Research Tools Technical Lead

The Research Tools Technical Lead serves as the principal technical leader and application expert for tools overseen by the Research Tools team, including (but not limited to) UCSF's REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) research data management platform, while also providing enterprise-level IT architecture leadership across multiple technical initiatives. This role combines deep technical expertise in research informatics with strategic architecture capabilities, automation implementation, and technical project leadership.

This position operates at the intersection of research support, infrastructure automation, and technical innovation—serving as both the lead administrator for critical research data systems and a staff-level technical leader for cross-functional projects requiring advanced architectural guidance. This role will use AI/LLM driven technologies to accelerate development when possible and sensible, and may deploy or build new AI technologies as part of the growing Research IT footprint in this area.
 

Our team is distributed across the United States, and strives to protect a workplace with a strong focus on work/life balance. We work hard to appreciate the diverse backgrounds and life experiences of each of our team members. Our team culture includes an understanding that there can be many pathways for all of our journeys; in support of this we encourage applications from folks with a rich and varied background, including those re-entering the workforce. KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES Required - Bachelor's degree in computer science, or a related/quantitative area, **OR** equivalent combination of experience / training. - 4 or more years experience using modern devops tools for security scanning, CI/CD, and controlled code release practices - 4 or more years experience managing code versioning and development workflows with a modern source control system such as Github; working knowledge of production system change control processes. - Demonstrated experience owning and driving sophisticated technical projects in a complex organization or operating environment. - Demonstrated knowledge of and at least 4 years of professional experience using modern data science and data engineering orientated high level programming languages, including SQL and at least one of Python, Julia, PHP, and/or Node.js. - Demonstrated knowledge of REDCap application architecture, **OR** demonstrated knowledge of a highly analogous monolithic multi-tenant LAMP stack application requiring high availability and tightly defined compliance/security frameworks - Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate with end users and diverse stakeholders in appropriately technical and non-technical terms - Experience writing and executing application test plans or utilizing test-driven design practices. - Experience managing documentation with Wikis, markdown, and/or document assemblers such as MkDocs. - Demonstrated experience responding to highly visible security issues associated with an application Preferred - Advanced degree in health care information technology, computer science or a related/quantitative area, **OR** equivalent combination of experience / training. - Post-graduate education in computer science, mathematics, or artificial intelligence, **OR** equivalent combination of experience / training. - Demonstrated ability to interconnect existing open source or commercial software libraries using standardized API-driven processes - Demonstrated knowledge administering infrastructure and/or application stacks using Linux (specifically RHEL and/or Ubuntu) and MySQL or MySQL variants (especially MariaDB). - Proven experience deploying tools or solutions leveraging foundational modern engineering tooling (for example, building or architecting a full-stack clustered/containered application or redeploying a monolithic application into a scalable architecture). - Experience delivering platform-quality tools or experiences to a user community, preferably composed of researchers and/or developers. - Working knowledge of microservice or service mesh technologies - At least 4 years experience working with open source libraries as a contributor and/or community leader. - Demonstrated ability to harden open source tools to be deployed in a secure environment, preferably one with specific compliance mandates This position will sit on one of the areas in UCSF's Research IT apparatus responsible for evaluating, building, and deploying AI tools for the research community. As a result, there may be additional preferred knowledge, skills, or abilities, associated with AI technologies and engineering that will change rapidly over time. This position will work to stabilize and fully operationalize a PHP based application which leverages php-fpm and requires substantial tuning; as a result, experience with php-fpm, APM (or other php-specific application monitoring), and monitoring tools (e.g. ELK, DataDog) is preferred.

The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a leading university dedicated to promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care. It is the only campus in the 10-campus UC system dedicated exclusively to the health sciences. We bring together the world’s leading experts in nearly every area of health. We are home to five Nobel laureates who have advanced the understanding of cancer, neurodegenerative diseases, aging and stem cells.

UCSF is a diverse community made of people with many skills and talents. We seek candidates whose work experience or community service has prepared them to contribute to our commitment to professionalism, respect, integrity, diversity and excellence – also known as https://www.ucsf.edu/about/mission-and-values . In addition to , UCSF is committed to equity – both in how we deliver care as well as our workforce. We are committed to building a broadly diverse community, nurturing a culture that is welcoming and supportive, and engaging diverse ideas for the provision of culturally competent education, discovery, and patient care. Additional information about UCSF is available https://diversity.ucsf.edu/ . Join us to find a rewarding career contributing to improving healthcare worldwide.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state or federal law.