Research officer

The Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA) seeks to hire a Research Officer to provide software and systems support for astronomical use of the Western Cape Data Intensive Research Facility. The facility provides computing and storage resources for data intensive astronomy research programs, with focus on the MeerKAT large survey programs and other SKA pathfinder projects. IDIA is developing cloud-based solutions to provide services and software systems for research teams to process, analyse and mine large radio astronomy data sets.

The Research Officer will:

participate in data intensive astronomy research programs using MeerKAT and the Western Cape Facility; aid research teams to use the systems and to deploy and run software; serve as a liaison between researchers and system administration and software developers; help with the development and commissioning of cloud-based processing and analysis systems.

The position will be an initial three-year contract limited term appointment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Cape Town.

Requirements

• A PhD in Astronomy, Astrophysics or Physics;
• At least two years’ experience with scientific programming for data analysis in astronomy;
• Good knowledge of Linux systems;
• Experience with Python;
• Good communications skills;
• Experience working as part of a team.

Advantageous

• At least two years of postdoctoral experience in Astronomy or Astrophysics;
• A track record of high quality research and publications;
• Experience with observational radio astronomy and a good knowledge of radio interferometry techniques; and data processing practices;
• Experience or knowledge of cloud computing, parallelization virtualization and containerization.

The annual cost of employment, including benefits is between ZAR 478 207 and ZAR 639 848.

To apply, please e-mail the below documents in a single pdf file to Ms Tracy Moore at [email protected]

• UCT Application Form (download at http://forms.uct.ac.za/hr201.doc)
• A letter of motivation and a research statement
• Curriculum Vitae (CV)

Please ensure the title and reference number are indicated in the subject line. An application which does not comply with the above requirements will be regarded as incomplete. 

UCT is committed to the pursuit of excellence, diversity and redress in achieving its equity targets. Our Employment Equity Policy is available at http://www.uct.ac.za/downloads/uct.ac.za/about/policies/eepolicy.pdf

Closing date: 31 May 2018

UCT reserves the right not to appoint.