Research Applications Specialist

How to Apply

A cover letter and resume are important submissions for the hiring team to get a sense of your experience. In the cover letter, in one page or less, please let us know how this role aligns with your career aspirations and skills. Submit both a cover letter and resume as one file.

Competitive salary available based on qualifications, experience and education of the selected candidate.

Job Summary

Information and Technology Services (ITS) is looking for a Research Applications Specialist to join the Advanced Research Computing (ARC) department within ITS. You will improve our world through science and research by use of computational tools such as scientific computing, High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data (Spark, DBMS), Machine Learning, cloud computing services (AWS, Azure, GCP), Massive Parallelism paradigms (MPI, OpenACC, Accelerators) and more You will be part of a team supporting all University-wide ARC services and national services such as NSF ACCESS, and, Open Science Grid. Your primary responsibilities will be to build and install open-source and commercial software, and to provide support to users using the same. You will aid researchers in solving their computational problems and workflows. Other responsibilities will include making presentations and providing training to users, writing internal and user documentation, and outreach. You will be comfortable with Linux systems as an advanced user and will have some experience with downloading, compiling, and installing open source software. You will communicate technical concepts to non technical users, and user requirements to ARC and scientific support staff. Many research domains will be encountered, and a willingness to inquire and learn about the computing workflows of the users will be essential. You will report to the Research Experience Manager.

Who We Are

Information and Technology Services (ITS) supports U-M faculty, researchers, staff, and students in their use of technology to teach, learn, research, and work, and be leaders in their fields. We are dedicated to creating cohesive digital experiences and promoting university wide innovations. ITS's mission is to be trusted enablers of technology for the U-M community. ITS works together to provide cohesive digital experiences and seamless support to the U-M community. For more information about ITS, visit: https://its.umich.edu/advanced-research-computing. ARC is the University of Michigan research IT provider specializing in High Performance Computing (HPC), Big Data (e.g. Spark), high speed networking, storage, Kubernetes, and other technologies to accelerate the research mission of the institution. For more information about ARC visit our website: https://its.umich.edu/advanced-research-computing.

Why Work at Michigan?

Benefits at the University of Michigan:

In addition to a career filled with purpose and opportunity, The University of Michigan offers a comprehensive benefits package to help you stay well, protect yourself and your family and plan for a secure future. Benefits include:

• Generous time off
• A retirement plan that provides two-for-one matching contributions with immediate vesting
• Many choices for comprehensive health insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability coverage
• Flexible spending accounts for healthcare and dependent care expenses
• Dental and Vision Insurance
• Parental and Maternity Leave

Responsibilities*

• Configure, compile, and install open-source research applications and libraries from source.
• Craft functioning examples, either from examples included with the software, from the internet, or built from scratch for software installed to serve as a guide for users.
• Install and maintain multiple commercial applications such as mathematical and statistical software, math libraries, compilers, debuggers, and profilers.
• Collaborate in evaluating the organization, delivery, and maintenance of software and finding or building improved systems.
• Help validate the performance benchmarking and performance diagnosis of ARC services and systems.
• Assist users with performance, system or other issues related to their use of our systems.
• Assist users in identifying national resources, such as ACCESS, perform testing on those resources, assist preparing computational components of proposals, and assist users in learning to use granted resources.
• Evaluate new, user-facing tools for their potential to improve users' interaction with ARC services and resources that make the services easier to approach.
• Propose better solutions to organize, update, and deliver user-facing software.
• Evaluate software development tools that assist users in improving performance of their software, e.g., compilers, profilers, and libraries.
• Create and publish documentation including user guides, application-specific web documentation, and documentation for internal programs and procedures.
• Participate in designing and offering workshops and training for ARC and other research computing systems; this may include written assignments, in-person presentation, or video recording.
• Work individually with users to create manageable, well-documented workflows that incorporate or integrate with ARC provided services.
• You will be responsible for designing, building and maintaining HPC software infrastructures and user-facing tools, ensuring optimal performance and reliability in various domains, such as AI/ML applications that run on HPC AI/ML platforms.
• Develop CLI tooling and APIs that users and stakeholders can run to consume and evaluate their workflow metrics
• Contribute and maintain software package management systems
• Collaborate with researchers and Research Software Engineers to ensure seamless integration of HPC resources and scaling of applications.
• Stay up to date on the latest advancements of HPC technologies, especially in MPI, AI/ML and best practices
  

Required Qualifications*

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Linux command line skills
• Two or more years experience providing IT support or working in an academic, research, or scientific focused environment
• Experience with building code from source on Linux systems using common tools such as autoconf, Cmake, and others
• Experience with debugging compiling and linking issues
• Experience with bash shell and python

Desired Qualifications*

Advanced degree in an academic field with experience in mult-step computational processes, e.g., analyzing ongoing data collection, participation in survey research

Modes of Work

Positions that are eligible for hybrid or mobile/remote work mode are at the discretion of the hiring department. Work agreements are reviewed annually at a minimum and are subject to change at any time, and for any reason, throughout the course of employment. Learn more about the work modes.

Additional Information

This position may work with and/or support systems that maintain or process sensitive institutional data as defined by university policy. Successful candidates must comply with federal, state and local law and/or university policies or agreements that require the university to implement specific privacy and security safeguards including, but not limited to: ITAR, EAR, HIPAA and FISMA. Responsible for protecting data and information from unauthorized release or from loss, alteration or unauthorized deletion; and, following applicable regulations and instructions regarding access to computerized files, release of data, etc. as stated in a computer access agreement.

Application Deadline

Job openings are posted for at least seven calendar days. The review and selection process may begin as early as the eighth day after posting. This opening may be removed from posting boards and filled anytime after the minimum posting period has ended.

U-M EEO Statement

The University of Michigan is an equal employment opportunity employer.

269760

Research Applications Specialist

App Programmer/Analyst Inter

Ann Arbor Campus

Hybrid

Full-Time

Regular

Exempt

Its Institutional

ITS ARC Advanced Research Comp

10/15/2025 - 10/29/2025

$73,600.00 - $81,777.00

Information Technology