discipline; still acquiring higher-level knowledge and skills. Builds knowledge of the organization, processes and customers. Solves a range of straightforward problems. Analyzes possible solutions using standard procedures. Receives a moderate level of guidance and direction.

Role ImpactIndividual Contributor

ResponsibilitiesThe job develops software to support the data acquisition, ingestion, and integration for research projects. Assists in the development of user interfaces and scalable back-end services to automate and accelerate the scientific output of multi-institutional research projects.

1) Participates in the product development life cycle, providing professional assistance to the design of front-end applications and database systems back-end schema. Analyzes high-level system specifications and makes sure that all application development standards are met., 2) Develops and presents technical training materials and web-based documentation. Ensures timely systems support and updates. Assists in conducting information security assessments and risk analysis of computing environment., 3) Evaluates past and present technologies to help develop new tools. Ensures all the new tools have been through quality control reviews., 4) With a moderate level of guidance, provides hardware, user and application level authentication and authorization. Implements modern web authentication methods such as XACML, SAML, OAuth2, Shibboleth, and LDAP directory server administration. Applies theoretical expertise and innovation to create or apply new technology, such as adapting principles for applying computers to new uses., 5) Performs other related work as needed.

Unit-specific Responsibilities:

1) The Research Computing Center (RCC) is seeking a highly motivated Computational Scientist to work closely with faculty and researchers at The University of Chicago. The person in this position will serve as a multi-disciplinary technical expert in supporting and advising faculty on using High Performance Computing (HPC) and related technologies for their research. The successful candidate will join a team of Computational Scientists who are playing a key role in scientific computing support at the University of Chicago.

2) Assist with compiling, debugging, optimizing, profiling, and porting parallel codes on HPC systems. Assist with improvements of parallel scaling and load balancing of large-scale research codes. Assist with maintaining parallel community codes.

3) Develop, install, and test scientific software in support of research goals.

4) Work with faculty and their research groups to enable them to fully utilize the University and national computational resources for their research.

5) Solve user problems quickly and professionally.

6) Work closely with faculty to identify, develop, and implement useful computational methods and resources that support or advance their research.

7) Keep abreast of new developments in High Performance Computing and be pro-active in introducing them to the faculty.

8) Create and present tutorials, hands-on workshops and documentation to educate the research community.

9) Assist researchers with grant proposals with strong HPC component to describe the interplay between their research and HPC.

10) Perform other duties as assigned.

Unit-preferred Competencies:

1) Ability to understand and translate researchers' scientific goals into computational requirements.

2) Ability to work well with faculty and researchers.

3) Ability to identify and gain expertise in appropriate new technologies and/or software tools.

4) Ability to function as part of an interactive team while demonstrating self-initiative to achieve project's goals and Research Computing Center's mission.

5) Strong analytical skills and problem-solving ability.

Education, Experience, and CertificationsMinimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

Education:

1) Ph.D. in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Computer Science, Physics, Chemistry or similar discipline.

Technical Knowledge or Skills:

1) Proficiency in one or more programming languages (such as C++, C, etc.)

2) Proficiency in a scripting language such as Python

3) Experience parallelizing large scientific codes with MPI and Open MP and using such codes on parallel supercomputing platforms

4) Experience with Linux/Unix

5) Experience with software design and development methodologies and best practices

6) Experience installing and tuning scientific applications software

7) Experience with compiler optimization techniques

8) Experience with Deep Learning frameworks

Required Documents

1) Cover letter

2) Resume

NOTE: When applying, all required documents MUST be uploaded under the Resume/CV section of the application

FLSA StatusExempt

Pay FrequencyMonthly

Pay GradeDepends on Qualifications

Scheduled Weekly Hours37.5

Benefits EligibleYes

Drug Test RequiredNo

Health Screen RequiredNo

Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry RequiredNo

Posting Date2019-06-13-07:00

Remove from Posting On or Before2019-12-13-08:00

Posting Statement

The University of Chicago is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity/Disabled/Veterans Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national or ethnic origin, age, status as an individual with a disability, protected veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.

Staff Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.

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