Deputy Director of IT , Space Sciences Laboratory

Overview

About Berkeley:
At the University of California, Berkeley, we are dedicated to fostering a community where everyone feels welcome and can thrive. Our culture of openness, freedom and belonging makes it a special place for students, faculty and staff. As a world-leading institution, Berkeley is known for its academic and research excellence, public mission, diverse student body, and commitment to equity and social justice.

Since 1868, we have driven innovation, creating global intellectual, economic and social value. We seek applicants who reflect California s diversity and want to be part of an inclusive, equity-focused community that views education as a matter of social justice. We encourage you to consider our Guiding Values and Principles, Principles of Community, and Strategic Plan. At UC Berkeley, learning is a fundamental part of working, and we provide space for supportive colleague communities via employee resource groups.

Our goal is for everyone on campus to feel supported and equipped to realize their full potential, including at least 80 hours (10 days) of paid time per year for professional development.

The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) (SSL) serves UC Berkeley as a leading space research unit. With more than 300 scientists and staff and funded by $300+ million of federal contracts and grants, SSL s mission is to expand scientific understanding of Earth, the wider solar system, and the cosmos. We pursue, lead, and execute high-impact space science projects, develop state-of-the-art instrumentation, operate flight systems, and mentor the next generation of space scientists and engineers in a collaborative environment.

Position Summary

As our deputy IT manager, you will collaborate with the IT manager to balance high-level strategy with hands-on execution. You ll balance systems maintenance with design as you devise a network to meet future needs, manage project team relationships, oversee security protocols, lead a small support team, and ensure our tech stack empowers the lab s space scientists and engineers. If you have leadership experience or potential and a can-do attitude with broad experience of hardware and software solutions, we would love to hear from you.

A key aspect of the role is succession planning; this is an ideal role for someone aiming to become the future leader of an IT group embedded within a unique research lab environment.

Application Review Date

The First Review Date for this job is: 02/11/2026.

• Supervisory Duties:
  Performs employee staff selection, salary actions, disciplinary actions, terminations, and performance evaluations;
  Interacts regularly with staff to review, assist, coach, train and advise;
  Delegates work and monitors progress to meet timelines;
  Conducts regular meetings with staff to determine if project implementation or management requires changes;
  Participates in developing and monitoring operational and budget processes, staff FTE, finance, HR and space planning.

• Network and Systems/Infrastructure Administration:
  Applies advanced network concepts to design and operate the department s internal data network communications systems (wired and wireless);
  Supervises a team to ensure health and productivity of departmental systems;
  Deploys, monitors and maintains computing infrastructure and services;
  Manages centralized servers and plans hardware upgrades;
  Analyzes, installs and supports operating systems, databases and related tools;
  Troubleshoots network issues;
  Maintains security for routers and switches;
  Documents systems and usage;
  Develops user documentation and training.

• IT Services and Applications Development:
  Develops and manages new IT solutions to advance research goals;
  Maintains computing services for web, email, network, identity management and security;
  Performs advanced IT tasks and complex systems programming;
  Interacts with senior personnel;
  Develops user documentation and training.

• Technology Service Integration:
  Initiates product research and implements solutions to improve department processes;
  Manages campus Google Suite, Box, Docusign, Zoom, Google SPA accounts, calendars and shared drives;
  Oversees campus IT services usage;
  Acts as SSL point of contact with campus IT;
  Leads internal web portal content updates;
  Supports evolving IT needs with reporting to the IT steering group.

As required.

• Strong interpersonal skills with proven management capability.
• Demonstrated critical thinking, problem solving, persuasion, negotiation, mentoring, and leadership; working knowledge of HR policies for management roles.
• Ability to communicate complex technical information clearly to technical and nontechnical audiences at all levels.
• Strong experience designing and managing a layer 2/3 network (wired and wireless), including TCP/IP, physical cabling, and understanding of NFS, DNS, DHCP, LDAP.
• Strong MacOS and Windows workstation and server administration experience.
• Ability to write clear technical…