Manager, Cloud & Research Computing Platforms

Department

PSD Gardner Group

About the Department

The MANIAC Lab, within the Enrico Fermi Institute of the Physical Sciences Division at the University of Chicago, designs, deploys, and operates advanced cyberinfrastructure in support of forefront particle physics research. The Lab operates one of the three sites of the Midwest Tier-2 (MWT2) federation, a data-intensive, high-throughput computing center that appears to ATLAS as a unified logical facility through harmonized services, federated operations, and shared configuration management.

A shared Tier-3 Analysis Facility complements these resources through a cloud-native Kubernetes environment integrating large-scale CPU and GPU resources, Ceph object storage, BinderHub, Coffea-Casa, Dask, and ServiceX. This platform supports more than 500 ATLAS physicists and serves as a national testbed for high-bandwidth analysis workflows and emerging AI-augmented research methodologies.

The Lab integrates advanced data-delivery systems with modern parallel scheduling frameworks and operates the Scalable Systems Laboratory, a cloud-native software testing platform for the NSF Institute for Research and Innovation in Software for High Energy Physics (IRIS-HEP). IRIS-HEP leads the development of next-generation software and computing technologies for the HL-LHC era, and the Lab contributes to these efforts through research on federated analysis environments, token-based data-access infrastructures, and next-generation HTTP/S caching technologies.

The Lab also maintains the ATLAS distributed analytics and AI-assisted observability and operations platform, a large-scale Elasticsearch-based system indexing more than eight years of workflow, data-transfer, and network-telemetry metadata. This infrastructure underpins AI-driven anomaly detection, operational intelligence, and natural-language interfaces that support distributed facility operations and improve reliability across U.S. ATLAS sites.

In addition, the Lab provides comprehensive computation and data-management support for HEP and astrophysics experiments within the Enrico Fermi Institute. It played a key role in building the online computing infrastructure for the South Pole Telescope (SPT-3G) and maintains its associated analysis systems. The Lab operates distributed data-management services for the XENON dark-matter experiment at Gran Sasso, supports simulation and analysis activities for the KOTO experiment at J-PARC—advancing frontier CP-violation studies via ultra-rare kaon decays—and contributes to simulation R&D for future collider initiatives.

Job Summary

As Manager, Cloud & Research Computing Platforms, you will report directly to the Principal Investigator of the MANIAC Lab and lead a technical team of systems administrators and research software engineers. In this role, you will develop high-level programmatic plans across multiple workstreams and translate them into detailed technical roadmaps for the Lab’s systems engineering efforts. You will collaborate extensively with the U.S. ATLAS Computing operations program, the international ATLAS software and computing community, IRIS-HEP partners, and IT teams within the Physical Sciences Division.

Success in this position requires advanced technical depth, strong communication skills, and disciplined organizational capabilities to address complex cyberinfrastructure challenges and ensure reliable operations. You will guide the Lab’s research and development agenda for computing facilities, advancing the transition from traditional HTC architectures to modern cloud-native systems, federated operational models, and AI-assisted monitoring, diagnostics and facility operations. Your leadership will be instrumental in shaping a forward-looking R&D program designed to meet the evolving demands of the HL-LHC.

Responsibilities

• Leads the MANIAC Lab’s distributed computing and IT systems team, which is comprised of systems administrators and software engineers, overseeing Linux systems, cloud-native services, storage, networking, and cybersecurity.
• Supports team development through training, mentorship, and continuous learning opportunities.
• Develops clear technical plans, team goals, and operational milestones across all Lab-supported computing platforms.
• Partners with the Principal Investigator to implement strategic upgrades and ensure reliable, efficient operation of the Lab’s cyberinfrastructure.
• Guides modernization efforts, including automation, cloud-native adoption, and improved data-delivery workflows.
• Collaborates with U.S. ATLAS, IRIS-HEP, and University partners to support shared operations and expand research capabilities.
• Monitors system performance and applies proactive measures to improve reliability and scalability.
• Engages with resear