IT Technical Liaison – Basic Sciences

Department

BSD BIS - Device Support Services

About the Department

The University of Chicago Biological Sciences Division (BSD) contains all elements of academic medicine. Basic and translational research, education, and patient care come together in a single campus. Its mission is to create new knowledge of living systems, train the next generation of leaders in biology and medicine, and advance the forefront of health through innovative patient care. The Biological Science Division is divided into 10 basic science and 13 clinical departments that provide academic homes for nearly 900 full-time faculty.

The BSD Information Technology team provides advanced, secure technologies and services to enable clinical, translational, and basic science research. As part of the BSD Information Technology team, the Device Support Services (DSS) team services 10,000 Endpoints/Mobile Devices for 4,000 faculty and staff.

Job Summary

The IT Technical Liaison serves an advocate and escalated interface between Basic Sciences faculty, researchers, staff, and the BSD Information Services, ensuring the delivery of timely and tailored technical solutions to support groundbreaking research. This role combines high-level endpoint engineering, technical account management, and exceptional customer service with a strong focus on coordinating and facilitating collaboration between researchers, IT technicians, and other IT teams. The IT Technical Liaison ensures that the unique technological requirements of researchers are met and empowering our faculty to focus on their core work and outcomes.

Responsibilities

Technical Coordination & Collaboration

• Act as a central point of contact for staff within Basic Sciences, coordinating with IT technicians and specialized IT teams to deliver comprehensive solutions tailored to their unique needs.

• Facilitate cross-departmental collaboration to resolve complex technical challenges, ensuring timely and effective communication between researchers and IT service providers.

• Serve as an advocate for Basic Science faculty, ensuring their requirements and needs are understood within IT teams.

Technical Support & Endpoint Engineering

• Provide advanced endpoint engineering and support, including configuring, deploying, troubleshooting, and optimizing research-related devices and systems.

• Collaborate with IT teams to design and implement custom technical solutions, ensuring alignment with university policies and security standards.

Technical Account Management

• Build and maintain strong relationships with Basic Science teams, gaining a deep understanding of their technological workflows and project objectives.

• Serve as a trusted advisor proactively identifying opportunities to streamline operations and enhance efficiency through IT services.

• Regularly review IT support provided to Basic Science research teams, facilitating improvements based on feedback and evolving needs.

Customer Service & IT Service Concierge

• Ensure there is timely support for Basic Science faculty by working to enhance integration into wider systems available, enhanced communication and education about resources available and personal accessibility to basic scientists.

• Understands and appreciates the culture of research, providing excellent customer service to clients ensuring their IT issues and requests are addressed promptly and with a personal touch, thereby enabling researchers to pursue their discovery-based science.

• Act as a liaison to ensure seamless access to university IT resources, such as high-performance computing, data storage, and collaboration tools.

• Coordinate escalations and follow-ups with IT teams to ensure timely successful resolution of critical issues.

Strategic Initiatives

• Collaborate with BSD Deans and IT leadership to develop strategies that enhance IT support and services for the division’s research activities.

• Assist in implementing policies, standards, and best practices for IT service delivery within a research environment.

• Stay informed about emerging technologies relevant to academic research and advocate for their adoption where beneficial.

• Advocate and assist in the development of IT strategic priorities.

• Leads business process analyses, needs assessments, and preliminary cost/benefit analyses. Solves unique and complex problems relating to computer equipment capacity, limitations, and operation time.

• Utilizes expertise and a thorough understanding of business systems and industry requirements to translate business and user needs into sy