HAO - Site Survey Engineer II

What You Will Do:

Perform electrical engineering and software engineering design and development in support of a broad range of instrumentation projects supporting solar and earth upper atmospheric scientific research.

As part of a small team of scientists and engineers, design, build, test, deliver and support instruments for ground-based and balloon-based observation of earth’s upper atmospheric and solar phenomena.  Instruments include but are not limited to coronagraphs, polarimeters, Fabry-Perot Interferometers, photometers, spectrographs, high altitude balloon equipment, and telescopes ranging in aperture size from 0.2 to 1.5m. The instruments are typically used for the measurement of magnetic fields in the solar corona, measurement of the polarized brightness of the solar white light corona, measurement of emission lines from the solar chromosphere and prominences, and  magnetospheric and thermospheric measurements.  

Responsibilities:

Systems Engineering

• Work with scientists, engineers, project managers, customers, vendors, end users and other stakeholders to identify, develop and translate science instrumentation goals and requirements into electrical and software systems requirements and specifications 
• Create top level instrument electrical and software design concepts and architectures, perform trade studies and optimize the designs to meet goals and requirements. 

Detailed Electrical Design, Development, and Deployment

Electrical engineering duties include creating top level electrical design concepts, performing electrical system trade studies, conducting performance analysis and optimization, detailing electrical designs, procuring, fabricating and building, conducting hands-on hardware testing, and preparing documentation.  

• Work with engineers and technicians directly and participate in hands-on instrumentation fabrication, assembly, test, deployment in the field, operations and maintenance. Support and participate in design reviews and create design review documentation 
• Create detailed electrical designs and specifications for all system electronic assemblies, including but not limited to power systems, motion control, computer controlled actuators, scientific camera interfaces, and data acquisition systems including sensor interfacing.
• Support efforts to procure and produce hardware via drawings, interfacing with purchasing, and interfacing with Design and Fabrication Services and HAO technicians
• Perform schematic capture and printed circuit board design
• Develop and troubleshoot control systems for telescope pointing

Detailed Software Design, Development, and Deployment

Software engineering duties include creating top level software architectures and flow diagrams, developing and testing software, and preparing documentation.  Specific duties include:

• Creating detailed software designs and specifications for instrumental control programs
• Programming scientific instrument control systems and user interfaces
• Designing and implementing automated mechanism control algorithms
• Designing and implementing low level instrument drivers and embedded communication protocols such as UART and SPI
• Developing Instrument Control Software in C, C++, and LabVIEW for Windows and embedded systems

Data Acquisition, Analysis and Test Engineering

Specific responsibilities include:

• Developing and documenting detailed electronic and software test plans and procedures based on engineering specifications and requirements verification
• Developing specific test methods for testing instrument electronic and software systems.
• Conducting electronic and software testing
• Conducting data acquisition and analysis for equipment deployed in the field
• Writing test reports to document instrument performance