Group Leader, HPC System Acceptance & User Environment

Requisition Id 12370 

Overview:
We are seeking a group leader for System Acceptance & User Environment in the National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS). The NCCS provides state-of-the-art computational and data science infrastructure coupled with dedicated technical and scientific professionals tackling large-scale problems across a broad range of scientific domains for accelerating scientific discovery and engineering advances. The NCCS hosts the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility, one of DOE’s National User Facilities.

The System Acceptance & User Environment Group ensures the functionality, performance, and usability of new NCCS systems which includes activities such as test development, acceptance testing, software installation, system benchmarking, documentation, and early user support for all NCCS pre-production systems. This group is within the Operations Section within the NCCS.

As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an extraordinary 80-year history of solving the nation’s biggest problems. We have a dedicated and creative staff of over 6,000 people! Our vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) is to cultivate an environment and practices that champion diversity in ideas and in the people across the organization, as well as to ensure ORNL is recognized as a workplace of choice. These elements are essential for enabling the execution of ORNL’s broader mission to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into energy, environment, and security solutions for the nation.

Purpose:
We are seeking an individual that will provide leadership to the System Acceptance & User Environment group that strategically advances technical professional domain expertise for technical projects including the development of a robust testing suite to assist in deployments of new systems, the evaluation of new system and user facing software, the design of infrastructure to collect, analyze, and monitor the functionality and performance of NCCS systems, and as a result support ORNL’s aspiration to be the world’s best-in-class R&D institution and ORNL’s science culture.

The Technical Group Leader brings together a group of peers with the primary goal of pursuing global leadership in their field, nurtures ORNL’s culture among group members, and continues to build and scale up individual excellence and impact. The Technical Group Leader reports to and works closely with the Section Head to implement the group’s technical vision; develops group members to enable their career advancement; establishes capabilities that enable programs to excel at the forefront of technical professional expertise; works to solve technical challenges for science, engineering, or technical projects and functions; sets, implements, and models standards for performance of work consistent with Environment, Safety, Security, Health, and Quality (ESH&Q) requirements and business rules; and ensures a diverse and inclusive work environment where every employee feels safe, heard, and appreciated—a workplace that sets an example for the broader community.

Technical:

• Technical professionals are recognized leaders in their area by providing domain expertise for a variety of technical projects, programs, or operations. Solves technical challenges for science, engineering, operations, or projects.

Leadership:

• Develop a vision and implement a cohesive group strategy to ensure the success of new and ongoing technical projects to position the group for future success.
• Develop and implement plans to exploit new opportunities and/or expand existing efforts.
• Assist staff in setting performance goals consistent with the group’s strategy and members’ long-term career goals. Provide feedback to address performance issues in a timely manner.
• Provide relevant input to assist the Technical Section Head with staff development while providing direct and impactful guidance to staff on regular basis.
• Attract a quality, diverse pool of top candidates and hire staff members who are committed to world-class technology and aspire to be the best in their field.
• Lead by example by exercising the principles in ORNL’s “Research Code of Conduct” as a guide for proposing, performing, and communicating research.
• Coach and mentor staff regarding Battelle’s “Safe Conduct of Research” principles.
• Lead ESH&Q by example and ensure all work is carried out safely, securely, and in compliance with ORNL policies, standards, and procedures.
• Exemplify a commitment to “One ORNL” by modeling lab expectations for excellence in research, operations, and community engagement, and by working cooperatively to leverage capabilities across the lab. 

Service:

• Serve as immediate supervisor for staff members in group.
• Encourage staff to “think and dream big,” take appropriate risks in their work, and develop skills that will enable them to pursue new insights, technical passions, and programs.
• Advance the reputation of the group members and standing of the group through establishing collaborations, professional society leadership and involvement, and organization of technical events.
• Support group members by consistently reviewing technical products such as proposals, publications, and artifacts to ensure high quality and consistency with ORNL standards.
• Build strong teams across ORNL.
• Connect staff to your network and professional societies.
• Hold regular technical group meetings and be visible in the labs and workplace.
• Assume front-line responsibility for safety in the group’s laboratory; mentor and empower the Laboratory Space Managers to create a strong safety culture.
• Effectively communicate the importance of protecting proprietary or sensitive information and complying with ORNL security, cybersecurity policies, and guidelines.

Qualifications Required:

• Requires a Ph.D. with a minimum of 4 years relevant experiences, a M.S. with a minimum of 7 years experiences, or a B.S. with 8 years of relevant experiences.
• Qualified candidates should have demonstrated experience in leading technical teams.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Motivated self-starter with the ability to work independently and to participate creatively in collaborative teams across the laboratory.
• Ability to function well in a fast-paced environment, set priorities to accomplish multiple tasks within deadlines, and adapt to ever changing needs.
• Excellent customer support skills.

Accountabilities:

• To group staff, for the quality and safety of their work environment and opportunity for professional growth.
• To Technical Section Head, for world-leading technical directions, safe effective, and compliant operations, ownership of assigned staff, facilities, and equipment, and the quality of products and services.
• To customer, for the quality of products and service.

Authorities:

• Develop a vision and implement a strategy to pursue world-leading technical/technology directions for the group.
• Hold staff accountable for performance.
• Act to ensure safe and effective operations.
• Hire staff.
• Certify the technical quality of the group’s products and services.

Benefits at ORNL:
ORNL offers competitive pay and benefits programs to attract and retain talented people. The laboratory offers many employee benefits, including medical and retirement plans and flexible work hours, to help you and your family live happy and healthy. Employee amenities such as on-site fitness, banking, and cafeteria facilities are also provided for convenience.

This position will remain open for a minimum of 5 days after which it will close when a qualified candidate is identified and/or hired.

We accept Word (.doc, .docx), Adobe (unsecured .pdf), Rich Text Format (.rtf), and HTML (.htm, .html) up to 5MB in size. Resumes from third party vendors will not be accepted; these resumes will be deleted and the candidates submitted will not be considered for employment.

If you have trouble applying for a position, please email [email protected].

ORNL is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants, including individuals with disabilities and protected veterans, are encouraged to apply.  UT-Battelle is an E-Verify employer.