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Position Description:
Position Summary
The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is an exciting and prestigious research facility that plays a vital role in the study of the universe. The Observatory operates a variety of radio telescopes that span the globe, including the Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). These telescopes are among the most advanced in the world, allowing astronomers to explore the universe in unprecedented detail.
The Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a transformative astronomical observatory designed to deliver science-ready data products to a broad community of users. The Computing and Software System (CSS) is the backbone of this vision, encompassing all the software and hardware required to control the telescope, manage the flow of data, execute processing pipelines, and provide user-facing services. The CSS is decomposed into several major systems, each with a distinct role in the data lifecycle, from observation planning to final data analysis.
The ngVLA project is seeking a software-oriented systems engineer to bring systems engineering discipline to the design and development of the CSS. This person may be a software engineer or architect who has applied systems engineering practices on large projects, or a systems engineer with a strong software background. Working with system architects, software developers and subject matter experts, they will capture and manage the evolving software requirements, architecture, interfaces and designs, and make sure software deliverables trace to project requirements and meet project quality standards. The role applies the project-level systems engineering management plan and software development plan in ways that fit modern software development practices.
This position will be located at the NRAO facility in Charlottesville (VA).
What You Will be Doing
- Lead systems engineering for the CSS, adapting systems engineering practices to fit Agile software development.
- Maintain requirements traceability between CSS software and the ngVLA project-level requirements, and keep CSS processes aligned with the project.
- Develop and maintain CSS software requirements and interface definitions (such as APIs, data models and interface control documents).
- Work with projects and hardware teams to develop verification and validation plans focusing on external interfaces.
- Support verification approaches that use software practices such as automated testing, continuous integration and incremental delivery.
- Use model-based systems engineering (MBSE) and software modeling (such as SysML or UML) to document workflows, system models and interface specifications.
- Prepare for and support CSS design reviews, including the systems engineering documentation they require.
- Take part in configuration, change and document management, connecting project-level processes with software tools such as version control and issue tracking.
Work Environment
This position will be located at the NRAO facility in Charlottesville (VA). The successful candidate will join a team of professionals engaged in research and development in the fields of science, engineering, software development, and education. Work is typically performed in a research or development environment.
Who You Are:
- You have a bachelor's degree in computer science, software engineering, systems engineering, physical science, electrical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience.
- At least five years of experience in systems engineering on integrated project teams, preferably in scientific R&D environments.
- Experience working closely with Agile software teams (such as Scrum or Kanban), and a solid understanding of how large software systems are designed, built, tested and deployed.
- Experience applying core systems engineering practices to software systems, such as requirements capture and traceability, interface definition, and verification and validation.
- Experience working across a project lifecycle, from design through integration, testing and transition to operations.
- Exposure to scientific, telescope or control software, distributed systems, data processing pipelines or signal processing is a plus.
- Familiarity with MBSE or software modeling methods and tools is a plus.
- Excellent verbal and written communication, including working with geographically distributed teams.
- Proactive and independent work ethic.
Additional Requirement
Observatory employees must be authorized to work in the United States. The Observatory presently cannot sponsor H-1B Visas for this position.
Total Rewards:
Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) offers a comprehensive total rewards package for this position, subject to eligibility requirements. We are committed to serving our employees and their families with an extensive and competitive compensation and benefits package that supports our employees’ overall well-being and career growth.
Compensation
AUI strives to attract and retain dedicated, highly qualified, competent, and motivated employees by offering competitive compensation and recognition for performance.
Factors which may affect starting pay within this range may include; education, experience, skills, competencies, other qualifications of the successful candidate, as well as internal equity and labor market conditions.
For open rank positions, the starting salary for each level is between:
- Position level 2 $60,000 and $92,000
- Position level 3 $79,000 and $120,000
Benefits:
AUI’s benefits package addresses the needs of employees and their families with most benefits beginning on the first day of employment. AUI provides excellent paid time off (13 holidays, annual accrual of up to 24 vacation days and 15 sick days, additional time off for doctor/dentist visits, and 8 weeks of paid parental leave). Medical, dental and vision plans are effective on the first day of employment. AUI’s retirement benefit contributes an amount equal to 10 percent of a qualified participant’s base pay with no required employee contribution; we also offer an optional supplemental, tax-deferred plan for employee retirement contributions.
Application Instructions:
Select the “Apply Now” button. Please be prepared to upload your current CV/Resume and a cover letter describing interest and suitability for the position
Equal Opportunity Employer Statement:
AUI is an equal opportunity employer. To view our complete statement, please visit https://public.nrao.edu/careers/. If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process, you may submit your request by sending an email to [email protected]. PM20
Skills Required
- Bachelor’s degree in computer science, software engineering, systems engineering, physical science, electrical engineering, or a related field, or equivalent work experience
- At least five years of systems engineering experience on integrated project teams
- Experience working closely with Agile software teams, including Scrum or Kanban
- Understanding of how large software systems are designed, built, tested, and deployed
- Experience applying systems engineering practices to software systems, including requirements capture, traceability, interface definition, and verification and validation
- Experience across the project lifecycle from design through integration, testing, and transition to operations
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including experience working with geographically distributed teams
- Proactive and independent work ethic
- Exposure to scientific, telescope or control software, distributed systems, data processing pipelines, or signal processing
- Familiarity with model-based systems engineering or software modeling methods and tools
What We Do
Developed over the past seven years in collaboration with 60,000 human agents, Apollo is a breakthrough language model for objective-oriented conversational agents. Apollo replaces the transformer architecture of traditional LLMs with a neuro-symbolic architecture that couples the conversational skills of generative AI with the predictability and actionability of rule-based AI, making it better suited for agents. Companies of any kind can fine-tune the Apollo base model on a specific task and deploy conversational agents that work on their behalf. These fine-tuned agents can continuously improve from human feedback, which is integrated into their updated versions. They further feature fine-grained control, the capacity to adhere to the deploying company’s policies and a white-box view of their operations. With native tool use, defined scope and guardrails and superior steerability, Apollo Agents outclass LLM Agents across all conversational use-cases. Apollo does not train on company data, instead, it can be pre-integrated with any number of internal systems, and seamlessly call the relevant API endpoint whenever necessary. Like transformer-based LLMs, Apollo has a “system prompt”, broken down to structured, conditional policies. Workflows and tools are native to Apollo and do not rely on function calling or chaining. This enables 100% success rate in executing complex API calls and the ability to return grounded answers in each interaction from any number of endpoints or sources. Unlike transformer-based LLMs, Apollo is fine-tuned at the interaction level. In the Simulator, companies can generate automated conversations simulating the agent in production in front of users. They then proceed to fine-tuning the agent by correcting its output in each unsatisfactory interaction. This process can be repeated continuously to improve the performance and alignment of the agent. Unlocked with Apollo are some exciting new agentic use-cases, including the ability for companies to responsibly communicate with their customers using conversational AI, and to sell their products and services without the need for human involvement, the example featured in the Live Demo Agent.
