Job Description & Details
This is a heavy-hitting executive project management role focused on steering departmental operations and research technology infrastructure. You will be stepping in to manage teams, drive organizational transformation, and handle executive-level alignment without getting bogged down in day-to-day trivialities. If you thrive in high-stakes environments where you have to clear roadblocks for technical staff and report directly to top leadership, this gig is worth a serious look.
What You'll Actually Be Doing
Your day-to-day will revolve around untangling operational bottlenecks, supervising managers and professional staff, and driving massive change initiatives. You'll spend plenty of time collaborating with executive leadership to allocate budgets, track performance metrics, and ensure university policies and security standards are actually being met. Expect to make tough resource allocation calls, handle succession planning, and constantly evaluate whether your teams are structured efficiently to support cutting-edge research infrastructure.
The Core Tech Stack
While you won't be writing code, you need a deep, practical understanding of research cyber infrastructure, high-performance computing, and high-speed storage and networking technologies. The hiring managers care deeply that you have walked the walk with governance frameworks and operational maturity models. Knowing how to speak the language of systems architects and high-performance computing engineers is non-negotiable if you want to earn the respect of the technical teams you are leading.
Interview Expectations
Expect the interview panel to test your real-world crisis management and change leadership. They will likely ask you to describe a time you led a massive organizational culture transformation in a bureaucratic environment while facing heavy pushback from legacy stakeholders. The hiring manager is secretly looking for your emotional intelligence, your resilience under pressure, and how you balance empathy for staff with cold, hard metric-driven accountability. They also want to see how you translate complex tech infrastructure goals into plain business language for executives.
Application Advice
Skip the generic project management fluff on your resume and tailor it specifically around large-scale IT transformations, cyber infrastructure, and budget ownership. Make sure terms like organizational change management, high-performance computing, governance frameworks, and executive reporting are front and center to survive the automated ATS filters. Frame your bullet points around outcomes—how much money you saved, how many roadblocks you cleared, and how you successfully scaled teams in complex organizations.