Senior Software Engineer at National Research Foundation

About the Position

SKA SA has an exciting opportunity for a Senior Software Engineer to join our Control and Monitoring team. The primary responsibility is software engineering.

Minimum education requirement:

• NQF Level 7 or higher in Computer Science, Engineering (with software focus) or related field

Minimum work experience required:

• 10+ years of experience in a software engineering environment, preferably in an engineering development project with a strong software focus
• expert in Python programming language and solid experience in development, testing, deployment, commissioning, release and support of large scale projects in Python
• strong technical knowledge of developing in Linux operating systems (experience in system administration of such will be beneficial)
• significant technical experience in architecture design and development of large software projects (experience with command and control systems will be beneficial)

Job specification:

• Prototyping and software development of the telescope operational software. All stages of the full software development life-cycle may be encountered: from requirements analysis, architectural input, software design and development, to testing, integration and deployment, as well as close interaction with hardware subsystems
• Play a hands-on technical role in system administration of the hardware platforms and deployment environments and processes, this may involve site visits to the Karoo
• Collaborate with System Engineering, Science Processing and Commissioning teams to support engineering, commissioning, operations and early science
• Assist in maturing of software development processes and quality assurance processes towards greater standarization and improved long term maintainability and robustness. Facilitate coding standard compliance and code reviews, as well as mentoring of junior engineers
• Produce documentation sets
• Project management and progress reporting input as required by the Subsystem manager and for team communication
• Participate in development of project schedules and activities
• Participate in development of budgets and cost/ benefit analyses for compliance with project procurement policies

The ideal candidate will have the following competencies:

Ability

• ability to participate and thrive in a collaborative environment
• ability both to work independently and be a good team player
• ability to troubleshoot issues methodically
• strong English oral and written communications

Experience

• developing application targeted for the Linux operating system
• programming in the Python programming language
• test-driven development and integration testing techniques, methodologies and frameworks; and supporting systems
• development, testing, deployment, commissioning, release and support of large scale projects
• implementation of project management and software development processes

Knowledge

• Python programming language
• modern software collaboration tools such as Github, VMs, Google Drive etc.

About The Employer

SKA SA is currently designing and constructing the MeerKAT Telescope in the Karoo Region of the Northern Cape Province. MeerKAT is a world-class radio telescope and is designed to do ground-breaking science. Via MeerKAT, South Africa is playing a leading role in the design and technology developments of the Square Kilometre Array Radio Telescope. In collaboration with South Africa industry and Universities and collaborating with leading global institutions, the South African team has developed innovative technologies in areas such as antenna engineering and signal processing hardware and algorithms.