Software Engineer

The Large Binocular Telescope Observatory (LBTO) is looking for candidates for the position of Software Engineer.

With two 8.4m mirrors on a common mount that can be combined to form an interferometer with an effective aperture of 23m, complemented with adaptive secondary mirrors, LBT is the largest optical telescope in operation. Providing unprecedented ground-based resolution at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths, the LBT is a forerunner of the Extremely Large Telescopes. With a suite of state of the art instruments, the observatory is moving to full operation while adding new capabilities such as ground-layer AO and new AO-fed instrumentation.

The LBT Observatory (LBTO) is headquartered on the Tucson campus of the University of Arizona and the telescope itself is located on Mt Graham (3200m), a 3.5-hour drive from campus.

LBTO is seeking a talented and highly motivated Software Engineer to develop and maintain the Telescope Control System (TCS), Adaptive Optics Systems (AO), several facility instruments, and a suite of high level tools used for the preparation, planning and execution of observations.

The TCS is an object-oriented, distributed system written in C++ and consisting of a number of autonomous subsystems running on Linux platforms. Facility Instruments and AO software are written in C/C++, Java, and Python. The Observatory tools are written in Java and expected to be further developed using web technologies.

The successful candidate will be a member of the LBTO Software and IT group, consisting of 8 software developers and 2 system administrators.

While most work will occur at the LBT offices in Tucson, Arizona on the UofA campus, some work will also occur at the LBT site on Mt. Graham, Arizona at an elevation of 10,470 feet. The candidate will be required to provide periodic nighttime, weekend, and holiday operations software support and incident response.

Minimum Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree in Applied Mathematics, Software Engineering, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, Physics, or a related field.
• Ability to drive according to the University Fleet Safety Policy.

Preferred Qualifications
• M.S. degree or higher in Computer Science, or a related field.
• 5+ years developing large and complex distributed systems, previous experience with Telescope, Adaptive Optics and Observatory software is a plus.