Senior Execution Framework Engineer Full Time Job

Senior Execution Framework Engineer – Cape Town.

The Senior Execution Framework Engineer design, prototype, implement and integrate systems that bring state-of-the-art algorithms to real-world scientific processing pipelines for the telescope.

Telescope :processing functions” / “execution engine” / interfaces are key architectural features that are meant to not only enable scalability but also act as common ground for the integration of new and existing processing code.

Our ambition is to also look past the current project phase and raise the bar of radio astronomy processing software to the benefit of future extensions, regional centres, precursor telescopes as well as the entire radio astronomy community.

The Execution Framework engineer should be keen on approaching these challenges using rigorous software engineering practices, ensuring that we are prepared for the many known and unknown challenges facing this next generation observatory.

The Senior developer must have experience with distributed data-intensive processing and algorithm development, ideally both from a design and application perspective, expertise in hybrid software development in Python and C/C++ programming languages and be able to work constructively with agile teams around the world towards a shared vision for telescope processing.

Senior engineers will be expected to guide and work with more junior team members to accomplish their tasks. Senior engineers are expected to be accountable for their deliverables. As part of the Operations team, they are expected to provide a senior level of Data Processing support, able to investigate, diagnose and resolve complex issues with minimum guidance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Implement and verify processing system and Astronomy software packages.
• Contribute to systems engineering and Operations documentation refinement
• Support users, and operators, as well as the implementation of releases, system changes and fixes.
• Be an integral member of the Computing and Software team, as a senior technical specialist that supports the establishment of data processing operations.
• Participate in project management and activity management activities.
• Attend relevant training/courses to gain experience and improved knowledge.
• Research new technologies, methods, or approaches, with the purpose of utilizing them within the organization.
• Participate in innovation and technology development initiatives.
• Mentor and educate more junior engineers as and when required.

Key Requirements:

Qualification:

• Degree / Masters / PHD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Astronomy or Astronomy techniques, Physics, or related fields

Experience:

• Degree coupled 9 years relevant working experience, or Master’s Degree coupled with 7 years relevant working experience or PHD coupled with 5 years relevant working experience in software engineering, high-performance algorithms development
• Experience with distributed data-intensive processing and algorithm development, ideally both from a design and application perspective.
• Expertise in hybrid software development in Python and C/C++ programming languages.

Knowledge:

• Experience with profiling and optimisation techniques, especially how to build high-performance pipelines overlapping I/O and processing.
• Experience with physical data modelling, both for efficient in-memory & network data exchange as well as storage (e.g. Apache Arrow, HDF5 or equivalent)
• Understanding of data processing algorithms, such as Fourier transformations, gridding and (de)convolution methods. Knowledge of radio astronomy data processing pipelines and their scaling properties would be advantageous.
• Common radio astronomy instrumentation: spectrometers, correlators, beamformers and pulsar timing machines and transient search machines.
• Systems Engineering processes.

Skills, Competencies and Knowledge:

Essential:

• Design, implementation and verification of high-speed digital computer and electronics hardware and systems.
• System Engineering life cycle processes, including documentation, requirement analysis, architecture design, implementation, integration, and acquisition.
• Parallel implementations of Data Processing components, pipelines, and astronomy algorithms
• Comprehension of MPI, DASK and other High Performance Computing frameworks and interfaces
• Linux operating system and standard tools.

Desirable:

• Common radio astronomy instrumentation: spectrometers, correlators, beamformers and pulsar timing machines and transient search machines
• Knowledge of Radio Astronomy techniques, and observatory practices
• Ability to communicate effectively to a wide audience and a wide range of stakeholders, gathering information and distilling information and tailoring it appropriately for the target audience.
• Ability to develop and convey a technical solution as part of a team.
• Ability to reliably estimate and plan work as part of a team.
• Agile approaches to systems development
• Engineering systems architecture concepts
• An understanding of DevOps processes
• Services, Operations and Support management
• Risk management.

Skills:

• Modern software collaboration tools such as GitHub, Containers, Google Drive, JIRA etc.
• Understanding and experience in implementation of project management and 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.
• Teamwork and Collaboration: Cooperates with others to achieve organisational objectives and may share team resources in order to do this. Collaborates with other teams as well as industry colleagues.
• Judgement and Problem Solving: Anticipates and manages problems in ambiguous situations.
• Develops and selects an appropriate course of action and provides for contingencies. Evaluates, interprets and integrates complex bodies of information and draws logical conclusions, synthesises proposals and defends options with reasoned arguments.
• Adaptability: Demonstrates flexibility in thinking and adapts to and manages the increasing rate of organisational change by adjusting strategies, goals and priorities.
• Willingness to participate in formal and informal learning and mentorship programs.