Software Engineering Group Leader

Software Engineering Group Leader

The UK Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC) is the UK’s national centre for the design and production of leading edge astronomical instrumentation and systems.  We have a friendly and flexible work environment, on a beautiful site combining the historic Royal Observatory Edinburgh architecture with state-of-the-art modern laboratories.

Our mission, as a not-for-profit organisation, is to build the capabilities that UK scientists need to maintain a world-lead in astrophysics research through large-scale facilities on the ground and dedicated platforms in space. We are a high-tech engineering facility, producing pioneering breakthroughs that help us to push back the frontiers of knowledge about the Universe around us as well as generating spin-out technologies that benefit  us more directly here on Earth.

We now have an opportunity for an experienced software engineer to work across a range of projects for major observatories, such as the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), Atacama Large Millimetre Array (ALMA) and the Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of the European Southern Observatory (ESO), and also to lead the UKATC software group, managing the work of the group and defining its future strategy.

The UKATC software group develops software for observation planning, telescope and instrument control, data management and data reduction. We liaise with astronomers to ensure the software meets their requirements, is easy to use, has the right features and converts the raw science data into a usable form.

In addition to working on one or more astronomy projects, you will be responsible for the overall leadership and management of the software group, for the training and development of staff, and for ensuring good engineering principles and procedures within the group. Working with senior engineers you will have a leadership role in delivering our programme and developing our future strategy.

A scientific research background would be useful but is not essential.

Our Benefits:

The position is offered as a permanent post that provides a whole host of benefits including; 30 days holiday (in addition to bank holidays), an excellent pension scheme, employee shopping/travel discounts, a salary sacrifice cycle to work scheme, plus many more benefits and wellbeing initiatives that enable our employees to have a healthy work life balance.

We are committed to sustaining a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are invested in creating an environment that is welcoming and supportive of all, to help us achieve the highest possible standards in our work and organisation together. In this regard, we encourage applications from under-represented groups.

Additional Information:

• Closing Date: 10th April 2022
• Salary: £50,702 to £56,336 per annum (dependent on skills and experience). A Specialist of Allowance of up to £5000 per annum is also available for this role.
• Contract Type: Open Ended.
• Location: Science and Technology Facilities Council, UK Astronomy Technology Centre, Edinburgh.