Software Engineer

Lowell Observatory located in Flagstaff, Arizona, is seeking a Software Engineer, a position within the observatory’s technology group.  The Software Engineer is responsible for the continued development and support of the observatory’s instrument control, data acquisition, and user interface software used across all Lowell observatory sites in northern Arizona including: the 4.3m Lowell Discovery Telescope, existing and planned 1-m class facilities on Anderson Mesa, and smaller aperture telescopes on Lowell’s main campus on Mars Hill.  The position may be filled at any experience level.

RESPONSIBILITIES

The Software Engineer (SE) will support Lowell Observatory’s technology group. In particular, the SE will assist bringing new instruments and capabilities on line at the various facilities, and maintain and upgrade existing ones.  The SE will work directly with the Lowell technical staff, particularly the instrument scientists and software engineers.  New projects that the SE will be involved in are: fully-robotic telescope control systems, integration of new instrumentation and facilities, adaptive optics and wavefront sensing projects, site monitoring improvements, and the maintenance and upgrade of existing instrument and telescope control systems. The SE will generally support all technical activities across the observatory, and will work in conjunction with Lowell’s IT staff as appropriate on network and system administration. The SE also will provide occasional night-time support for telescope operators and observers when needed to resolve time-critical software-related issues.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Candidates should hold a BS or MS in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Astronomy, or a closely related field.  A successful applicant will be able to demonstrate experience in some of the following areas and some familiarity with astronomy and astronomical instrumentation is desired.  Given the broad scope below, expertise in all of them is not required or expected:

• Demonstrated ability to design effective, robust architectures for software systems
• Fluency with
  • Python, C/C++, and/or Java
  • Source/configuration management, especially testing and deployment
• Experience with:
  • Transitioning existing projects to more modern methods, especially improving documentation
  • Developing and refining automated/robotic control systems
  • Building user interfaces, either local or web-based; can include dashboards (especially Grafana)
  • Linux system administration, including networking and database management
• Ability to self-organize and prioritize work to meet timelines

Additionally, the SE should have strong communications skills, and should be prepared for occasionally time-critical and potentially high-pressure situations.