Research Support Analyst

Competition 1546

This competition is open to all applicants however; internal candidates and applicants who were former employees of the University of Alberta in the past 18 months will be given priority consideration before external candidates. Please log in to verify your internal candidate status.

This position is a part of the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA).

This position offers a comprehensive benefits package which can be viewed at: Faculty & Staff Benefits.

Location -  Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton. This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person.

Working at the University of Alberta

The University of Alberta acknowledges that we are located on Treaty 6 territory, and respects the histories, languages and cultures of First Nations, Métis, Inuit and all FirstPeoples of Canada, whose presence continues to enrich our vibrant community.

The University of Alberta is a community of knowledge seekers, change makers and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We are home to over 14,000 faculty and staff, more than 40,000 students and a growing community of 300,000 alumni worldwide.

Your work will have a meaningful influence on a fascinating cross-section of people — from our students and community members, to our renowned researchers and innovators, making discoveries and generating solutions that make the world healthier, safer, stronger and more just. Learn more.

Working for the Information Services & Technology (IST) Department

Information Services & Technology (IST) is the central support group for the university's technological landscape. IST plays a pivotal role in ensuring the evolution and smooth operation of technology for teaching, learning, research and working at the University of Alberta. Beyond having expansive technical expertise, IST fosters a supportive environment where our staff values include compassion, connection, collaboration, creativity and courage.

If you are passionate about leveraging technology to empower education, research and to drive institutional excellence, join us and be part of shaping the future of the University of Alberta through innovative IT solutions.

Position 

The Research Support Analyst will assist researchers of all levels (faculty, postdoctoral fellow, graduate student, undergraduate student, technician, etc.) with digital research efforts, especially, but not limited to, science, engineering, and biomedical research areas. Much of the digital research infrastructure is external to the University, operated by Compute Canada/the Digital Research Alliance of Canada.

The Research Support Analyst will participate in a national provision of support, collaborating with other research support analysts to support researchers from across the country, with a focus on Western Canadian researchers in BC, AB, SK, and MB.

Duties 

• Assist researchers (see categories above) with their use of Advanced Research Computing (ARC) systems available locally or through Compute Canada/the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. Tickets on Help Desk software, telephone calls, emails, and local visits are all ways researchers may engage the analyst in asking for assistance. Requests vary greatly in complexity across topics such as job submission on schedulers, software bugs in commercial and non-commercial products, improper initial conditions for scientific software, and others.
• Install research software on such systems as required by researchers, according to installation and operational standards of Compute Canada/ the Digital Research Alliance of Canada. These installations are not trivial like MS Office on Windows, and are for software packages frequently used by only dozens to thousands of people in the world (e.g., MOLPRO, OpenFOAM).
• Train researchers on how to use these systems and on best practices to ensure they use the systems effectively and efficiently, as the systems are oversubscribed and researchers must make best use of the time/cycles they are allocated. Collaborate with other trainers in the development and delivery of this training.
• Participate in the Research Support National Team within Compute Canada/ the Digital Research Alliance of Canada, in video conferences and meetings (national meetings generally occur twice annually). Collaborative coordination of service support among ~100 RSAs across Canada to serve 12000 researchers.
• Participate in IST Research Computing group tasks and activities (e.g., deliver presentations at staff meetings, training researchers in workshops).

Qualifications

• Master's degree, preferably in a science, engineering, or biomedical area. PhD in a related field preferred.
• Experience in using high-performance computing (HPC) systems and research software commonly installed on such systems.
• Knowledge of how to use HPC schedulers such as Slurm or Torque/Moab is required.
• Knowledge of programming languages and scripting languages is useful and preferred.
• Ability to swap between generalizations/abstractions and details/specifics, as the incumbent cannot be an expert (i.e., PhD-level knowledge) of every research field and software application they will need to successfully support on cloud environments.