Senior Architect - Secure Research Infrastructure, Technology SolutionsHiring Department: Technology Solutions
Location: Chicago, IL USA
Requisition ID: 1040838
FTE: 1
Work Schedule: Monday - Friday / 8:30AM - 5:00PM
Shift: Days
# of Positions: 1
Workplace Type: Hybrid
Posting Close Date: July 2, 2026
Salary Range (commensurate with experience): $90,000.00 - 120,000.00 / Annual Salary
About the University of Illinois ChicagoUIC is among the nation's preeminent urban public research universities, a Carnegie RU/VH research institution, and the largest university in Chicago. UIC serves over 34,000 students, comprising one of the most diverse student bodies in the nation and is designated as a Minority Serving Institution (MSI), an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPSI) and a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI). Through its 16 colleges, UIC produces nationally and internationally recognized multidisciplinary academic programs in concert with civic, corporate and community partners worldwide, including a full complement of health sciences colleges. By emphasizing cutting-edge and transformational research along with a commitment to the success of all students, UIC embodies the dynamic, vibrant and engaged urban university. Recent "Best Colleges" rankings published by U.S. News & World Report, found UIC climbed up in its rankings among top public schools in the nation and among all national universities. UIC has nearly 260,000 alumni, and is one of the largest employers in the city of Chicago.
This position is intended to be eligible for benefits. This includes Health, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, a Retirement Plan, Paid time Off, and Tuition waivers for employees and dependents.
UIC is looking for a Senior Architect for Secure Research Infrastructure who will design,build, and manage the next generation of computing environments tailored forAI/ML workloads. This role sits at the critical intersection of rawcomputational power and data governance. You will be responsible for automatingthe deployment of secure enclaves that protect sensitive data (PHI/CUI) whileproviding researchers with the GPU-accelerated performance needed forcutting-edge innovation.
Duties & Responsibilities:- Architect AI/HPC Infrastructure: Design and scale GPU clusters and high-speedinterconnects to support large-scale model training and inference.
- Engineered Secure Enclaves: Build isolated walled-gardenenvironments using hardware-based Trusted Execution Environments ormicro-segmentation to process sensitive datasets.
- Compliance Engineering: Translate requirements fromcompliance standards such as NIST, SPRS, HIPAA, and CMMC into technicalcontrols. You will build the technical infrastructure that serves as the sourceof truth for audits.
- DevSecOps & Automation: Lead the Infrastructure as Codestrategy using such as Terraform or Ansible to ensure that security patches andconfiguration changes are audited, versioned, and immutable.
- High-Performance Storage: Manage petabyte-scale, parallelfile systems (e.g., Lustre, VAST, GPFS) with integrated encryption-at-rest andstrict POSIX/ACL access controls.
- Perform other related duties and participate in specialprojects as assigned.
Minimum Qualifications Required:- Bachelor Degree within Computer Science or closely relatedfield of study.
- Minimum of 10 years of professional level IT experiencewithin Cyberinfrastructure (CI) Research Computing including the design andimplementation of advanced high performance computing systems; data(acquisition, storage, management and reporting); and networks in support ofresearch initiatives.
- Demonstrated record of building systems with System SecurityPlans that successfully passed audits for compliance standards such as HIPAA,NIST 800-53/171, or CMMC level 2.
- Demonstrated knowledge of Slurm/Kubernetesorchestration and InfiniBand/NVLink/RoCE network topology.
Preferred Qualifications:- Experience working with security, scanning, and auditingplatforms such as Splunk,
- Experience with encrypting data at rest and in motion athybrid and federated systems
- 7+ years in Systems Engineering, with 3+ years specificallyin designing secure enclaves and HPC or AI infrastructure.
- Experience working with IAM systems such as SailPoint,InCommon, and CILogon
- Advanced degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or arelated field.
- Experience with Secure Enclaves, identity management(Entra/AD), and Zero Trust Architecture.
- Proficiency in Python, bash, CI/CD pipelines (GitLab/GitHubActions), and Linux kernel hardening.
To Apply: For fullest consideration click on the
Apply Now button, please fully complete all sections of the onlineapplication including adding your full work history with specific details of your duties & responsibilities for each position held. Fully complete the education, licensure, certification and language sections. You may upload a resume, cover letter, certifications, licensures, transcripts and diplomas within the application.
Please note that once you have submitted your application you will not be able to make any changes. In order to revise your application you must withdraw and reapply. You will not be able to reapply after the posting close date. Please ensure the application is fully completed and all supporting documents have been uploaded before the posting close date. Illinois Residency is required within 180 days of employment.
The University of Illinois System is an equal opportunity employer, including but not limited to disability and/or veteran status, and complies with all applicable state and federal employment mandates. Please visit Required Employment Notices and Posters to view our non-discrimination statement and find additional information about required background checks, sexual harassment/misconduct disclosures, and employment eligibility review through E-Verify.
The university provides accommodations to applicants and employees. Request an Accommodation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools may be used in some portions of the candidate review process for this position, however, all employment decisions will be made by a person.