Research and Science
Research Computing Infrastructure Manager - MVLS
Job details
Posted 25 June 2025 Salary Grade 8, £49,559 - £57,422 per annum End date 23 July 2025 LocationGlasgow Job Type Technical And Specialist Reference174355 Expiry 23 July 2025 at 23:45
Job Description
Job Purpose
This role is to provide operational and strategic leadership in the provision of research computing infrastructure services within the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences within the University of Glasgow, part of an overall portfolio of activity of Research Computing as a Service within the College (MVLS-RCaaS).
Research computing infrastructure services provide an essential foundation for the College’s world-changing research agenda. The post-holder will be responsible for managing the shaping and delivery of infrastructure services including but not limited to high performance computing (HPC) as well as offering vision and leadership for the development of sustainable new infrastructure and services capable of satisfying research demands within the College.
The postholder will demonstrate excellent technical understanding and practical skills as well as the ability to establish strong and productive relationships with research, technology and University senior leadership stakeholders. The post is based in and closely associated with the broader, University wide Research Computing as a Service (RCaaS) function, part of the Information Services directorate. The postholder will work closely within the College and in partnership with this core team to ensure coherence and harmonisation between local and common research requirements and services.
The postholder will quickly establish critical stakeholder relationships across the MVLS researcher community, the MVLS-RCaaS governance group, Information Services RCaaS and other delivery teams within Information Services and University Services more generally.
Main Duties And Responsibilities
- Contribute to the provision of strategic leadership and governance within MVLS for research computing infrastructure services including but not limited to HPC and research data storage.
- Provide operational leadership and management of research computing infrastructure services for MVLS researchers, managing delivery teams and setting priorities and objectives.
- Liaise with MVLS research teams and those managing existing research infrastructure to explore opportunities to provide leadership and operational delivery support and to support the successful and sustainable provision of research computing infrastructure.
- Through a range of outreach and engagement activities develop and maintain a clear understanding of MVLS researchers’ computing infrastructure requirements and align these with service design, provisioning and evolution, working with the MVLS-RCaaS and general University RCaaS teams to ensure their sustainability.
- Work with relevant colleagues in MVLS, MVLS-RCaaS, RCaaS and other parts of Information Services, wider University Services colleagues and broader communities (e.g. academic and/or industrial partners) to determine future needs and anticipated utilisation; building and implementing roadmaps for delivery of research computing infrastructure services.
- Work with relevant stakeholders to establish and continuously improve policies, procedures, task management and delivery related to research computing infrastructure services, including informing and contributing to the development of global approaches and customising or producing bespoke approaches where local research requirements demand this.
- Evaluate common infrastructure and services to ensure their adequacy and suitability to meet multi-disciplinary research demands, reflecting on the extent to which requirements are common or unique, recommending suitable service solutions to meet MVLS research requirements.
- Evaluate and develop opportunities to increase the visibility, accessibility and utility of existing research computing infrastructure services to deliver value across the University research landscape.
- Pursue opportunities including internal business cases and external research/infrastructure funding applications to secure adequate, sustainable investment to meet identified research computing demands.
- Work with research finance colleagues to enable the development of cost recovery models for the provision of research computing infrastructure services.
- Produce reports and summaries related to usage of research computing infrastructure services.
- Engage internally and with wider research computing peer communities to enhance research compute infrastructure provisions and develop influence and visibility.
- Manage applicable relationships with third party vendors and service delivery partners.
Knowledge/Qualifications
Knowledge, Qualifications, Skills and Experience
Essential:
A1 Ability to demonstrate the competencies required to undertake the duties associated with this level of post having acquired the necessary professional knowledge and management skills in a similar or number of different specialist roles. Or: Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework level 9,10 or 11 (Ordinary/Honours Degree, Post Graduate Qualification), or equivalent, including being professionally qualified in relevant discipline, with a broad range of professional experience in a management or senior technical role(s).
A2 Excellent technical knowledge across a range of IT infrastructure areas with specialist in-depth knowledge of Linux/Unix enterprise servers, compute and storage.
A3 Excellent knowledge of containerisation technologies.
A4 Excellent knowledge of computing infrastructure requirements of academic researchers across multiple disciplines.
A5 Excellent technical knowledge of high-performance and high-throughput computing and component parts.
A6 Knowledge of sensitive (including clinical) data processing requirements including trusted research environments/secure data environments and safe havens.
Desirable:
B1 Knowledge of administration of physical infrastructure including data centres, power management, networking and enterprise systems.
B2 Knowledge of common programming languages for research computing (e.g. Julia, Python, C, C++, Fortran, R or MATLAB).
B3 Knowledge of scientific computing packages, their installation and operation, e.g. LAPACK, OpenMPI, CUDA.
B3 Knowledge of UK data protection laws and certification and accreditation schemes related to the processing of sensitive data for research.
Essential:
Skills
C1 Excellent strategic leadership, planning, and prioritisation skills.
C2 Ability to work proactively and flexibly, adapting to changing priorities or requirements.
C3 Creative approach to problem solving, using initiative and collaborating with others to resolve issues. C4 Excellent interpersonal and communication (written and oral) skills with the ability to liaise and communicate at all levels across the organisation and deal with issues using tact, diplomacy and discretion.
C5 Self-motivation and proven ability to work independently. C6 Excellent ability to influence and negotiate with colleagues at all levels and to produce compelling proposals for investment.
C7 Excellent project management skills.
C8 Ability to comprehend complex research requirements and translate to appropriate technical solutions.
Essential:
Experience
E1 Proven and significant experience of resource and infrastructure management within a busy multi-functional research environment.
E2 Experience of contributing substantively to successful business cases or proposals for funding.
E3 Experience of strategic planning, organising and setting priorities, applying initiative and independent judgement to achieve objectives. E4 Experience of providing specialist advice and information relating to relevant compute infrastructure to a wide range of audiences with varying technical knowledge.
E5 Experience of managing conflicting interests.
E6 Experience of programme or project management.
Desirable:
F1 Experience of leading procurement – including public sector procurement – processes.
Terms and Conditions
Salary will be Grade 8, £49,559 - £57,422 per annum.
This post is full time and open ended.
Closing Date: 23:45 23rd July 2025
The University of Glasgow has a responsibility to ensure that all employees are eligible to live and work in the UK. If you require a Skilled Worker visa to work in the UK, you will be required to meet the eligibility requirements of the visa route to be assigned a Certificate of Sponsorship.
Please note that this post may be eligible to be sponsored under the Skilled Worker visa route if tradeable points can be used under the Skilled Worker visa rules. For more information please visit: https://www.gov.uk/skilled-worker-visa.
As a valued member of our team, you can expect:
1 A warm welcoming and engaging organisational culture, where your talents are developed and nurtured, and success is celebrated and shared.
2 An excellent employment package with generous terms and conditions including 41 days of leave for full time staff, pension - pensions handbook https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/payandpensions/pensions/, benefits and discount packages.
3 A flexible approach to working.
4 A commitment to support your health and wellbeing, including a free 6-month UofG Sport membership for all new staff joining the University https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/staff/healthwellbeing/.
We believe that we can only reach our full potential through the talents of all. Equality, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of our values. Applications are particularly welcome from across our communities and in particular people from the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) community, and other protected characteristics who are under-represented within the University. Read more on how the University promotes and embeds all aspects of equality and diversity within our community https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/.
We endorse the principles of Athena Swan https://www.gla.ac.uk/myglasgow/humanresources/equalitydiversity/athenaswan/ and hold bronze, silver and gold awards across the University.
We are investing in our organisation, and we will invest in you too. Please visit our website https://www.gla.ac.uk/explore/jobs/ for more information.