Research Infrastructure Engineer Mentoring Programme

Are you a sysadmin working in HPC, research computing or research infrastructure? Wondering what your next steps should be? Would you like to learn from someone who has already navigated similar challenges? Could you support someone else in the next steps for their career?

 

Join the next cohort of the Research Infrastructure Mentoring Programme

September 2026 – May 2027

Applications open July 2026

The mentoring programme is a collaboration between ACIT Hub and HPC-SIG, which aims to support career development, strengthen the RIE community, and improve retention in research infrastructure roles.

 

 

Why Take Part?

Whether you are seeking guidance or think you might be ready to support others, the Research Infrastructure Engineer Mentoring Programme offers a structured way to:

  • Learn from and share experience with other RIE’s working in HPC and research computing.
  • Build stronger professional networks across institutions.
  • Support career development and retention in a critical but often under recognised profession.

 

What makes this programme different?

This programme combines structured mentoring with opportunities for in person engagement. Participants are carefully matched across institutions, supported through briefings on effective mentoring, and encouraged to deepen their learning through activities such as shadowing, institutional visits and attending CIUK together. Alongside virtual mentoring, dedicated funding supports travel and inclusive participation, helping to build meaningful, lasting professional connections across the UK research infrastructure community. We will gather feedback during and after the programme to continually improve and understand its impact.

 

What Does Mentoring Involve?

Mentoring is a supportive, one to one relationship where a more experienced person (the mentor) helps a less experienced person (the mentee) to reflect, plan and grow.

  • Regular meetings (e.g. one hour every 4-6 weeks), usually online.
  • Opportunities for mentees and mentors to travel to meet and to attend CIUK 2026 together.
  • Focused on topics such as:
    • Career planning and progression in HPC/research computing.
    • Developing technical breadth or depth (e.g. scheduling, monitoring, storage, cloud).
    • Building soft skills: communication, stakeholder management, influencing.
    • Balancing operational work with project work and learning.

 

Programme structure

Participants are supported throughout the programme with briefings, structured matching, and optional check-ins.

  • Online briefing sessions for mentors and mentees
  • Carefully matched mentoring pairs
  • Regular 1:1 mentoring meetings
  • Mid-programme support sessions
  • A closing session to reflect and celebrate progress

 

Could You Be a Mentee?

Mentees are people who want to develop their skills, confidence and career direction in research infrastructure.

You could be a mentee if:

  • You are in any systems administration or RIE role in the HPC or research computing fields.
  • You might be just starting out in a junior role, a mid career sysadmin or RIE looking to broaden your responsibilities, or seasoned sysadmin or team leader seeking fresh perspectives or planning your next move.
  • You are willing to set goals and come prepared to meetings, reflect honestly on your strengths and challenges, and take ownership of your development between sessions.

Benefits for mentees:

  • A safe space to discuss career plans, technical interests and workplace challenges.
  • Guidance on navigating HPC/research computing environments, from cluster operations to working with researchers and RSEs.
  • Help identifying skills gaps and development opportunities (training, projects, networking).
  • Increased confidence and clarity about next steps.

 

Could You Be a Mentor?

Mentors are people who want to support others and develop their own leadership skills.

You could be a mentor if:

  • You are a sysadmin, RIE or team leader with at least 3 years’ experience in HPC or research computing.
  • You have experience in areas such as running or supporting HPC clusters, GPU/accelerated compute or research storage, working with researchers, RSEs and other stakeholders, or taking on responsibility for services, projects or small teams.
  • You are looking for opportunities to develop your management, coaching and leadership skills, reflect on your own practice by helping others, and contribute to the wider research infrastructure community.

Benefits for mentors:

  • Build and practise coaching and mentoring skills in a structured setting.
  • Gain insight into the challenges faced by newer colleagues and emerging technologies.
  • Satisfaction from supporting the next generation of research infrastructure professionals.
  • Evidence of leadership and community contribution for promotion and appraisal.

 

Funding

As part of being accepted onto the mentoring program, applicants from UKRI eligible institutions can benefit from a travel fund of up to £1000 per pairing to cover travel to visit each other’s institutions. We will also cover costs for pairs to attend CIUK as ‘conference buddies’ where we’ll be arranging a day zero networking lunch. We aim to make participation accessible, and can also contribute towards e.g caring costs (such as childcare or other dependent care) where these are a barrier to engagement.

 

Interested in applying?

Applications will open in July. Sign up to the ACIT Hub mailing list to be the first to hear.