Senior Director of Scientific Computing and Research Infrastructure

Salary:

Current Employees: If you are currently employed at any of
the Universities of Wisconsin, log in to Workday to apply through
the internal application process.

Job Category:Limited

Employment Type:Regular

Job Profile:Research Services Director

Job Summary:

The University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
(SMPH) is looking for a Senior Director of Scientific Computing and
Research Infrastructure to provide strategic leadership,
operational oversight, and technical direction for the SMPH’s
scientific computing ecosystem, including high-performance
computing, on-premises and cloud computing platforms, research data
storage, scientific software environments, and advanced
cyberinfrastructure services for research. This position leads the
design, deployment, governance, security, and continuous
improvement of computing resources that support biomedical,
clinical, translational, population health, and data-intensive
research.

The Director partners closely with research faculty, data science
and informatics programs, core facilities, compliance offices,
Information Technology, Cybersecurity and external technology
partners to ensure that computing capabilities accelerate
scientific discovery while maintaining regulatory compliance,
security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.

This position is responsible for developing a sustainable strategy
that balances on-premises infrastructure with cloud services to
support current and emerging computational research needs across
the enterprise.

Essential Responsibilities

• Develop and execute a multi-year strategy and roadmap for

scientific computing, research data infrastructure, cloud services,
and emerging technologies aligned with institutional research
priorities and growth.

• Advise institutional and research leadership on advanced and

emerging technologies, including machine learning and AI for
research, omics, computational biology and large-scale data
science.

• Direct the architecture, operation, capacity planning, and

lifecycle management of high-performance computing infrastructure,
including clusters, CPU/GPU resources, virtualization,
containerization, and scientific software environments.

• Lead enterprise research cloud strategy and hybrid computing

architectures across on-premises and cloud platforms, establishing
standards for provisioning, governance, security, performance, and
cost optimization.

• Direct research data infrastructure and lifecycle management,

including high-performance storage, archival, backup, disaster
recovery, data sharing, and long-term stewardship consistent with
FAIR principles and funding agency requirements.

• Establish governance and investment frameworks for research

cyberinfrastructure, ensuring computing, cloud, storage, and data
investments are scalable, sustainable, and aligned with
institutional priorities and research needs.

• In working with cybersecurity, ensure security, privacy,

compliance, and risk management for research computing
environments, partnering with institutional stakeholders to address
HIPAA, NIH, FDA, NIST, FISMA and other applicable
requirements.

• Build strategic partnerships with investigators, research

centers, departments, and core facilities, providing consultation
and enabling advanced computational approaches for federally
funded, industry-sponsored, and other complex research
initiatives.

• Ensure high-quality, responsive research computing services,

including reliable resource delivery, technical consultation,
training, user support, adoption of advanced computational methods,
and measurement of utilization and return on investment.

• Recruit, develop, and lead a high-performing scientific

computing team, establishing performance and professional
development goals while fostering an innovative, collaborative and
service-oriented culture.

This position may require some work to be performed in-person,
onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be
performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

Key Job Responsibilities:

• Supervises research operations and personnel to ensure

compliance and efficiencies

• Formulates and implements program strategies, plans, and goals

for a research unit

• Develops effective policies and institutional agreements in

alignment with university goals

• Serves as the principal liaison between the program, university

leadership, and outside entities

• Develops and executes budgets and costing strategies for

products/services in compliance with university and state
policies

• Builds a sustained constituency of internal and external

stakeholders

• Exercises supervisory authority, including hiring,

transferring, suspending, promoting, managing conduct and
performance, discharging, assigning, rewarding, disciplining,
and/or approving hours worked of at least 2.0 full-time equivalent
(FTE) employees

Department:

School of Medicine and Public Health, Office of Informatics,
Informatics Leadership.

Compensation:

The starting salary for the position is $130,000 annually; but is
negotiable based on experience and qualifications.

Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as
generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances
and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information,
refer to the campus benefits
webpage.

SMPH
Faculty /Academic Staff Benefits Flyer 2026

Required Qualifications:

• Minimum of 10 years of progressively responsible experience in

scientific computing, research infrastructure, or enterprise
computing environments for research.

• Minimum of 5 years of leadership and personnel management

experience.

• Experience supporting biomedical, academic, healthcare, or

research-intensive environments through cloud platforms and
services, Linux system administration, and container technologies
for research.

• Demonstrated success managing enterprise-scale scientific

computing and storage infrastructure.

• Experience leading cloud computing initiatives and hybrid

infrastructure environments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience within an academic medical center, health sciences

campus, or research university.

• Experience in or population health/clinical/omics/imaging

research utilizing HPC and cloud environments for big data
analytics including AI/ML.

• Experience in writing and security grants.
• Experience with NIH data environments and federally regulated

research.

• Knowledge of scientific workflow and scheduling platforms and

research data repositories.

• Professional certifications in cloud/HPC architecture,

cybersecurity, or project management.

Education:

PhD or terminal degree preferred; focus in scientific,
computational, or a technical discipline preferred.

How to Apply:

For the best experience completing your application, we recommend
using Chrome or Firefox as your web browser.

To apply for this position, select either “I am a current employee”
or “I am not a current employee” under . You will then be prompted
to upload your application materials.

Important: The application has only one attachment field. Upload
the following documents in that field, either as a single combined
file or as multiple files in the same upload area. Failure to
submit the required documents will result in no longer being
considered for the position.

• Cover letter (required)
• Resume required (required)

Your cover letter should address how your training and experience
aligns with the required and preferred qualifications listed above.
Application reviewers will rely on these written materials to
determine which applicants move forward in the process. References
will be requested from final candidates. All applicants will be
notified once the search concludes and a candidate is
selected.

University sponsorship is not available for this position,
including transfers of sponsorship and TN visas. The selected
applicant will be responsible for ensuring their continuous
eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or
national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a
foreign national authorized to work in the United States without
the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective
date of appointment. This position is an ongoing position that will
require continuous work eligibility. If you are selected for this
position you must provide proof of work authorization and
eligibility to work.

The department will not be able to support a request for a J-1
waiver. If you choose to pursue a waiver and apply for our
position, neither the UW nor UWMF will reimburse you for your legal
or waiver fees.

Contact Information:

Cody Roekle, croekle@wisc.edu 608-263-7676

Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further
information.

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for
UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect
the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience,
status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We
commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching,
research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked
goals.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by
creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every
background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve
Wisconsin and the world.

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity
Employer.

Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment
without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color,
religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy,
disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as
defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote
excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all
backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For
more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to
view federal and state required postings, visit the Human
Resources Workplace Poster website .

To
request a disability or pregnancy-related accommodation for any
step in the hiring process (e.g., application, interview,
pre-employment testing, etc.), please contact the
Divisional Disability Representative (DDR) in the division you
are applying to. Please make your request as soon as possible to
help the university respond most effectively to you.

Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also
require your references to answer questions regarding misconduct,
including sexual violence and sexual harassment.

The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities
of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that
the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis.
Stat. sec. 19.36(7).

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