Lead Controls Software Engineer

Job Summary
Reporting to the Telescope Controls Group Leader, the Lead Controls Software Engineer will share responsibility for the successful delivery and integration of the Telescope Control software systems.

The Telescope Control software systems include the Telescope Control System (TCS), the Mount Control System, the Enclosure Control System, the M1, M2, and M3 Control Systems and the Alignment and Phasing System (APS). The controls group is also responsible for the Observatory Safety System (OSS) and Facility Management Control System (FMCS). Most of these systems are managed under contracts with industry or our TMT international partners.

The Lead Controls Software Engineer must have excellent technical, project management, and communication skills, as well as the ability to work in TMT’s multi-cultural environment.


Job Duties
The Lead Controls Software Engineer will have broad responsibilities, which include:

• Oversee and monitor software work packages in terms of performance, schedule, cost, risk, testing, quality, and consistency with the overall TMT software architecture and standards. Develop and implement mitigation strategies when appropriate.
• Develop and implement work package agreements including plans, budgets, and schedules.
• Lead, support and/or guide the design and development of the various Telescope Control software systems.
• Manage the development and maintenance of software requirements, interfaces, and error budgets for the various Telescope Control systems.
• Interact with other project groups including Systems Engineering, Optics, Structures, Enclosure, Facilities, Instrumentation, Adaptive Optics, and Science staff as needed.
• Help lead the TMT review process for the Telescope Control software.
• Manage the integration of the Telescope Control software systems at the Observatory site.
• Specific opportunities exist to lead the OSS and FMCS work, directly contribute to APS software design & development and to be significantly involved in the TCS, M2 and M3 controls design directions.

Minimum Qualifications

• A Bachelor's degree in a scientific, computer science, or engineering discipline.
• A minimum of five years of experience with all aspects of the distributed real time control software lifecycle including management, architecture, design, code, test, integration, and maintenance.
• Technical competence in Scala or Java, C/C++ and a scripting language.
• Direct experience with software configuration control, and either MacOS or Linux OS experience
• Direct experience working on the design and integration of large, distributed, control systems
• Ability to design, implement, document (requirements, interfaces, and design documentation) and test software system components.
• Experience with large optical telescopes is a positive factor
• The project office is located in Los Angeles and periodic travel to the area is required.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities
The Lead Controls Software Engineer must have strong personal skills, including all of the following:

• Excellent organization skills
• Proven leadership ability
• Good interpersonal skills
• Strong communication skills
• Ability to write clear and concise technical documents
• A cooperative team-player who strives to make the team successful
• Ability to multi-task a substantial number of parallel activities
• Practical problem-solving skills

The Lead Controls Software Engineer must have strong technical skills in many of the following areas:

• Experience with control system frameworks e.g. (EPICS, TANGO, SCADA Systems) and high- speed networked solutions and messaging
• Experience in specifying computing and communication hardware.
• Demonstrated experience of successfully leading and delivering technically and programmatically complex software projects.
• PLC experience, ideally with AB Rockwell or Siemens. GuardLogix experience a plus.
• Experience of large, technical, multi-disciplinary, geographically distributed projects; astronomical or similar.
• Strong mathematical and analytical skills
• An advanced degree in a scientific, computing, or engineering discipline.
• Experience or familiarity with engineering data analysis or modelling and associated tools such as MATLAB.
• Experience with telescope pointing and tracking
• Experience with image processing and AO techniques such as centroiding, Shack Hartmann processing and wavefront sensing.
• Experience with precision motion control systems and software.

The Lead Controls Software Engineer should have strong project management skills in many of the following areas:

• Developing and managing to a schedule
• Developing and managing to a budget
• Knowledge of earned-value reporting
• Understanding risk management
• Software Quality Assurance
• Experienced in technical contract management