Radio Astronomy Software Engineer (Monitor & Control)

National Radio Astronomy Observatory; Green Bank (WV); Hybrid; USD 87,000 - 121,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Paid time off

Medical, dental and vision plans

Retirement benefit

Job summary

National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States seeks a software engineer to design, implement, test, and maintain monitor and control software for real-time telescope operations.

You will work with the VLA, VLBA, and GBT systems, interfaces to hardware, and run in a Linux environment while collaborating with scientists and engineers to ensure reliable command streams and data products for 24/7 operations.

Qualifications

• One or more years of experience developing software applications.
• Knowledge of radio astronomy operating software and procedures is preferred.
• Knowledge of radio astronomy theories and practice would be valuable.
• Demonstrated experience providing technical leadership of complex data acquisition, distributed systems, and operational support systems is preferred.

Responsibilities

• Designing, implementing, testing, and maintaining components of the monitor and control software that configure and control the VLA, VLBA, and GBT in real time.
• Develop and extend the interface layer that communicates with hardware and electronics: IF-chain configurations, antenna motion commands, and digital signal processing configurations for instruments like VEGAS, WIDAR, and DiFX.
• Model the antennas and associated hardware and electronics in software - frequency setups, subband and baseband layouts, polarization products, timing and integration structure - and implement the rules, constraints, and legality checks that determine which configurations are achievable on each component.
• Work from interface control documents and hardware specifications, in close collaboration with the engineers and scientists who own the underlying subsystems, to ensure the commands, alerts, and data the M&C system emits are correct and complete.
• Diagnose and resolve issues that span the layers between a scientist's observing specification and the command stream sent to the telescope, often in collaboration with telescope operators, engineers, and scientific staff.
• Support the evolution of the monitor and control system to meet new observing paradigms and instrumentation, including work that informs and feeds into the next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA).
• Write and maintain critical documentation, including requirements, software design documents, interface control documents, and user documentation.
• Participate in code review, testing, and release processes for software that runs mission-critical, 24/7 scientific facilities.

Job description

National Radio Astronomy Observatory in the United States seeks a software engineer to design, implement, test, and maintain monitor and control software for real-time telescope operations.

You will work with the VLA, VLBA, and GBT systems, interfaces to hardware, and run in a Linux environment while collaborating with scientists and engineers to ensure reliable command streams and data products for 24/7 operations.