Senior Software Engineer at NRF National Research Foundation

About the position

Postion Summary:
SARAO has an exciting Senior Software Engineers position which forms part of the software development team building the MeerKAT, MeerKAT Extension, African VLBI Network (AVN) and the Square Kilometre (SKA) telescopes. Senior software engineers research, analyze and evaluate requirements for the existing or new software applications, furthermore they design, develop, test and maintain software solutions to meet these requirements.

Key Responsibilities:

• Prototyping and software development of the telescope operational software (all stages of the full software development life-cycle will be encountered)
• Provide hands-on technical support in the system administration of the hardware platforms, deployment environments and processing, which may include site visits to the site
• Collaborate with departmental stakeholders to support engineering, commissioning, operations and early science activities
• Assist and ensure maturing of software development and quality assurance processes towards greater standardization and improved long term maintainability and robustness
• Facilitate coding standard compliance and code reviews, which include mentoring junior engineers
• Provide project management and progress reporting input as required by the Functional Manager and for team communication
• Participate in development of project schedules and activities
• Participate in the development of budgets and cost/benefit analysis for compliance with project procurement policies
• Make technical decisions independently without direction from the Technical lead
• Innovate independently towards improving the software
• Troubleshoot and solve very difficult software bugs

Minimum Qualification:

• Bachelors Degree / Advanced Diploma / NQF 7

Minimum Experience:

• 10-10 years

• B
• Tech/B
• Sc Computer Science, Computer Engineering or related field10 years experience in a software engineering environment, prefereably in an engineering project environment with a strong software focus

Experience:

• Experience in a software engineering environment, preferably in an engineering development project environment with a strong software focus
• Python programming language and experience in development, testing, development, commissioning, release and support of large scale projects in Python
• Technical knowledge of development in Linux operating systems (experience in system administration of such will be beneficial)
• Technical experience in architecture design and development of large software projects (experience with control and monitoring will be beneficial
• Quality assurance processes and software development processes and willingness to participate in improving software development processes and software quality procedures
• Test-driven development and integration testing techniques, methodologies and frameworks; and supporting systems like revision control
• Experienced in computer and environment setup and configuration, including the use of containers, and Kubernetes
• Knowledgeable to analyse and implement cybersecurity threats suggested
• Developing applications targeted for the Linux operating system
• Implementation of project management and system engineering principles

Knowledge:

• Modern software collaboration tools such as Github, Containers, Google Drive, JIRA
• Python programming language
• Database development, real-time sensor messaging management
• Knowledgeable or willing to learn to develop and design ML models

Additional Notes:
Communicate effectively (written and verbal). Participate and thrive in a collaborative environment. Understanding and experience in implementation of project management and system engineering principles. Experience with quality assurance processes and software development processes and willingness to participate in improving software development processes and software quality procedures. Willingness to play a leading role in mentoring juniors. Ability both to work independently and be a good team player. Ability to reliably estimate and plan work as part of a [URL Removed] to develop and convey a technical solution as part of a teamAbility to participate and thrive in a collaborative environment. Self-motivated and an ability and willingness to self-train and up-skill independently. Keen attention to detail. Strong oral and written communication [URL Removed] NRF website provides more details on the initiatives and activities Applicants should submit a comprehensive CV by registering and apply online through the NRF Recruitment and Selection Portal. Applications should be accompanied by a letter of motivation indicating the applicant·s suitability for the position. The names and contact details of at least three referees should be provided.

Desired Skills:

• Skilled in applied field of position
• Knowledge to be relevant
• Responsible in performing duties

About The Employer:

The National Research Foundation (NRF) supports and promotes research and human capital development through funding, the provision of National Research Facilities and science outreach platforms and programmes to the broader community in all fields of science and technology, including natural sciences, engineering, social sciences and humanities. The South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) implements South Africa's strategic investments in radio astronomy, including the international Square Kilometre Array (SKA) project, which covers a broad range of engineering and scientific activities. SARAO is a National Facility of the National Research Foundation, and incorporates radio astronomy and space geodesy instruments and programmes such as the MeerKAT telescope in the Karoo, the Hartebeesthoek Radio Astronomy Observatory (HartRAO) in Gauteng, the Africa Radio Astronomy Programme across nine African countries, as well as associated human capital development and commercialisation endeavours.