What are the responsibilities and job description for the Senior Architect for Secure Research Infrastructure position at University of Illinois Chicago?
UIC is looking for a Senior Architect for Secure Research Infrastructure who will design, build, and manage the next generation of computing environments tailored for AI/ML workloads. This role sits at the critical intersection of raw computational power and data governance. You will be responsible for automating the deployment of secure enclaves that protect sensitive data (PHI/CUI) while providing researchers with the GPU-accelerated performance needed for cutting-edge innovation.
Duties & Responsibilities:
- Architect AI/HPC Infrastructure: Design and scale GPU clusters and high-speed interconnects to support large-scale model training and inference.
- Engineered Secure Enclaves: Build isolated walled-garden environments using hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments or micro-segmentation to process sensitive datasets.
- Compliance Engineering: Translate requirements from compliance standards such as NIST, SPRS, HIPAA, and CMMC into technical controls. You will build the technical infrastructure that serves as the source of truth for audits.
- DevSecOps & Automation: Lead the Infrastructure as Code strategy using such as Terraform or Ansible to ensure that security patches and configuration changes are audited, versioned, and immutable.
- High-Performance Storage: Manage petabyte-scale, parallel file systems (e.g., Lustre, VAST, GPFS) with integrated encryption-at-rest and strict POSIX/ACL access controls.
- Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications Required:
- Bachelor Degree within Computer Science or closely related field of study.
- Minimum of 10 years of professional level IT experience within Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Research Computing including the design and implementation of advanced high performance computing systems; data (acquisition, storage, management and reporting); and networks in support of research initiatives.
- Demonstrated record of building systems with System Security Plans that successfully passed audits for compliance standards such as HIPAA, NIST 800-53/171, or CMMC level 2.
- Demonstrated knowledge of Slurm/Kubernetes orchestration and InfiniBand/NVLink/RoCE network topology.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Experience working with security, scanning, and auditing platforms such as Splunk,
- Experience with encrypting data at rest and in motion at hybrid and federated systems
- 7 years in Systems Engineering, with 3 years specifically in designing secure enclaves and HPC or AI infrastructure.
- Experience working with IAM systems such as SailPoint, InCommon, and CILogon
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- Experience with Secure Enclaves, identity management (Entra/AD), and Zero Trust Architecture.
- Proficiency in Python, bash, CI/CD pipelines (GitLab/GitHub Actions), and Linux kernel hardening.
Apply here:
https://uic.csod.com/ux/ats/careersite/1/home/requisition/20023?c=uic