Resident Astronomer at Hobby-Eberly Telescope, McDonald Observatory

The University of Texas at Austin, McDonald Observatory invites applications for a Resident Astronomer for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) in the beautiful Davis Mountains of west Texas. The HET is a fully queue scheduled 10-m class optical and near-IR spectroscopic telescope. The queue is run by the Resident Astronomers who serve as on-site observing specialists with the HET using multiple facility instruments. Instruments include the Visible Integral-field Replicable Unit Spectrograph (VIRUS), Low-Resolution Spectrograph 2 (LRS2), High Resolution Spectrograph (HRS), and Habitable-zone Planet Finder Spectrograph (HPF).

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead night time science operations safely and efficiently from sunset to sunrise.
• Work with instrument scientists and engineering staff to maintain and document the performance of the HET.
• Documenting the current status of the facility through wikis and web pages.
• Work with the HET partner scientists to optimize the scientific productivity of the facility.
• Conduct projects to characterize and/or improve night operations.
• Up to 25% of the work hours are available to conduct personal research to contribute to the scientific life at the Observatory.

Preferred qualifications:

• Ph.D. in astronomy or physics, or equivalent.
• Two years instrumentation, observations, or data reduction experience working on 3+m class telescopes in optical and/or near infrared spectroscopy.
• Experience writing code in Python.
• A strong demonstrated commitment to service astronomy.
• Proven organizational, managerial and leadership skills.
• Ability to conduct personal research projects with the HET or other McDonald telescopes.

See https://utdirect.utexas.edu/apps/hr/jobs/nlogon/171020014209 for complete description and to apply for posting number 17-10-20-01-4209. This position is security-sensitive, and a background check will be conducted. UT is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and committed to diversity.

Review of applications will begin December 18, 2017 and the search will continue until the position is filled.