Director Advanced Solutions Research

Overview

SURF is looking for a visionary leader with a passion for science and technology who can help the Netherlands excel in cutting-edge research. As Director of Advanced Solutions for Research, you will guide digital infrastructures for supercomputing, AI, and data-intensive research, inspire highly specialized teams, and position SURF nationally and internationally. Are you ready to make a difference? Apply now and help build the digital future of education and research.

SURF is the cooperative IT organization of and for Dutch education and research. SURF develops and manages groundbreaking digital solutions that contribute to excellent education, leading research, and sustainable collaboration. We work together with our members on digital sovereignty, innovation, and public value in the Netherlands and internationally.

In recent years, SURF has grown significantly in size, responsibility, and impact. This growth requires greater focus, integration, and effectiveness. That is why we are building a new structure for a single, agile organization: 1

SURF. In the new structure, an integrated management team is positioned under the board of directors. The new management team consists of six directors: four business units and two strategic support units. Together, they form the heart of SURF. They are responsible for their own domain and manage the organization as a whole in an integrated manner. Each director contributes to strategic policy-making, strengthening public values, and realizing high-quality and future-proof services.

The Advanced Solutions for Research unit forms the innovative heart of SURF for digital research infrastructure. From this unit, we enable groundbreaking scientific research with state-of-the-art facilities for supercomputing, data-intensive research, AI infrastructures, and international collaboration within a Research Commons.

The unit consists of three departments:
Compute Services, Data Services, and Applications & Technologies
. This is where service development, project-based innovation, and specialist support come together. Among other things, the teams offer access to HPC and HTC environments, storage, processing and analysis capacity for large-scale datasets, and support in applying new technologies such as AI and quantum computing. In addition, they actively contribute to open science, FAIR data, reproducibility, and interdisciplinary applications.

As director, you will lead both the development and operation of these high-quality infrastructures and manage a unit of approximately 143 FTE. You will connect service provision and innovation, focus on effectiveness, and strategically position SURF within the international research ecosystem. In doing so, you will represent SURF to, among others, NWO, European research infrastructures, and universities. SURF actively invests in international networks and European collaborations;

together with partners, you will set a new course that is scalable, sustainable, and future-oriented and in line with the scientific ambitions of the Netherlands. As a member of the management team, you will also share responsibility for the course and management of SURF as a whole.

As Director of Advanced Solutions for Research, you will guide the development, positioning, and implementation of SURF's digital research infrastructure. You will connect vision to realization: from strategic choices around supercomputing, data, and AI to high-quality services for researchers. In doing so, you will bring innovation and exploitation together, strengthen the connection to national and international infrastructures, and ensure that SURF continues to play a leading role in the European research landscape.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Realizing the Research Commons vision and strengthening links with national and international research infrastructures.
• Developing a coherent strategy for HPC, HTC, and AI, including sustainable and innovative financing models.
• Strengthening services and support for various scientific disciplines, with a focus on quality, adoption, and ease…