The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) has the following positions available: Science Processing Developer – Storage and Archive (LTC); Science Processing Developer – DevOps (LTC); and Science operations: Data analyst. The first two positions are contract-based, while the latter is a full-time position. In addition, the three positions are in Cape Town, Western Cape.
1. Science Processing Developer – Storage and Archive (LTC)
Purpose
SARAO is currently seeking to appoint a storage, archives and tape developer to join the team that develops and maintains the observatory’s storage solution and archive. The developer will be expected to participate in the planning, design, development, testing, and deployment of storage software solutions. They will also work with colleagues to design, deploy and maintain the underlying storage and archive infrastructure and provide ongoing support for the solution.
Key Requirements
Qualifications
- Qualified personnel with at least a three-year tertiary qualification in computer science, computer engineering, related applied science or engineering qualification.
Experience
- A minimum of five years experience developing storage solutions, configuring and deploying petascale network storage solutions;
- Experience with file systems implementation (e.g., Ceph, BtrFS, ZFS, Ext4, NFS);
- Experience in Linux systems programming, preferably using Python programming language;
- Experience in Docker / Kubernetes programming; and
- Knowledge and experience in Agile practices.
Other requirements
- Familiarity with or understanding of distributed storage systems (Ceph, S3);
- Excellent git skills;
- Desire to continuously learn, solve problems and acquire new skills with cutting edge technology;
- Familiarity with JIRA or other task management software packages;
- Experience testing, automating, operating, and troubleshooting production systems; and
- Knowledge of cloud-native technologies and protocols, including containerisation (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes), virtualisation, REST.
Duties Include (but are not limited to)
- Development, maintenance and support of the Science Processing storage and archive ecosystem;
- Contributions to the development, review and implementation of the SARAO science data lifecycle policy;
- Development, maintenance and support of data transfer needs between SARAO and its data users;
- Analysis of user requirements and conversion of accepted requirements into solutions;
- The rollout, upgrade and maintenance of storage and archive infrastructure;
- Building and release maintenance and optimization of software build and release process;
- Supporting IT security and related incident response;
- Developing relevant documentation for users and systems engineering;
- Researching, designing and developing subsequent iterations of the storage and archive solution set;
- Scripting and automation of builds, integration and release tasks;
- Supporting operations of the production environment;
- Researching new tools, technologies and best practices;
- Piloting new technology implementations; and
- Occasional after-hours support.
2. Science Processing Developer – DevOps (LTC)
SARAO is currently seeking to appoint a DevOps developer to automate and support the tools and processes relating to continuous delivery, integration and deployment for science data processing software packages, platforms, operating systems and infrastructure.
Key Requirements
Qualifications
- Qualified personnel with a 3-year tertiary qualification in computer science, computer engineering, related applied science or engineering qualification.
Experience
- A minimum of five years’ experience in DevOps and computer engineering;
- Experience in open-source software stack: Linux, Ansible, Docker;
- Experience configuring computer infrastructure: Servers, networks and their supporting infrastructure;
- Experience implementing logging and monitoring software stack; and
- Knowledge of Python programming language.
- Knowledge and experience in Agile practices
Duties Include (but are not limited to)
- Development, maintenance and support of the Science Processing DevOps ecosystem;
- The rollout, upgrade and maintenance of computing infrastructure;
- Implementing and managing the logging and monitoring toolset;
- Building and release maintenance and optimization of software build and release process;
- Scripting and automating builds, integration and release tasks;
- Supporting operations of the production environment;
- Researching new tools, technologies and best practices;
- Piloting new technology implementations;
- Modifying existing DevOps systems to correct errors and adapt them to new hardware or to upgrade interfaces and improve performance;
- Occasional after-hours support;
- Providing technical guidance and input;
- Consulting with observatory’s other operations teams to optimise the computing environment;
- Supporting IT security and related incident response;
- Developing relevant documentation for users and systems engineering;
- Researching, designing and developing DevOps systems; and
- Conducting research and improving or developing concepts, theories, instrumentation, software and operational methods related to DevOps.
Additional responsibilities
- Experience in open-source software stack: Jenkins, Kubernetes;
- Experience implementing the ELK stack;
- Desire to continuously learn, problem-solve and acquire new skills with cutting edge technology;
- Familiarity with JIRA or other task management software packages;
- Familiarity with agile software development approaches;
- Understand concepts of MAAS, PAAS;
- Understand DevOps concepts of CI/CD;
- Work with physical compute infrastructure;
- Work with internet concepts, protocols and technologies;
- analyse and solve problems; and
- utilize a network of contacts relevant to SARAO.
3. Science operations: Data analyst
The successful candidate will join the science operations team to support telescope operations by analysing telescope calibration and sensor data to improve telescope performance and provide user support.
Key responsibilities
Responsibilities
- Provide quality assurance and quality control of the telescope data products
- Maintain calibration of the telescope
- Provide user support via the SARAO external helpdesk
Qualifications
- MSc in radio astronomy or related discipline
Experience
- Experience in reduction and analysis of radio astronomy data (experience with MeerKAT would be beneficial), or knowledge of MeerKAT operations;
- Ability to program in C/ Python/shell scripts;
- Linux operating systems;
- Technical report writing; and
- Data analysis.
Knowledge
- Radio astronomy reduction software;
- Radio telescope systems; and
- Statistical data analysis techniques.
Application
Applicants should submit a comprehensive CV to careers@sarao.ac.za. Applicants should also submit a letter of motivation indicating the applicant’s suitability for the position. Furthermore, applicants should provide the names and contact details of at least three referees.
For more information, kindly visit the following links: Science Processing Developer – Storage and Archive (LTC); Science Processing Developer – DevOps (LTC); and Science operations: Data analyst.
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