As a key member of the CTAO Central Organisation’s Computing team, the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Clock Specialist will work closely with software, telescope development and instrumentation experts. This position is pivotal in ensuring that the CTAO’s ICT infrastructure at the Observatory sites and Data Centres (On-site and Off-site ICT Work Packages), as well as the high-accuracy Array Clock System of the Observatory, meet the highest standards of performance, availability and reliability. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an environment where your technical and collaborative skills will directly impact the success of the CTAO’s scientific endeavours.

Your responsibilities

Develop Solutions for CTAO Work Packages:

• Contribute to the design and development of the CTAO On-site ICT, Off-site ICT and Array Clock Work Packages.
• Support the design of on-site data centres, including clusters of approximately 3000 computing cores and 3 PBytes of storage at the Observatory sites.
• Develop high-speed, low-latency network infrastructure for the sites, including intercontinental broadband connections to offsite data centres.
• Design and implement on-site and off-site storage and backup systems.
• Work on operating systems, workload management systems, ICT monitoring systems, cybersecurity and more.
• Assist in the development of solutions for the high-accuracy (nanosecond-level) clock system of the CTAO (Array Clock Work Package), based on CERN’s White Rabbit Open Hardware technology.

Collaboration and Alignment: Collaborate closely with experts in scientific computation, telescope control software and instrumentation, as well as the CTAO site infrastructure team, to ensure that the CTAO infrastructure aligns with project requirements and scientific goals.

Documentation and Review Production: Produce technical and assurance documentation to support Work Package Coordinators for reviews, approval processes and evaluations.

Contract and Agreement Preparation: Assist in the preparation of service-level agreements, in-kind contracts and tendering information to ensure they meet project needs and standards.

Installation and Operation Oversight:

• Help coordinate the design and installation of hardware at the two CTAO array sites.
• Assist in evaluating and refining infrastructure solutions to ensure optimal performance.

Your qualifications, experience and skills

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Information Technology, Engineering, Physics or a related field. A master’s degree would be advantageous.
• Basic understanding of high-performance computing, networking and/or high-precision clock systems.
• Familiarity with infrastructure installation, hardware deployment or similar technical environments.
• Experience with Linux-based systems and proficiency in using specific software tools for documentation, data management and collaboration (e.g., Office 365 suite, LaTeX,gitlab/hub).
• Experience working in a technology-driven environment or hands-on technical roles is desirable.
• Strong organisational skills with attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple tasks.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to work effectively with various teams and stakeholders.
• Familiarity with service-level agreements and contract preparations is a plus.

You’ll be reporting to: Computing Coordinator

Your duty station: Zeuthen, DESY Campus. Willingness to travel to CTAO array sites as needed for installation and coordination tasks.

What we offer: CTAO offers an attractive remuneration package, including a competitive salary. The contract is a short-term contract of one year with very high chance of extending it to another year (2 years in total).

Please apply on BambooHR at the following link: https://ctao.bamboohr.com/careers/30

Deadline for applications: October 20, 2024

For more information about the CTAO, please visit www.ctao.org. For more information on the advertised position, contact ctao-hr@cta.observatory.org

Applications are accepted and evaluated without distinction on any grounds of gender, race, colour, ethnic or social origin, genetic features, language, religion or belief, political or any other opinion, membership of a national minority, gender identity, property, birth, disability, age or sexual orientation.