Associate Executive Director

Associate Executive Director

As the Director of AI and Data-Intensive Computing (Associate Executive Director), you will shape the future of AI, machine learning, and data-driven research at Texas A&M. In this pivotal leadership role, you'll help drive the strategic vision for a nationally competitive center in computational and data-enabled science, working closely with the HPRC Executive Director to guide operations, set direction, and elevate the university's research capabilities. You'll lead transformative initiatives that expand how AI and data inform discovery, decision-making, and intelligent automation across the AI & HPC community. Success in this role requires strong cross-campus collaboration with Technology Services, academic units, research teams, and external partners to deliver scalable, innovative solutions aligned with institutional goals. You'll also play a key part in shaping policy, ensuring compliance, strengthening research partnerships, and representing Texas A&M HPRC at regional and national events as you help build a vibrant, forward-looking ecosystem for AI and data-intensive computing.

Opportunities to Contribute

• Technical Leadership & Enablement - Lead and mentor the AI development and support team in building robust, scalable solutions and enabling HPRC users to use those technologies. Empower faculty and researchers to integrate AI capabilities into their applications and systems. Direct the development of custom AI agents and applications that solve specific campus needs. Establish and lead Machine Learning Operations practices, focusing on the continuous monitoring, tuning, and management of models in production. Develop AI literacy training material and lead the training effort. Support departments and colleges in integrating AI literacy across disciplines. Drive the adoption of AI and data-intensive technologies across Texas A&M research enterprise. Act as a subject matter expert, communicating the value and application of AI and machine learning to varying audiences. Provides recommendations to Executive Director for fiscal, personnel, administrative, and technical matters.
• Strategy and Vision - Develop a comprehensive AI and data science roadmap, identifying high-impact opportunities across research and academic functions. Act as a visionary, engage with campus leaders and teams to understand their challenges and help them envision what's possible with AI and data. Establish performance indicators, metrics, and benchmarks to measure the impact of AI-related initiatives. Stay current on the latest advancements in machine learning, data science, and generative AI, evaluating their potential to solve the unique challenges the HPRC users face. Serve as the primary leader for AI and data-intensive projects and develop training materials for end users.
• Research and Collaboration - Lead and participate in research projects as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co-PI or Senior Personnel funded by funding agencies. Lead or participate in proposal development securing funding in AI and data-intensive computing related fields. Facilitate awareness and use of partner programs such as NSF ACCESS and NAIRR. Represent HPRC in local, regional, national, and international initiatives with a high degree of professionalism. Participate in the VISION project and other AI initiatives from Texas A&M University System.
• Staff Supervision and Team Leadership - Supervises assigned staff. Empower the team to make decisions, take ownership of their work and grow their skills. Act as a coach and mentor, helping the team members overcome obstacles and achieve their professional goals.

Salary: Compensation will be commensurate to the selected hire's experience.

Cover Letter/Resume: A cover letter and resume are strongly recommended and will help in our review. You may upload them on the application under the CV/Resume section.

Other Requirements and Factors:

• This position may require up to 10% or more travel.
• This position may require work beyond normal office hours and/or work on weekends.

Required Education and Experience:

• Bachelor's Degree or any equivalent combination of training or experience.
• Ten years' progressively responsible experience in AI Data Science, Computing Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field, and five years of supervisory experience.

A Well-Qualified Candidate Will Also Possess:

• A Ph.D. in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, or a related field.
• Experience working in supercomputing center at a higher education or public sector environment.
• Experience implementing data lakes, lake houses, or mesh architectures, data governance best practices.
• Certifications in AI/ML, cloud architecture, or data integration tools.
• Experiences in evaluating emerging AI technology programs, defining benchmarks, and scaling best practices. Strong programming skills in Python, R, SQL, C++ and experience with modern AI/ML frameworks like TensorFlow, PyTorch.
• Strong technical understanding of AI technologies, data analytics tools, and platforms.
• Deep understanding of large language model, large foundation model, data architecture, data modeling, pipelines, and warehousing in a complex HPC environment.
• Experience with commercial cloud platforms and services (e.g., AWS, Azure, Google Cloud), especially those used for AI and data-intensive processing.
• Demonstrated experience in AI & ML solution development, data engineering, enterprise-level data, and data-intensive technologies.
• Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Expert knowledge of data management systems, practices and standards.
• Ability to occasionally work outside of normal working hours and weekends, may require some domestic travel.

The Texas A&M High Performance Research Computing (HPRC) is an interdisciplinary research center advancing computational and data-enabled science and engineering with a broad mission for advancing research, education, outreach, training and service. HPRC provides a computational backbone enabling AI (Artificial Intelligence) and HPC (High Performance Computing) research and offering advanced computing infrastructure and AI/HPC software tools. Since its inception in 1989, HPRC has infused computational and data analysis into the research and creative activities of every academic discipline at Texas A&M. With a focus on reliability, throughput, usability, and outreach, HPRC has maintained an expansive AI and HPC ecosystem. Today HPRC supports 5,000 active researchers and is leading software and training efforts to make advanced computing accessible to researchers across Texas A&M. With dozens of research grants of more than $30 million in external funding in the past years, HPRC has been playing a critical role in supporting computational sciences and high-impact data & AI-enabled research. HPRC is a nationally recognized leader in providing AI/HPC, including cluster design and deployment, systems administration, user support, applications engineering, and data management. HPRC has deployed and operated several large-scale scientific computing systems and a couple of which were among the top150 largest supercomputing systems in the world at the time of deployment. HPRC's participation in the NSF supported national Cyberinfrastructure initiatives, such as NAIRR (National AI Research Resource) Pilot and ACCESS (Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support), brings unique experiences as a national resource provider of both hardware and expertise, demonstrating an ability to serve a broad range of scientific communities.

Why Texas A&M University?

We are a prestigious university with strong traditions, Core Values, and a community of caring and collaboration. Amenities associated with a major university, such as sporting and cultural events, state-of-the-art recreation facilities, the Bush Library and Museum, and much more await you. Experience all that a big city has to offer but with a reasonable cost-of-living and no long commutes.

• Medical, prescription drug, dental, vision, life and AD&D, flexible spending accounts, and long-term disability insurance with Texas A&M contributing to employee health and basic life premiums
• 12- 15 days of annual paid holidays
• Up to eight hours of paid sick leave and at least eight hours of paid vacation each month
• Automatic enrollment in the Teacher Retirement System of Texas
• Health and Wellness: Free exercise programs and release time
• Professional Development: All employees have access to free LinkedIn Learning training, webinars, and limited financial support to attend conferences, workshops, and more
• Educational release time and tuition assistance for completing a degree while a Texas A&M employee
• Living Well, a program at Texas A&M that has been built by employees, for employees

Our Commitment

Texas A&M University is committed to enriching the learning and working environment by promoting a culture that respects all perspectives, talents & lived experiences. Embracing varying opinions and perspectives strengthens our core values which are: Respect, Excellence, Leadership, Loyalty, Integrity, and Selfless Service.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution's verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution's procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.