Job Details

Chaminade University of Honolulu

MISSION STATEMENT

Chaminade University offers its students an education in a collaborative learning environment that prepares them for life, service, and successful careers. Guided by its Catholic, Marianist, and liberal arts educational traditions, Chaminade encourages the development of moral character, personal competencies, and a commitment to build a just and peaceful society. The University offers both the civic and church communities of the Pacific region its academic and intellectual resources in the pursuit of common aims.

Position Information

Title: Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Research and Education Specialist

Department: Natural Sciences and Mathematics x

This position is grant-funded until: 7/31/2029

This position requires travel to both the mainland USA and Guam. Candidates must be willing and able to travel as necessary.

Full Time, Exempt

Position Summary

This is a senior technical staff position supporting advanced cyberinfrastructure (CI) implementation in STEM (especially computational disciplines) at Chaminade and in partnering Hawai'i-Pacific colleges and universities who are part of the NSF Strengthening the Cyberinfrastructure Professionals Ecosystem (SCIPE) Cyberinfrastructure Pacific Professionals (CPP) network grant award #2417946. The position will focus on software engineering and deployment, cloud computing and cloud data infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications, data analytics and visualization, science gateways, High Performance Computing (HPC), and the development of Hawai'i-Pacific capacity in this field to advance regional progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

The ACRES will support faculty to incorporate advanced CI into their teaching and research. The ACRES will support curriculum development, classroom deployment of advanced CI techniques, and support faculty and students to use advanced CI in their research. The ACRES will mentor student internships and research projects, including summer programs. As part of the SCIPE: CPP Hawai'i-Pacific Community of Practice for CI, the ACRES will be a founding member of a network of professionals building capacity for CI in Hawai'i and Pacific island 2- and 4-year institutions. In this role, the ACRES will provide technical assistance and collaborate on the design and delivery of upskilling and certification programs for faculty, students, and working professionals in the region. This position is funded completely by funds received from NSF and other extramural funding programs. Continuation of employment is dependent upon program and/or operational needs of the University and the availability of grant funds.

Reports To:

Direct Report To:

1. The Principal Investigator of the NSF SCIPE funded program, Dr. Helen Turner

Indirect Report To:

1. The Dean of Natural Sciences and Mathematics

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

Support advanced Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Implementation in research and education programs:

• Lead the integration of advanced CI tools and resources to support research and education within STEM disciplines, with a focus on computational sciences, in partnership with faculty, ITS, and collaborating off-campus/national compute resources and Centers.
• Design, develop, and maintain custom software solutions and workflows tailored to the needs of faculty research projects including those involving cloud computing, AI & ML, data analytics, data visualization, and scientific computing.
• Perform advanced research on specific faculty-directed research use cases where the research questions are linked to advancement of the UN SDG.
• Support development of research excellence and competitiveness through integration of advanced CI methods and capacity (e.g., cloud-based platforms, AI/ML model deployment, science gateways, and HPC).
• Optimize the performance of CI applications for computational efficiency and scalability.
• Assist researchers in designing CI-based experiments and simulations, ensuring that they meet the technical requirements of advanced computational methods.
• Support the implementation of reproducible research practices by developing and managing version-controlled data repositories and workflows.
• Maintain an accessible repository of code, data products, and prototypes for review and use by the PI, team members, and external partners.

Faculty and Student Support:

• Provide hands-on assistance to faculty in the deployment of CI tools within their research projects and classrooms, including management and deployment of cloud data infrastructure, AI/ML modeling, and data analytics/visualization workflows.
• Partner with faculty to develop and integrate CI-focused modules into existing courses, covering topics such as advanced software engineering and software deployment, cloud computing and data infrastructure, AI/ML model development/deployment, and data analytics/visualization.
• Collaborate with academic departments to raise awareness of the practical application of CI technologies in various scientific domains.
• Offer training sessions and workshops on the use of advanced CI resources, ensuring that faculty and students are equipped to leverage these technologies effectively in both research and teaching.
• Mentor students in developing and executing research/internship projects that utilize CI resources, guiding them in areas such as software development, data analytics/visualization, and AI/ML modeling techniques.
• Supervise student interns and research assistants, providing them with technical training and professional development opportunities related to CI.

Cyberinfrastructure Pacific Professionals (CPP) Community of Practice Participation:

• Partner with SCIPE: CPP program leadership to vision, specify, and design the scope of a novel Hawai'i-Pacific Community of Practice focused on Cyberinfrastructure capacity building for 2- and 4-year institutions in the region.
• Engage with the SCIPE: CPP Hawai'i-Pacific Community of Practice to share knowledge, best practices, and resources for CI development across institutions.
• Provide technical assistance to work on faculty-driven use cases that use CI tools to facilitate remote access and collaboration in the region.

Other duties:

• Collaborates in a multidisciplinary team environment to accomplish NSF SCIPE program goals.
• Provides project leadership and supervision of technical and undergraduate staff as directed by Supervisor.
• Collaborates with PI and faculty on co-authored research publications, conference presentations.
• Contributes data, outcomes analysis, and narrative to extramural funding applications.
• Contributes data, outcomes analysis, and narrative to required federal and institutional reports.
• Implements, operates, and maintains scientific equipment including but not limited to computers, servers, visualization tools, and resources such as cloud computing and HPC.
• At the request of the PI and with the approval of the Dean, teaches up to one undergraduate course per year as Adjunct Faculty.

Disclaimer

This list of responsibilities is not exhaustive. The percentages regarding the essential and nonessential functions of the job are not precise and are only an approximation, which can vary on a day-to-day basis and are subject to change on an as-needed basis and/or in the sole discretion of supervisory management.

Education and Experience

Required:

• MS in Computer Science with a specific thesis focus on software engineering and/or cloud computing and/or AI/Machine Learning and/or data analytics & data visualization. Minimum of 2 years' experience delivering sophisticated CI solutions to problems related to the SDG (e.g., health equity, sustainability), including development and deployment of cloud-based data lakes, data warehouses, machine learning models, and associated analytics and visualization pipelines.

Preferred Education/Experience:

• MS or Ph.D. with previous experience in the areas of software engineering and deployment, cloud computing/cloud data infrastructure, AI/ML, data visualization, and their application to streamline analytics workflows to reduce complexity in large datasets and extract actionable insights. Experience in data analytics, data sharing, dissemination, and the development of data products and pipelines. Prior experience/education or work in STEM/life science disciplines.

Required Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

1. Advanced Software Engineering and Deployment Skills o Proficiency in one or more higher-level programming languages such as Python, JavaScript, MATLAB, R, or C/C++.

• Strong experience in software development best practices, including version control (e.g., GitHub), code reviews, and continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
• Experience in both frontend and backend development, with a solid understanding of frameworks and technologies like Node.js, React, and AWS Amplify.
• Extensive experience in developing, testing, and deploying software solutions supporting complex, large-scale scientific and research applications.

1. Cloud Computing & Data Infrastructure

• Proficiency in cloud service providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Azure, with hands-on experience in deploying, configuring, and managing cloud-based servers, databases, and services.
• Expertise in designing and implementing cloud-based data lakes and data warehousing solutions, including ETL pipelines and the cloud hosting of downstream data products.
• Knowledge of cloud-native technologies (e.g., containers, Kubernetes) and serverless architectures, with experience in scalable infrastructure management.

1. Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning (ML)

• Expertise in one or more AI/ML areas, such as Deep Learning, NLP, unsupervised and supervised learning, reinforcement learning, multimodal learning, ensemble methods, scalable online estimation, and probabilistic graphical models.
• Proven experience in developing, training, and deploying AI/ML models in production environments, including cloud-based machine learning pipelines and scalable AI solutions.
• Familiarity with AI/ML frameworks and libraries, such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, Scikit-learn, and others, with strong knowledge and ability in the application of these tools to solve complex problems.

1. Data Analytics & VisualizatioN

• Proficiency and experience in the data analysis and visualization tooling ecosystem, including computational notebooks such as Jupyter and/or R Markdown and visualization frameworks such as Matplotlib, Plotly, Plotly Dash, Shiny, and D3.js.
• Experience in developing and deploying interactive dashboards and visualization tools that support data-driven decision-making in scientific research and other domains.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to translate complex use case requirements into data and analytics pipelines to support actionable insights and the development of downstream data products.

1. Science Gateways (Desirable)

• Experience in developing, managing, and maintaining science gateways, with an understanding of user needs for complex scientific applications.
• Familiarity with science gateway frameworks like Apache Airavata, HUBzero, or similar platforms.

1. High-Performance Computing (HPC) (Desirable)

• Familiarity with HPC resource management and the integration of HPC systems with cloud and AI workflows.

1. Capacity Building & Collaboration (Desirable)

• Experience in developing and leading initiatives that build cyberinfrastructure capacity.
• Strong collaborative skills, with the ability to work effectively with diverse stakeholders, including academic institutions, government agencies, and international organizations.

Physical Requirements

Duties involve light work in an office and community setting and require a minimum of physical effort with intermittent sitting, standing, climbing stairs, and walking inclines. Must be able to lift 10 pounds, walk the campus with ease, and have excellent motor skills. Must have finger dexterity.

Other Requirements

• Must have a valid Driver's License.
• This is a full-time, exempt position. Forty hours per week (M-F) will be the general rule. However, depending on the project cycles and workflow demands of the department, additional hours or workday schedule changes may be occasionally required. Must be willing and able to work occasional nights and weekends and a varying schedule.
• The position requires travel to partner research/training sites on the US continent such as the Texas Advanced Computing Center, across Hawai'i, and in the US-affiliated Pacific.
• Observes all safety and health regulations and works in accordance with safe work procedures and policies of the University. Reports unsafe acts/conditions and injuries in a timely and proper manner.
• Report weekly to the immediate supervisor, both verbally and in writing, and more frequently as requested.
• Performs other related duties as assigned.

Marianist Identity/Native Hawaiian & Pacific Island Serving

An expressed willingness to respect and support the Catholic and Marianist identity of Chaminade University of Honolulu and to perform all duties in a manner consistent with Marianist educational values and the mission of the University. Understanding of and respect for the University's designation as an institution that serves students of Native Hawaiian and Pacific Island ancestry.

Grant Funded Position

This position is funded completely or in part by funds received from an NSF research grant and other funding sources. Funds received from the grant are expected to stop on July 31, 2029. Continuation of employment is dependent on program and/or operational needs of the University and the annual availability of grant funds.