Department
PSD Data Science: DDRI Leadership

Job Summary
The Data & Democracy Research Initiative (DDRI) Data and Engineering Manager will lead the DDRI technical research team. The successful candidate will both understand how to establish and nurture software development best practices and is also excited by the opportunity to lead a team in a dynamic academic environment. They will have significant technical expertise in one or more of the following areas: cloud computing, database design, web-based applications or machine learning. The Engineering Manager will have significant decision-making capability on both which projects are selected to be worked on and how those projects are executed.

Responsibilities

• Manage a team of engineers and students contributing to projects across DDRI activities driving the development of robust, scalable, core components.
• Provide mentorship to engineers and students and share your passion for staying on top of tech trends, experimenting with and learning new technologies.
• Establish processes to triage bugs, track software defects, and ensure their timely resolution. Define and steward technical standards and code quality .
• Oversee internal computing resources.
• Work closely with faculty to develop novel research and act as the principal liaison to faculty research partners.
• Develop, apply and communicate standards for evaluating project proposals based on technical merit and other institutional goals.
• Develop and communicate program priorities and performance standards and assess operations using these criteria.
• Participate and direct code review and code evaluation activities.
• Act a subject matter expert and technical lead on one or more areas of database design, cloud deployment, microservices, develops best practices.
• Manages professional staff that support and develop cluster partnership programs, consultant partnership programs, new faculty programs, and outreach programs.
• Monitors achievement of programmatic and operational goals. Directs the management of projects, as appropriate, including ensuring that all priorities are reasonably set and appropriately met.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:
Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:
Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 7+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Advanced degree.

Experience:

• Significant experience with professional software development management.
• Experience using and developing on one of the major cloud providers (AWS, GCP or Azure).
• Significant experience developing code in Python with knowledge of Node.js and a compiled language such as C/C++.
• Project management experience using agile methodologies (scrum, kanban, etc.).
• Strong foundation in data management and data science.
• Cloud computing cost estimation and budgeting.
• Experience with research universities or research environments; experience working with faculty, students, and researchers.
• Strong analytical skills and problem solving.
• Student mentoring experience.
• Demonstrated communication skills and the ability to break down complex technical problems.

Application Documents

• Resume (required)
• Cover letter (preferred)

When applying, the document(s) MUST be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.

Job Family
Research

Role Impact
People Manager

Scheduled Weekly Hours
37.5

Drug Test Required
No

Health Screen Required
No

Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry Required
No

Pay Rate Type
Salary

FLSA Status
Exempt

Pay Range
$135,000.00 - $150,000.00
The included pay rate or range represents the University's good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting.

Benefits Eligible
Yes
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.