Software Developer

Description:

The Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (CIRA) is a multi-disciplinary research institute engaged in a range of projects involving or motivated by radio astronomy. CIRA’s activities draw together academic research and professional staff from a variety of science, engineering, and computing disciplines to tackle unique and demanding challenges in radio astronomy. CIRA is the lead organisation and operator of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), and a key participant in the international SKA project.

CIRA celebrates diversity and is an equal opportunity employer. We encourage applications from all cultures, races, nationalities, genders, identities and abilities meeting the requirements outlined in this role and are committed to preserving our principles of equitable and inclusive work and study environments.

Murchison Widefield Array (MWA)

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is a low-frequency radio telescope, located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in Western Australia. The MWA is an international project led by Curtin University on behalf of 20 partner organisations across five countries including partners from Australia, Japan, China, Canada and the United States. The MWA is a Square Kilometre Array (SKA) precursor facility, undertaking a range of important scientific and technical programs.

The telescope is maintained and remotely operated by a small team based at the Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy in Perth, Western Australia. The results of these programs also contribute to the design process for the low frequency component of the SKA, to be constructed in Western Australia in the next decade.

Your new role

You will design, develop and manage software and systems that support hundreds of researchers around the globe. You will directly contribute to the productivity of radio astronomy projects, including the MWA, by ensuring effective and robust instrument operation, and timely access to data and processing resources. . We’re seeking a software developer looking for an opportunity to apply their existing skills in a rewarding, high profile environment, and extend their capability by working with big data and high performance computing resources.

Key duties and responsibilities include:

• Design, develop, test and maintain the web front-end and back-end software components and systems of various systems supporting CIRA’s radio astronomy and instrumentation projects.
• Capture and analyse bug reports, suggestions, and feature requests from users; estimate effort, plan and execute the appropriate releases.
• Provide support to end-users and communicate with key stakeholders.
• Maintain and enhance user and system documentation.
• Proactively monitor the operation and performance of the applications and associated systems.
• Work with the Software & Systems Team leader and external service providers to design, plan, and implement system upgrades and migrations.
• Assist the CIRA Operations Team and Software & Systems Team leader with other projects and tasks as necessary.