Director of Research IT

Job Description - Director of Research IT (260000QW)

Job Description

Director of Research IT - (260000QW)

Job Summary

Towson University (TU) has earned distinction as both a top-100 public university and one of the nation''s great colleges to work for. Located north of Baltimore, TU currently enrolls over 20,000 students and is the second-largest university in the prestigious University System of Maryland. Towson University fosters a climate that is grounded in respect to cultivating the intellectual and personal growth of the entire university community.

Towson University is expanding its research enterprise, with significant growth in externally funded research, interdisciplinary collaboration, and faculty and student scholarship. The university is committed to advancing its research profile and achieving Carnegie R2 classification. Through the Division of Research, TU supports research and creative activity across all academic colleges.

The Director of Research IT is a new position which provides strategic leadership for the institution's research cyberinfrastructure (people, process, and technology), ensuring that research IT capabilities effectively enable and advance the research mission. Reporting to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) within the Office of Technology Services (OTS), this role partners very closely with many teams within OTS, the Vice President for Research, the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research (OSPR), the Library, and researchers and other research IT stakeholders to align technology strategy, governance, and services with institutional research priorities. The position maintains a close strategic relationship with the Vice President for Research to ensure alignment on research priorities and long-term planning.

The Director serves as a trusted advisor within OTS, working collaboratively with other OTS teams, including systems engineering/administration teams, information security and privacy teams, the academic technology consultants/research facilitators, and OTS leadership. The position will help to align the practices, procedures, and guidance of all the OTS teams involved in Research IT support. The Director will also be a lead role for many of the research cyberinfrastructure projects and researcher-specific implementations.

The Director will help to coordinate planning, service delivery, and operational oversight for research-related services and technologies. This position builds and sustains a research IT community of practice, establishes effective communications channels, monitors service performance and outcomes, and helps to plan for the long-term development of institutional capacity and capability to support a growing and evolving research enterprise. The position will initially have no direct reports, relying on collaboration with others. Telework may be available for this position up to two days per week following the completion of 90 days of service in good standing.

Responsibilities and Duties

Strategy and Governance:

• Assist in developing a comprehensive Research IT strategy aligned with institutional research priorities and enterprise technology roadmaps.
• Assist in establishing governance structures, standards, and processes for research-related services and technologies, ensuring transparency, accountability, and alignment across units.
• Partner with OTS leadership, the VP for Research, OSPR, Library, and other stakeholders to align policies, procedures, and investment decisions impacting research cyberinfrastructure.
• Guide the evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies (e.g., advanced computing, AI/ML, secure research environments) in support of the research mission.
• Promote shared solutions and reduced duplication of effort across colleges, labs, and distributed IT units.

Stakeholder Engagement, Partnerships and Communications:

• Serve as the primary liaison between researchers and OTS for research technology strategy, planning, and coordination.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with researchers, faculty, research staff, department IT, building coordinators, and administrative partners.
• Collaborate closely with OSPR and others to support grant proposal development, technology planning, budgeting, and compliance alignment.
• Establish and lead a Research IT community of practice to foster collaboration, shared learning, and coordinated communications across the research ecosystem.
• Represent Research IT in institutional committees, working groups, and external collaborations as appropriate.
• Partner with college liaisons and IT leaders to build research technology awareness and readiness across distributed units, especially through the Research IT community of practice.
• Maintain relationships and active involvement with external research IT organizations and communities like CaRCC, federally funded computational resources and programs (such as those supported by NSF and DOE), and peer organizations like the University System of Maryland and MDREN (Maryland Research and Education Network).
• Assist in developing and sustaining a method for tracking and reporting on researcher engagement with Research IT.
• Communicate research IT strategy, service updates, and outcomes through structured communications channels and engagement forums.

Research IT Consultations (Facilitation):

• Build standards for research IT consultations (facilitation) to ensure effective and structured intake, requirements gathering, and solution alignment for research IT needs.
• Lead and significantly participate in many, if not most, research IT consultations.
• Provide guidance and assistance to other OTS staff handling research IT consultations.
• Evaluate effectiveness of research IT consultations and recommend and implement adjustments.

Service and Operational Oversight:

• Partner closely with OTS service and process owners (e.g., information security and privacy, academic technology consultants, systems engineering, networking engineering, identity and access management, endpoint management) to inform the design of research-supporting services and operations within the OTS portfolio.
• Oversee the alignment of research IT services with security, compliance, and regulatory requirements (e.g., federal sponsor requirements, data protection frameworks, NIST, CUI, CMMC).
• Monitor and report on research-related service performance, risk posture, and operational health in collaboration with relevant IT teams.
• Coordinate technology planning for research facilities and infrastructure in partnership with institutional stakeholders.
• Align and coordinate the development of secure, scalable, and sustainable research technology environments across the institution.
• Guide, seek approval and work with vendors in purchasing of research-related technology and services, under the guidance of the CTO and CIO.
• Assist in budget monitoring and forecasting for research-related technology and services in the OTS portfolio, under the guidance of the CTO and CIO.

Capacity-Building, Professional Development, and Metrics:

• Coordinate development of research IT-related skills and capabilities among OTS staff, including this position.
• Develop institutional capability in research IT through standards, training, documentation, and skill development initiatives.
• Leverage and participate in external organizations and communities like CaRCC to support standards and skills development.
• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) and outcome metrics for research IT services, reporting regularly to leadership.
• Leverage and participate in external organizations' benchmarking (like CaRCC) to measure and compare Research IT capacity and capability.
• Identify and communicate risks and opportunities with staffing and technology capacity to meet institutional research IT needs both short-term and long-term.
• Contribute to long-term workforce and capability planning for research IT, including recommendations for future staffing and organizational design.

Qualifications and Skills

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree.

• At least five years of progressive experience in research-supporting technology environments.

• Experience partnering with academic researchers, research administrators, or comparable stakeholders in complex environments.

• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.

• Familiarity with research cyberinfrastructure, high-performance computing, cloud-based research platforms, and/or research data management practices.

• Ability to influence without direct authority and to lead through collaboration, facilitation, and/or communities of practice.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Advanced degree (Master's or higher).

• Research experience including significant application of computation methods, data analysis, or other use of research IT resources.

• Instructional and/or teaching experience, including computational and/or data science skills.

• Experience in higher education, healthcare research, or similarly regulated research-intensive environments.

• Prior contribution to technology strategy, governance frameworks, and/or cross-functional processes.

• Experience supporting sponsored research, including technology planning for grant proposals.

• Understanding of information security, data protection, and compliance/regulatory requirements in a research setting.

• Experience contributing to organizational design, workforce planning, or service portfolio development in IT.

Salary and Benefits

Targeted hiring range of $ 140,000-$155,000 annually and full University benefits that include 22 days of annual leave, up to 17 holidays, personal and sick days; excellent health, life, and retirement plans; and tuition remission. To learn more about our benefits, click here. TU also offers a variety of great perks and discounts, which can be found here.

This position will be open for a minimum of 14 days.

Organization

: Administration & Finance Division

Job Posting

: Nov 3, 2026