Director, IT Infrastructure

Department

BSD BIS - BSDIS

About The Department

The CTO is responsible for delivering comprehensive, secure, and innovative technology services that support the research, clinical, and academic missions of both the Biological Sciences Division (BSD) and the University of Chicago Medicine (UCM). This organization leads all aspects of IT infrastructure for BSD and UCM, as well as software development, and cybersecurity for the BSD. The CTO partners closely with institutional leadership to drive strategic innovation, improve operational efficiency, support high-performance computing and clinical trial management, and implement scalable, enterprise-grade solutions—including cloud technologies. The team operates within a complex, matrixed environment and is accountable for aligning technology investments with organizational goals, sustaining secure and high-performing systems, and fostering collaboration across research, academic, and healthcare domains.

Job Summary

The University of Chicago and UChicago Medicine are seeking a strategic and technically adept Director, IT Infrastructure to lead the planning and operations of a complex and mission-critical IT infrastructure environment. This role is pivotal to the delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performing platforms that support clinical excellence, academic innovation, and leading-edge research.
Reporting to the UCM/BSD Chief Technology Officer, the Director, IT Infrastructure provides leadership across a broad infrastructure portfolio, including data center operations, enterprise storage, Citrix environments, Epic infrastructure, database platforms, and high-performance computing. The Director, IT Infrastructure oversees a team of approximately 50 IT professionals and is responsible for ensuring service reliability, future-state readiness, and alignment with organizational goals.

Responsibilities

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for IT infrastructure in a HIPAA-regulated environment.
• Drive the architectural design and implementation of core infrastructure platforms, ensuring scalability, security, and alignment with institutional priorities.
• Advise faculty research labs and internal IT teams on infrastructure strategy, compute architecture, and the utilization of available technical services to support innovative research.
• Mentor and develop technical talent, fostering high-performing, collaborative teams with a strong focus on operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Lead the design and operations of large-scale storage infrastructure, delivering high-availability services to support critical functions.
• Oversee the High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment, enabling data-intensive research across hundreds of users and supporting research efforts tied to externally funded grants.
• Manage the virtualization infrastructure supporting nearly 4000 active servers, ensuring performance, security, and cost-efficiency across multiple workloads.
• Spearhead the development of Standard Operating Procedures and enforce compliance with BSD and UChicago Medicine information security policies.
• Lead the development and oversight of service re-charge models to ensure sustainability and transparency in shared infrastructure costs.
• Define and implement a cloud adoption strategy for BSD and UCM, establishing hybrid architectures that balance performance, cost, and compliance requirements.
• Collaborate regularly with executive IT leadership across UCM, BSD, and the broader university ecosystem, as well as with stakeholders, to align infrastructure services with organizational goals.
• Manages employees through subordinates, usually other managers. Establishes performance goals, allocates resources and assesses policies for direct subordinates.
• Directs functional business plans and contributes to the development of IT systems strategy, goals, and priorities.
• Oversees the planning, execution, and management of IT Services projects. Directs front-line troubleshooting and problem solving.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Minimum Qualifications

Education:

Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.

Work Experience:

Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 10+ years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Certifications:

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Preferred Qualifications

Education:

• Advanced degree in related field strongly preferred.

Experience:

• 5+ years of leadership experience.
• Experience communicating with executives and/or faculty.
• Experience with writing and reviewing research grant proposals.
• Experience with data management for large-scale storage systems.
• Experience with managing and architecting highly available systems.
• Experience with cloud services and architecting solutions using cloud services.
• Experience with Enterprise IT Architecture.
• Several years of computing systems management and IT leadership experience in a complex academic, research, or enterprise environment.
• Critical understanding of computing and IT systems and infrastructure.
• Project Leader training and experience

​Preferred Competencies

• Knowledge of the research computing space, including emerging technologies and architectures of importance (e.g. shared HPC, cloud computing, data storage, research data management, etc.).
• In-depth knowledge of data storage and servers designed for research workloads.
• In-depth knowledge of data storage and server designed for enterprise workloads.
• Understanding of Data Center operations.
• Weekend/Evening Hours: As needed.

• Knowledge Of Itil.

• In-depth knowledge of data storage and servers designed for research workloads.
• In-depth knowledge of data storage and server designed for enterprise workloads.
• Understanding of Data Center operations.
• Weekend/Evening Hours: As needed.

Working Conditions

• Office Environment.

Application Documents

• Resume (Required)

• Cover Letter (Preferred)

When applying, the document(s) MUST be uploaded via the My Experience page, in the section titled Application Documents of the application.

Job Family

Information Technology

Role Impact

People Manager

Scheduled Weekly Hours

40

Drug Test Required

No

Health Screen Required

No

Motor Vehicle Record Inquiry Required

No

Pay Rate Type

Salary

​Flsa Status

Exempt

​Pay Range

$160,000.00 - $230,000.00

The included pay rate or range represents the University’s good faith estimate of the possible compensation offer for this role at the time of posting.

Benefits Eligible

Yes

The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook.

Posting Statement

The University of Chicago is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, or expression, national or ethnic origin, shared ancestry, age, status as an individual with a disability, military or veteran status, genetic information, or other protected classes under the law. For additional information please see the University's Notice of Nondiscrimination.

Job seekers in need of a reasonable accommodation to complete the application process should call 773-702-5800 or submit a request via Applicant Inquiry Form.

All offers of employment are contingent upon a background check that includes a review of conviction history.  A conviction does not automatically preclude University employment.  Rather, the University considers conviction information on a case-by-case basis and assesses the nature of the offense, the circumstances surrounding it, the proximity in time of the conviction, and its relevance to the position.

The University of Chicago's Annual Security & Fire Safety Report (Report) provides information about University offices and programs that provide safety support, crime and fire statistics, emergency response and communications plans, and other policies and information. The Report can be accessed online at: http://securityreport.uchicago.edu. Paper copies of the Report are available, upon request, from the University of Chicago Police Department, 850 E. 61st Street, Chicago, IL 60637.