Staff Platform Engineer

Department BSD CTD - Platform Engineering - GDC About the Department The Center for Translational Data Science (CTDS) at the University of Chicago is a research center whose mission is to develop the discipline of translational data science to impactful problems in biology, medicine, healthcare, and the environment. We envision a world in which researchers have ready access to the data needed and the tools required to make data‑driven discoveries that increase our scientific knowledge and improve the quality of life. We architect ecosystems of large‑scale commons of research data, computing resources, applications, tools, and services for the broader research community to use data at scale to pursue scientific inquiry and accelerate discovery. Job Summary Platform (DevOps) Engineers provide production support, monitoring, CI/CD design & implementation, security automation, and AI/ML infrastructure management across the open‑source software platforms CTDS develops and operates for translational data science. Production support includes triaging, researching, communicating, and addressing production incidents. For monitoring, staff wrangle disparate system monitoring assets and develop common analytics to inform optimization, define benchmarks and confidence intervals, and forecast, proactively mitigating production incidents. CI/CD pipelines are for hybrid cloud architecture on‑premises and in commercial cloud providers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft. The position is also responsible for AI/ML research infrastructure, including managing and optimizing on‑premises GPU resources and AWS cloud services such as Bedrock and SageMaker. Responsibilities include deploying, monitoring, and maintaining machine learning models for inference, optimizing model and hardware performance, troubleshooting AI/ML solutions, and integrating them within the broader application environment to support research and production workflows. Responsibilities Design and implement top‑priority technical tasks and deliver them on schedule with defined quality standards. Participate in complex and challenging activities, including design and implementation. Manage a scope of significant size critical to the team’s success. Provide technical leadership and mentor interns and less experienced members. Actively participate in the hiring process and provide fair and productive interview feedback. Negotiate complex decisions, present options, and advocate for optimal technical solutions internally and externally. Utilize technical knowledge of existing and emerging technologies, including public cloud offerings from Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Act as a technical consultant and resource for faculty research, teaching, and administrative projects. Perform other related work as needed. Minimum Qualifications Education: A college or university degree in a related field. Work Experience: 5–7 years of experience in a related discipline. Preferred Qualifications Education: An advanced degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, engineering, or a relevant quantitative field. Professional Experience: 6+ years as a system or DevOps engineer or equivalent demonstrated through projects, initiatives, or outstanding performance. Technical Skills: Hands‑on scripting (Bash, Python, or other dynamic language); Unix/Linux programming or system administration. Cloud Experience: OpenStack and AWS (EC2/S3) cloud technologies; configuration management (Chef, Puppet, Ansible); load balancing (Nginx, AWS ELB/ALB, F5); source control and build systems (SVN, Git, Jenkins). Active engagement in container deployment (Docker, Kubernetes), log aggregation (ELK stack, Splunk), and security frameworks (FISMA, NIST, FIPS). Cloud and CI/CD: Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, OpenStack), CI/CD, and Agile methodologies. DevOps Leadership: Experience leading DevOps initiatives and process improvement. AI/ML Experience: Deploying, maintaining, and monitoring AI/ML models and infrastructure. Preferred Competencies Collaborate with team members and define guidelines and best practices while ensuring accountability for deliverables. Provide constructive input and feedback on technical issues. Negotiate complex decisions, present options, and advocate for optimal solutions. Possess in‑depth knowledge across most technical areas of major projects and core DevOps technologies, considered a subject‑matter expert. Break multiple complex tasks into smaller ones, estimate effort, prioritize, and ensure completion at required quality. Work collaboratively and manage workload to meet project milestones and deadlines. Benefits The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook. Equal Opportunity Employer The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or any other protected class under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination. Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call View phone number on click.appcast.io or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form. All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history. A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment. Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case‑by‑case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position. The University of Chicago's Annual Security & Fire Safety Report provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637. #J-18808-Ljbffr