Director, Computing

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Full-Time Exempt Director San Diego, CA, US

Salary Range: $ To $ Annually

Sanford Burnham Prebys is much more than a research facility and hub for innovation; it’s a vibrant global community of talented scientists and researchers from over 30 countries. This worldwide representation enriches our perspectives and enhances our creative approach to solving complex scientific challenges.

We strive to be leaders not only in biomedical research but also in creating an environment where excellence thrives through collaboration across cultures and backgrounds. Our mission is to advance the biomedical sciences by cultivating the next generation of scientific leaders, providing meaningful opportunities for researchers of all backgrounds to learn, innovate, and make breakthrough discoveries that improve human health.

Together, we translate science into health.

The duties and responsibilities contained in the job description are intended to be examples of the accountabilities for which the person in the position will demonstrate competency through performance. The job description is not intended to be an all-inclusive list. Duties and responsibilities are subject to change and other duties may be assigned as necessary.

Position Summary:

The Director of High-Performance Computing (HPC) will lead both the strategy and day-to-day operations of the Institute’s research computing environment. This role is responsible for delivering a reliable, responsive, and scalable HPC platform that directly supports faculty research, accelerates scientific discovery, and adapts to evolving computational needs. The Director will oversee HPC as a shared institutional resource, ensuring that faculty and research teams have consistent, high-quality access to computing services.

The role will also implement a transparent and sustainable cost recovery model, enabling the Institute to support expanding computational demand through grant-funded research.

Duties and Responsibilities:

Operations & Service Delivery

• Oversee and be accountable for day-to-day HPC operations, ensuring high availability, performance, and reliability
• Ensure faculty have consistent, timely access to computing resources critical to their research workflows
• Establish and manage service levels (SLAs) aligned with grant timelines and research priorities
• Implement monitoring, incident response, and continuous improvement processes to support stable and predictable operations
• Develop and oversee user support services, including onboarding, training, and troubleshooting for faculty and labs
• Manage capacity allocation and workload prioritization to reflect research impact and time-sensitive projects
• Continuously improve system performance, usability, and accessibility from a researcher’s perspective
• Develop and execute a research-driven HPC strategy and multi-year roadmap aligned with faculty priorities and institutional growth
• Engage faculty to anticipate emerging computational needs (e.g., AI/ML, genomics, large-scale data analysis) and translate these into infrastructure and service requirements
• Evaluate and recommend future-state architecture, including on-premise, cloud, and hybrid computing models
• Ensure HPC capabilities evolve to support increasing scale, complexity, and competitiveness of grant-funded research
• Define long-term investment priorities, capacity planning, and technology lifecycle strategies
• Partner with Finance and leadership to align strategy with sustainable funding and recharge models
• Benchmark HPC capabilities against peer institutions to ensure competitiveness and research enablement
• Identify and enact (jointly with faculty and other stakeholders) creative funding strategic to maximize HPC capacities
• Build, manage, and mentor a high-performing HPC team
• Supervise staff responsible for system administration, storage, and user support
• Clearly define ownership for operations, support, and infrastructure components
• Foster a culture of service, accountability, and responsiveness…