Software Engineer II

Key Initiatives

• Designing and maintaining telescope control middleware and backend services
• Developing monitoring and observability pipelines to track system health and performance
• Integrating new instruments into the control ecosystem
• Diagnosing and resolving real-time software and system faults during observatory operations
• Automating deployments and infrastructure management for robust, repeatable releases

Essential Functions

• Design, implement and maintain backend services and middleware for telescope and instrument control
• Develop and operate observability tools and dashboards to monitor system telemetry and health
• Collaborate with hardware and instrumentation teams to integrate software and hardware interfaces
• Own the identification and resolution of critical production faults with precision and speed
• Build and improve CI/CD pipelines to streamline deployment and rollback processes
• Drive clarity through high-quality technical documentation and strengthen team expertise through active knowledge sharing
• Provide onsite system support and maintenance at an elevation of approximately 6,800 ft.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering, Computer Science or a related technical field
• 4+ years of professional software engineering experience in backend or systems programming roles
• Extensive, proven experience with Python, C and C++
• Extensive, proven experience designing, building and maintaining distributed systems or services in a real-time or data-intensive environment
• Proven high-level proficiency of software engineering fundamentals, including algorithms, data structures, concurrency, version control, CI/CD, etc.
• Extensive, proven experience working with APIs, network protocols or hardware integration
• Proven high-level proficiency in problem-solving and debugging, including experience with live systems and production-quality software
• Clear and effective communicator, adept at documenting and conveying technical information to non-technical audiences
• Comfortable working with a remote, globally distributed team
• Physically capable of working at the KPNO site, located at an elevation of approximately 6,800 ft.

Preferred Qualifications

• Knowledge of telescope control systems, remote observatory operations and observatory middleware architectures
• Knowledge of observatory infrastructure, software integration and data pipelines in a scientific research context
• Familiarity with scientific computing workflows, observational instruments and astronomical data processing
• Contributions to open-source telescope, scientific or engineering software
• Experience with DevOps or SRE practices for critical system reliability
• Experience with Tcl/Tk programming for legacy system integration and instrumentation control
• Familiarity with PLC programming (e.g., ladder logic) for hardware interface and motion control in telescope subsystems
• Passion for astronomy, scientific software and advancing scientific research and discovery through innovative technology