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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). NRAO is currently also designing the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA), a transformative astronomical observatory designed to deliver science-ready data products to a broad community of users. These telescopes are among the most advanced in the world and allow astronomers to explore the universe in unprecedented detail.
The North American ALMA Support Center, located at the NRAO headquarters in Charlottesville, VA, is working with ALMA partners to upgrade the ALMA Radio Telescope located in the Chilean Andes Mountains. Already the most capable millimeter-wave telescope ever built, ALMA is currently initiating a system-wide upgrade that will substantially increase its capabilities. We are seeking an experienced systems engineer for the NA ALMA program’s responsibilities. You will have the opportunity to combine your extensive systems engineering expertise with your passion to contribute to the future of millimeter wave astronomy.
The location for this position will be at the NRAO HQ in Charlottesville, VA. International travel will be required ~10%.
What You Will be Doing
- Oversee and participate in the implementation of systems engineering processes across the life cycle of multiple projects across the ALMA Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) program
- Review and communicate system architecture, system requirements, subsystem designs, and other technical documents
- Develop and collaborate on integration, verification, and validation plans, interface control documents, and similar documents
- Prepare and execute system reviews and assisting in managing subsystem design reviews, serve as member of project controls team
- Guide the systems engineering management processes, including configuration management, baselining, change management and document management processes and facilitate these processes across projects with our international partners
- Participate in system integration and testing activities
Work Environment
Work is typically performed in an office or laboratory environment. Occasional domestic and international travel will be required. The position will be on-site based at the NRAO Headquarters in Charlottesville, Virginia. A hybrid position with weekly on-site presence may be considered for exceptional candidates.
Position Requirements:
- You have a bachelor's degree in engineering, physical science, systems engineering, or related field; Significant, relevant work experience may be considered in lieu of a degree
- At least 10 years working as a systems engineer in integrated projects, preferably in scientific R&D environments
- Demonstrated experience with core systems engineering principles, including requirements capture, verification and validation plans, full project lifecycle planning, and scheduling and running effective meetings with geographically dispersed teams
- Experience working across life cycle phases from design to operations
- Exposure to the following technology domains: electromagnetic, RF, digital signal processing, mechanical, software engineering and civil engineering
- Excellent verbal and written communication
- Proactive and independent work ethic
- Enthusiasm to work in a team with subject matter experts, engineers, and scientists across domains and projects
While not required, you may have:
- Experience in an application domain for the establishment of high-tech, large-scale infrastructure that is related to radio astronomy, such as radar, communication systems, or optical telescopes
- Experience working with international teams
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
The starting salary of this position is between $120,000 - $140,000. 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 may include; education, experience, skills, competencies, other qualifications of the successful candidate, as well as internal equity and labor market conditions.
Benefits
Associated Universities, Inc (AUI) offers a comprehensive benefits package addressing the needs of employees and their families with most benefits beginning on the first day of employment, subject to eligibility requirements. AUI provides:
- Excellent paid time off (13 holidays, annual accrual of up to 24 vacation days)
- 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.
- Click Total Rewards for more information.
Application Instructions
Select the “Apply Now” button. Please be prepared to upload your current cover letter and resume 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 engineering, physical science, systems engineering, or a related field; significant relevant experience may substitute
- At least 10 years of experience as a systems engineer in integrated projects
- Experience with requirements capture, verification and validation plans, lifecycle planning, and scheduling meetings with geographically dispersed teams
- Experience across lifecycle phases from design through operations
- Exposure to electromagnetic, RF, digital signal processing, mechanical, software engineering, and civil engineering domains
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Proactive and independent work ethic
- Ability to work with subject matter experts, engineers, and scientists across domains
- Experience in radio astronomy, radar, communication systems, optical telescopes, or related high-tech infrastructure
- Experience working with international teams
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.
