The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) is hiring for multiple positions at its facility in Cape Town, Western Cape. These positions include a Scrum Master and a Junior Software Engineer.
Scrum Master
This is a skilled-middle-level management open position for a permanent contract. The successful candidate will adopt, promote and coach Lean-Agile principles, core values and practices.
Key Responsibilities
- Adopt, promote and coach Scrum processes.
- Enable teams to self-organise, self-manage and deliver.
- Support and reinforce Scrum team rules.
- Foster an environment of collaboration, learning and innovation.
- Focus on ever-improving team dynamics and performance, helping the team manage interpersonal conflicts, challenges and opportunities for growth.
- Facilitate and lead meetings, including planning, progress, review, retrospectives and problem-solving workshops.
- Establish and communicate the calendars for iterations.
- Assist in determining milestones and roadmaps, and the plans that enable them.
- Assist in determining sprint objectives and acceptance criteria.
- Protect teams from distractions and unrelated \ unnecessary work.
- Track and report on the implementation of features and capabilities.
- Escalate, track and eliminate impediments.
- Manage risks and dependencies.
- Assist in ensuring that a clear “Definition of Done” is defined and adhered to.
- Help to improve the flow (velocity) of value through value streams by promoting continuous delivery and DevOps.
- Help to motivate team members with a focus on continuous improvement.
- Collate and publish quantitative measures of progress.
- Coordinate inter-team cooperation.
Key Requirements
Qualification
- B.Tech/B.Sc (Comp Sci) with 5+ years; OR
- B.Eng/B.Sc Hons (Comp Sci) with 4+ years; OR
- M.Eng/M.Sc (Comp Sci) with 2+ years; or related qualification
- Scrum Master Certified
Experience
Awareness and experience with Agile techniques:
- User Stories
- Test Driven Development
- Continuous Delivery
- Pair Programming
- Automated Testing Techniques
Knowledge
Good skills and knowledge of:
- Servant leadership
- Facilitation
- Situational awareness
- Continual improvement
- Empowerment
- Increasing transparency
Additional notes
Ability of:
- Ability both to work independently and be a good team player
- Ability to participate and thrive in a collaborative environment
- Ability to handle conflict and take leadership
- Strong negotiation skills
- Good time management skills
- Self-motivated and an ability and willingness to self-train and up-skill independently
- Keen attention to detail
- Excellent oral and written communication skills
- Good skills and knowledge of servant leadership, facilitation, situational awareness, continual improvement, empowerment, and increasing transparency
- Awareness and experience with Agile techniques: User Stories, Test Driven Development, Continuous Delivery, Pair Programming, Automated Testing Techniques
- Understanding and experience in the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)
- JIRA (Atlassian) knowledge
Junior Software Engineer
This is a junior-level position open for a permanent contract. The successful candidate will join the development team building the MeerKAT, MeerKAT Extension, African VLBI Network (AVN) and the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescopes and will be responsible for developing, testing, and maintaining software solutions to meet the requirements.
Key Responsibilities
- Software development of the telescope operational software. All stages of the full software development life-cycle may be encountered: from requirements analysis, architectural input, software design and development, to testing, integration and deployment, as well as close interaction with hardware subsystems.
- Participate in deployment environments and processes, this may involve site visits to the Karoo.
- Participate in commissioning and lab integration of software and hardware.
- Participate in coding standard compliance and code reviews.
- Follow system engineering principles for the development of software.
- Produce documentation sets for the applicable subsystem as required.
Key Requirements
Qualification
- B.Tech/ B.Sc (Comp Sci) with three years of working experience
- B.Eng / B.Sc Hons (Comp Sci) with years of working experience
- M.Eng / M.Sc (Comp Sci) PhD / D.Eng only with one yea of’ working experience, or related qualification
Experience
- Experience in programming languages (Python or C++ or Java).
- Experience in prototyping and development, including, testing, deployment, commissioning, release and support of large-scale projects.
- Experience with test-driven development and integration testing techniques, methodologies and frameworks; and supporting systems like revision control and build systems.
- Experience with quality assurance processes and software development processes and willingness to participate in improving software development processes and software quality procedures.
- Experience in the implementation of project management and system engineering principles.
Knowledge
- Modern software collaboration tools such as Github, Containers, Google Drive, JIRA
- Python programming language
Additional notes
- Ability both to work independently and be a good team player.
- Ability to participate and thrive in a collaborative environment.
- Strong English oral and written communication.
- Ability to develop back-end software (preferably using the Python programming language, or alternatively using other languages such as C++, Java, and C#).
- Ability to work with collaboration tools such as Github, Google Drive, Containers, and Jira.
- Ability to troubleshoot issues methodically.
Desirable additional education, work experience & personal qualities:
- Python programming (or other languages such as C/C++/Java) technical knowledge and experience.
- Linux operating system technical knowledge and experience.
- Software development lifecycle knowledge and experience.
- Understanding and experience in the implementation of system engineering principles.
- Experience with test-driven development and integration testing techniques, methodologies and frameworks; and supporting systems like revision control and build systems.
- Experience with quality assurance processes and software development processes and willingness to participate in improving software development processes and software quality procedures.
- Self-motivated and the ability and willingness to self-train and up-skill independently.
- Keen attention to detail.
- Strong oral and written communication skills.
How to Apply
Interested applicants may apply by submitting their comprehensive CV using these links: Scrum Master and Junior Software Engineer. Applications for both openings will close on 21 September 2022. Applicants should also include a letter of motivation in their applications, demonstrating their eligibility for the roles. In addition, applicants must provide the names and contact information of at least three referees.
South Africa’s National Research Foundation (NRF) offers a challenging career and competitive remuneration package commensurate with qualifications and experience. Also, the NRF is committed to employment equity and redress, and appointments to the position will be made in line with the NRF Employment Equity Plan. In addition, the NRF reserves the right not to make an appointment and will send correspondence to short-listed candidates only.
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