Director of Research IT QW

Towson University (TU) has earned distinction as both a top-100 public university and one of the nation's great colleges to work for. Located north of Baltimore, TU currently enrolls over 20,000 students and is the second-largest university in the prestigious University System of Maryland. Towson University fosters a climate that is grounded in respect to cultivating the intellectual and personal growth of the entire university community.

Towson University is expanding its research enterprise, with significant growth in externally funded research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and faculty and student scholarship. The university is committed to advancing its research profile and achieving Carnegie R2 classification. Through the Division of Research, TU supports research and creative activity across all academic colleges.

The Director of Research IT is a new position which provides strategic leadership for the institution’s research cyberinfrastructure (people, process, and technology), ensuring that research IT capabilities effectively enable and advance the research mission. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within the Office of Technology Services (OTS), this role partners very closely with many teams within OTS, the Vice President for Research, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR), the Library, and researchers and other research IT stakeholders to align technology strategy, governance, and services with institutional research priorities.

The position maintains a close strategic relationship with the Vice President for Research to ensure alignment on research priorities and long-term planning.

The Director serves as a trusted advisor within OTS, working collaboratively with other OTS teams, including systems engineering/administration teams, information security and privacy teams, the academic technology consultants/research facilitators, and OTS leadership. The position will help to align the practices, procedures, and guidance of all the OTS teams involved in Research IT support. The Director will also be a lead role for many of the research cyberinfrastructure projects and researcher-specific implementations.

The Director will help to coordinate planning, service delivery, and operational oversight for research-related services and technologies. This position builds and sustains a research IT community of practice, establishes effective communications channels, monitors service performance and outcomes, and helps to plan for the long-term development of institutional capacity and capability to support a growing and evolving research enterprise. The position will initially have no direct reports, relying on collaboration with others.

Telework may be available for this position up to two days per week following the completion of 90 days of service in good standing.

• Assist in developing a comprehensive Research IT strategy aligned with institutional research priorities and enterprise technology roadmaps.
• Assist in establishing governance structures, standards, and processes for research-related services and technologies, ensuring transparency, accountability, and alignment across units.
• Partner with OTS leadership, the VP for Research, OSPR, Library, and other stakeholders to align policies, procedures, and investment decisions impacting research cyberinfrastructure.
• Guide the evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies (e.g., advanced computing, AI/ML, secure research environments) in support of the research mission.
• Promote shared solutions and reduced duplication of effort across colleges, labs, and distributed IT units.