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Director of Research Technologies

Rockville, MD

(ID: 2026-1481)

NGRF (NovaGen Research Fund) is a new data science collaboration hub including multiple labs and centers. The Director of Research Technologies position will focus on the Polus Center for Data Research (PCDR) and have responsibilities across all scientific initiatives. PCDR is a cutting‑edge scientific center that accelerates biomedical research using artificial intelligence and other novel technologies. PCDR fosters an open-source community and supports secure interoperable platforms, applications/tools, training, collaboration, and data to increase the aggregate rate of scientific advancement. 

This role will provide strategic oversight and technical leadership to build, evolve, and manage a collaboration hub and digital platforms that support the needs of multidisciplinary researchers. The Director will be responsible for aligning the organization’s capabilities with emerging scientific priorities, driving infrastructure modernization, leading cloud transformation, ensuring cybersecurity compliance, and cultivating external partnerships to expand the center’s reach and impact. The Director will build and sustain PDCR as a premier center that preserves and advances critical open-source tools, workflows, and data processing pipelines, especially where government programs have ended their support. You will steer strategy, shepherd community governance, secure diversified funding, and ensure long‑term maintainability so that essential software remains available, interoperable, and trustworthy for the research community. 

Our vision is a future where data, workflows, analysis, standards, and tools can be seamlessly used, exchanged, and scaled to empower scientists at every level. Our core values are Accessibility, Enabling Collaboration, and Innovation. If these values energize you, this may be the place for you. 

Director of Research Technologies 

Position Overview

Key Responsibilities: Summary 

  • Organization Strategy and Stewardship: Define and execute the long-term vision for NGRF, aligned with the evolving needs of translational research. Own the NGRF mission, scope, and success boundaries. Publish a Center Charter for PCDR, multi‑year roadmap, and sustainability plan that balances new capability with preservation mandates. Decide when to build, partner, or adopt. Prioritize FAIR, CARE, and MOST principles for data, models, analyses, and workflows. Lead technology modernization initiatives including cloud adoption, AI/ML infrastructure, and platform resilience. 

  • Community Discovery and Validation: Run a learning plan with explicit hypotheses for user needs, value, adoption, and impact. Establish advisory councils and design‑partner cohorts across academia, industry, and public agencies with clear success criteria. Use public requests for comment, usability testing, and field pilots to validate direction and reduce risk. 

  • Program Execution and Quality: Design and manage a scalable, secure research computing environment including cloud platforms, high-performance computing (HPC), and data pipelines. Guide delivery of interoperable tools and reproducible pipelines using modern environments such as Jupyter, RStudio, and Visual Studio Code. Maintain a dual‑track backlog, versioning policy, documentation standards, and observability across repos and services. Embed provenance, lineage, and reproducibility safeguards in every release. Drive continuous improvement in infrastructure performance, cost optimization, and service delivery metrics. 

  • Preservation and Continuity of Critical Software: Catalog PCDR at‑risk tools and pipelines from sunsetting government efforts. Lead stabilization, containerization, emulation, or refactoring as needed. Stand up a code custody program with mirrors, archival artifacts, automated builds, dependency vulnerability monitoring, and migration playbooks. 

  • Funding and Long‑Term Sustainability: Operate a stage‑gated investment model from Explore to Validate to Build to Scale. Develop a diversified funding portfolio that can include federal and philanthropic grants, sponsored maintenance, service agreements, and community contribution programs. Manage total cost to sustain, staffing plans, and partner budgets with transparent reporting. Lead strategic planning, vendor management, and capital/operational budgeting. 

  • Governance, Risk, and Compliance: Establish open governance with clear maintenance ownership, contribution guidelines, and community codes of conduct. Set licensing, IP, and data‑use policies aligned to open science. Maintain a consolidated risk register with owners and mitigations, including security, privacy, and operational continuity. Oversee core operations across compute, storage, networking, identity and access management (IAM), cybersecurity, and disaster recovery (BC/DR). Establish governance frameworks, track KPIs and SLAs, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards (e.g., HIPAA, FISMA, NIST, CLIA). 

  • Organization and Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a high-performing team of engineers, architects, data managers, and IT professionals. Build and lead this multidisciplinary team spanning engineering, data science, product, UX, training, and community management. Run a reliable operating cadence for planning, reviews, risk checkpoints, and metrics. Publish a team charter, RACI, OKRs, hiring plan, and role scorecards. Foster a culture of collaboration, innovation, inclusion, and technical excellence. 

  • Outreach, Training, and Adoption: Grow a vibrant community through workshops, documentation, tutorials, and office hours that support diverse backgrounds and career stages. Promote interoperable formats, open standards, and portable workflows. Develop partnerships with institutes, consortia, and standards bodies to amplify impact. 

  • Community Support and Post‑Deployment Care: Provide implementation blueprints that minimize time to first result. Operate support channels, service level targets, and health scoring for adoption depth and breadth. Convene a Community Advisory Board and publish adoption dashboards and annual impact reports. 

  • Measurement and Learning: Define North Star Metrics oriented around sustained reuse and reproducibility. Establish and track KPIs such as maintainers’ responsiveness, release cadence, security posture, dependency freshness, cross‑platform interoperability, downloads, citations, training reach, and diversity of contributors. Use evidence to refine priorities each quarter. 

Required Qualifications 

  • Advanced degree in computer science, systems engineering, bioinformatics, or a related technical discipline or equivalent professional experience. 

  • Track record securing and managing grants or multi‑sponsor programs, with transparent budgeting and reporting. 

  • Ten or more years in relevant leadership roles with at least five years stewarding platforms, pipelines, or developer tools in data‑intensive science. 

  • Proven leadership building or maintaining modern cloud or high‑performance data platforms in scientific domains. 

  • Demonstrated success sustaining open‑source tools or research software used in production settings. 

  • Deep appreciation for reproducible research and FAIR, CARE, and MOST principles. 

  • Strong collaboration with engineering, design, data science, and research communities. Clear, concise writing and roadmap storytelling. 

  • Hands‑on experience with discovery practices, field pilots, and experiment‑driven validation for research software. 

  • Competence in code and data observability, versioning, documentation standards, and software quality practices for long‑term maintenance. 

  • Demonstrated expertise in cloud infrastructure (AWS/Azure), DevSecOps, Kubernetes, data security frameworks, and automation. 

  • Experience designing and implementing research computing platforms, supporting large-scale data systems, and enabling AI/ML workflows. 

  • Deep familiarity with compliance in regulated environments (e.g., HIPAA, FISMA, CLIA, NIST). 

  • An entrepreneurial mindset. 

Preferred Qualifications 

  • Experience working in, or in partnership with, and building partner ecosystems with, nonprofit research institutions, academic medical centers, or federally funded research programs. 

  • Demonstrated success in organizational transformation, digital modernization, and talent development. 

  • Strong background in portfolio management, vendor negotiation, and technology roadmap development. 

  • Experience with interactive notebooks, developer environments, and pipeline orchestration that support containerized or remote development. 

  • Background designing training programs, community contribution models, and governance for open projects. 

  • Exposure to AI‑assisted scientific workflows such as code generation, analysis review, or model documentation. 

  • Familiarity with standards and formats that improve interoperability across data, models, and workflows. 

  • Certifications such as AWS Cloud Practitioner, Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, or ITIL are a plus. 

Salary Range 

  • The prospective salary range for this position is $175,000 - $200,000 annually. 

 

 Benefits We Offer:

 

  • 100% Medical, Dental & Vision Coverage for Employees
  • Educational Benefits for Career Growth
  • Paid Time Off (Including Holidays)
  • Employee Referral Bonus
  • 401K Matching
  • Flexible Spending Accounts:
    • Healthcare (FSA)
    • Parking Reimbursement Account (PRK)
    • Dependent Care Assistant Program (DCAP)
    • Transportation Reimbursement Account (TRN)

 

About NGRF 

NGRF is a mission‑driven non‑profit committed to accelerating biomedical discovery. We are a highly collaborative environment where innovation and impact go hand in hand. As Director of Research Technologies, you will shape the future of research technologies and directly contribute to advancing human health and scientific understanding. We value diverse backgrounds and perspectives, and we know that inclusion makes for better science and stronger communities. 

If building a durable foundation for open, interoperable, and innovative biomedical research excites you as much as it excites us, please contact us. 

 

#IND

Salary Range

$175,000 - $200,000 USD

Disclaimer: The above description is meant to illustrate the general nature of work and level of effort being performed by individuals assigned to this position or job description. This is not restricted as a complete list of all skills, responsibilities, duties, and/or assignments required. Individuals may be required to perform duties outside of their position, job description or responsibilities as needed.

The diversity of NovaGen's employees is a tremendous asset. We are firmly committed to providing equal opportunity in all aspects of employment and will not tolerate any illegal discrimination or harassment based on age, race, gender, religion, national origin, disability, marital status, covered veteran status, sexual orientation, status with respect to public assistance, and other characteristics protected under state, federal, or local law and to deter those who aid, abet, or induce discrimination or coerce others to discriminate.

Accessibility: If you need an accommodation as part of the employment process please contact: info@novagenresearch.org

This role has a market-competitive salary with an anticipated base compensation range listed below. Actual salaries will vary depending on a candidate’s experience, qualifications, skills, and location.

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