Senior Research Software Engineer Full-time

Senior Research Software Engineer

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University Of Texas At Austin is one of the leading supercomputing centers in the world, supporting advances in computational research by thousands of researchers and students. TACC staff help researchers and educators use advanced computing, visualization, and storage technologies effectively, and conduct research and development to make these technologies more powerful, more reliable, and easier to use. TACC staff also educate and train the next generation of researchers, empowering them to make discoveries that advance knowledge and change the world.

If you are not sure that you're 100% qualified, but up for the challenge – we want you to apply. We believe skills are transferable and passion for our mission goes a long way.

Candidates will need to upload a resume, letter of interest, unofficial copy of transcript, and the names of three references to apply for this position.

UT Austin offers a competitive benefits package that includes:

• 100% employer-paid basic medical coverage
• Retirement contributions
• Paid vacation and sick time
• Paid holidays

Please visit our Human Resources (HR) website to learn more about the total benefits offered.

Purpose

This position will play a leading role in researching the design, implementation and operation of cloud-based platforms delivering computational tools to the research computing community.

Responsibilities

• Lead and contribute to the ongoing design, development, and operational support of core components of the Tapis API platform.
• Contribute to the evolution and improvement of devops processes across CIC and TACC.
• Create and advance scientific and engineering research workflows that leverage FM/AI/ML at scale.
• Explore and evaluate emerging technologies and ideas for their potential application in our projects
• Work collaboratively to lead and support the preparation, coordination, and submission of competitive research proposals to sponsoring agencies.
• Determine project requirements, define procedures, and develop strategies to meet project deliverables and achieve project goals. This includes coordinating and collaborating with fellow researchers but locally at UT and nationally.
• Disseminate research findings through various channels including publications, journal articles, and books as appropriate.
• Attend conferences to promote CIC's work and participate in hands‑on training sessions that support the use of Tapis and gateways as teaching tools.
• Assist in developing comprehensive documentation and training materials both internally for the project and for external stakeholders. Present tutorials and workshops to the research community at conferences.
• Leverage experience to mentor and guide students, staff, and interns, sharing knowledge and best practices to support their professional growth and development, as appropriate.
• Communicate complex technical ideas and research findings effectively to various audiences, supporting collaboration within the team and advancing the impact of research activities.
• Translate emerging technologies into practical solutions through strategic thinking and strong problem‑solving expertise in science and engineering environments.
• Foster a culture of positive team citizenship by actively engaging in collaborative problem-solving, supporting colleagues, and contributing to a positive work environment.

Required Qualifications

• Ph.D. in mathematics, computer science, engineering, or related research field with a strong background in applied FM/AI/ML.
• Experience leading grant proposals as Principal Investigator (PI) or Co‑PI from concept through submission, including submissions to federal and other funding agencies.
• Proven record of publishing research in peer-reviewed journals and/or top-tier conferences.
• Research experience in mathematics, computer science, engineering or a closely related field, and experience with innovation-driven software development to further the research objectives.
• Experience in supporting open, reproducible science and creating transformational technology to accelerate the rate at which it is conducted.
• Experience in developing comprehensive documentation and training materials both internally for the project and for external stakeholders.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to present complex research concepts clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Proven ability to operate independently within defined timelines while actively collaborating in a research‑focused team environment.
• Demonstrated experience and technical expertise in the following areas:
• Proven, recent expertise in the Python, RUST, and either JavaScript/TypeScript or Java programming languages as well as associated technologies (such as Cargo, uv, npm, Maven, etc).
• Hands-on experience with Docker, Singularity/Apptainer, Kubernetes and/or other container technologies.
• Strong background in formal methods, including the Lean prover, and other lightweight formal methods technologies (e.g., SAT/SMT, TLA+, Alloy, Prolog/Datalog, etc)
• Working knowledge of web security technologies (such as OAuth2, OIDC, JWT, MFA,).
• Experience with large language models (LLMs), multimodal ML, and/or agentic AI to automate, optimize, and advance scientific and engineering research workflows.
• Ability to design and implement REST APIs and other web-friendly tools and technologies.
• Proven capability to engineer scalable research workflows and pipelines to efficiently leverage high-performance and cloud computing clusters.
• Strong proficiency working in a Linux/UNIX command line environment including basic shell scripting and system configuration.
• Experience building, debugging, and maintaining distributed systems.
• Practical experience consuming cloud technologies in support of real-world applications.
• Expertise in implementing transactional use cases using relational and noSQL databases (such as Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB, etc).
• Deep familiarity with unit testing, integration testing, distributed source control management, and build and test systems.
• Experience with event driven messaging systems (such as RabbitMQ, ZMQ).

Relevant education and experience may be substituted as appropriate.

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with identity and access management technologies (such as LDAP, OAuth scopes, ACL, role-based entitlements).
• Expert level background in theoretical mathematics, computer science, and/or physics
• Expertise with High Performance Computing environments and developing scalable, reproducible HPC applications.
• Experience implementing large data processing solutions.
• Demonstrated experience implementing Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery pipelines.

Salary Range $120,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• Typical Office Environment
• Repetitive use of a keyboard

Required Materials

• Resume/CV
• Letter of interest
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor
• Unofficial copy of transcript

Important for applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers: You will be prompted to submit your resume in the first step of the online job application process. Then, any additional Required Materials will be uploaded in the My Experience section; you can multi-select the additional files or click the Upload button for each file. Before submitting your online job application, ensure that ALL Required Materials have been uploaded. Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers: As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find Jobs. Before you apply though, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left-hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will need to click the Upload button multiple times in order to attach your Resume, References and any additional Required Materials noted above.

Employment Eligibility: Regular staff who have been employed in their current position for the last six continuous months are eligible for openings being recruited for through University-Wide or Open Recruiting, to include both promotional opportunities and lateral transfers. Staff who are promotion/transfer eligible may apply for positions without supervisor approval.

Retirement Plan Eligibility: The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length. This position has the option to elect the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) instead of TRS, subject to the position being 40 hours per week and at least 135 days in length.

Background Checks: A criminal history background check will