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Position Description

The Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence at Harvard University seeks to understand the basis of intelligence in natural and artificial systems. The Kempner Institute will study AI systems, including artificial neural networks, to develop both principled theories and a practical understanding of how they operate and learn. The Kempner Institute will recruit and train researchers to study intelligence from biological, cognitive, engineering, and computational perspectives using one of the largest academic machine-learning clusters in the world.

The Kempner Institute Director of Engineering will be among the first positions hired on the team and is critical to the Kempner's future success. The Director will report both to the Kempner Executive Director for operational issues and to the Institute Faculty directors for scientific direction and development. The Director will recruit and supervise a team of software engineers and will oversee the development of an Engineering Fellows program.


Job-Specific Duties:

• Develop, implement and manage an Engineering Fellows Program in partnership with the Kempner Institute leadership team and faculty.
• Help inform or develop educational materials or coursework and participate in teaching activities related to areas of expertise as required, particularly on effective software engineering practices for machine learning.
• Work with Research Computing and Kempner Institute faculty to implement best-practice job schedulers, and prioritization system to manage the computing cluster
• Keep abreast of new developments in engineering systems for large scale machine learning in order to continually modernize, upgrade, and enhance our computation infrastructure
• Work with the faculty directors to coordinate and oversee the purchase and replenishment of the compute cluster.

Core Duties

• Recruit, orient, manage and mentor a team of senior software engineers. Ensure effective workflow and performance management, and the promotion of an inclusive and innovative work environment. Manage team resources, time and projects.
• Collaborate with institute researchers to develop software infrastructure to support specific projects and to open-source and maintain this infrastructure for the benefit of the broader research community.
• Engage deeply with research team to design and develop custom solutions to meet researchers' needs. Disseminate new resulting knowledge and anticipate future research needs.
• Lead the development of multifaceted scope of work and timely project plans with regular milestones and provide regular communication to stakeholders
• Build and maintain software code and custom data processing pipelines with deep understanding of current technology, software and tools
• Lead a team of developers and researchers in collaboration with systems professionals
• May contribute to the development of software/data service project communities beyond local institutions for the purpose of sustainability
• Set and ensure standards for internal code design and development guides
• Contribute best practices documentation, present at conferences, or publish in peer-reviewed journals regarding sustainable software and data management practices
• Abide by and follow the Harvard University IT technical standards, policies, and Code of Conduct

Basic Qualifications

• Minimum of eleven years' post-secondary education or relevant work experience
• Minimum of two years of mentoring or project management

Additional Qualifications and Skills

The following additional qualifications are strongly preferred. If you meet some but not all you are encouraged to apply:

• 11 years relevant experience, an advanced degree may count towards experience.
• 2 years of management experience
• Demonstrated experience in artificial intelligence, machine learning, computational neuroscience or similar fields.
• Experience with developing open-source technology preferred.
• Practical knowledge of PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX and other deep learning frameworks.
• Broad knowledge of the deployment and management of physical and virtual systems (e.g. storage, cluster computing, network, database, applications) and experience with SLURM.
• Experience with running large-scale machine learning applications on distributed systems.
• Working knowledge of AWS services such as SageMaker and MLOps Workload Orchestrator
• Demonstrated team management skills, the ability to communicate clearly, and the ability to act as a trusted advisor and supervisor

Certificates and Licenses

• Completion of Harvard IT Academy specified foundational courses (or external equivalent) preferred

Working Conditions

• Occasionally required to work outside of normal business hours, and may be contacted during off hours

Additional Information

Harvard University supports a hybrid workplace model which will actively support some remote work. Specific days and schedules for on campus work and remote work will be discussed during the interview process. Please note hybrid workers must reside in a state where Harvard is registered to do business (CA, CT, GA, IL, MA, MD, ME, NH, NJ, NY, RI, VA, VT, and WA).

Harvard University continues to place the highest priority on the health, safety and wellbeing of its faculty, staff, and students, as well as the wider community. Please note that all new employees will be required to provide confirmation of primary series COVID-19 vaccination upon hire, as detailed on our COVID-19 Vaccine Requirement Webpage. Harvard University Health Services employees and other health care individuals are also required to be up to date on vaccination as described by the CDC. Individuals may claim exemption from the vaccine requirement for medical or religious reasons. Additional information regarding this requirement, exemptions, verification of vaccination status, and other related policies and resources may be found on the University's COVID-19 Information Website.

Salary Grade: 060

Union: 00 - Non Union, Exempt or Temporary

Commitment to Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging
Harvard University views equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging as the pathway to achieving inclusive excellence and fostering a campus culture where everyone can thrive. We strive to create a community that draws upon the widest possible pool of talent to unify excellence and diversity while fully embracing individuals from varied backgrounds, cultures, races, identities, life experiences, perspectives, beliefs, and values.

EEO Statement
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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