Software Engineer III-IV

NRAO Headquarters, 520 Edgemont Rd, CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, United States of America •

800 Bradbury Dr SE, Albuquerque, NM 87106, USA

Posted Friday, April 17, 2026 at 6:00 AM | Expires Thursday, June 4, 2026 at 5:59 AM

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 famous Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile.

These telescopes are among the most advanced in the world, allowing astronomers to explore the universe in unprecedented detail.

The Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) is an array of 66 radio antenna located high in the Chilean Andes. Its scientific capabilities are, by a large factor, better than any other millimeter wave radio telescope. It was commissioned in 2013 and is, to date, the largest ground-based astronomical project. ALMA is supported by a diverse team of people on four continents (North America, South America, Europe and Asia).

We are seeking a Software Engineer to join the North America (NA) ALMA software development team and work jointly with our National Research Council (of Canada) collaborators and other ALMA software teams. The NA software team is responsible for the data acquisition (Control and Correlator) and Scheduling software; the EU software team is responsible for user tools such as proposal submission, project tracking, and quality assurance.

We are a small, distributed team that values curiosity, diligence, and professional communication. There is potential to grow into leadership of significant software infrastructure upgrades, and to design, prototype, and install new software technologies. We operate in an environment of continuous upgrades to both ALMA and to our team’s skills.

The successful applicant will have the opportunity to contribute to the next generation of significant software upgrades to the ALMA telescope. The potential exists to lead significant software infrastructure upgrades and tackle obsolescence by designing and prototyping new software technologies, building new user tools for astronomers and operators, and interfacing with the next generation of ALMA system-wide hardware upgrades.

This position will ideally be located at NRAO facilities in Charlottesville (VA). It may be possible to work from our other facilities in Socorro (NM) or Albuquerque (NM). Fully remote work may be possible for an exceptionally qualified candidate.

The successful applicant will join the NA ALMA Correlator software team. The primary responsibility is development in modern, multi-threaded C++ and Python, testing, and integration of the Advanced Technology ALMA Correlator (ATAC). ATAC is a key project in the Wideband Sensitivity Upgrade (WSU) that will dramatically increase the observational capabilities of ALMA. The successful applicant will need to work with Canadian collaborators, other ALMA development organizations, and Chilean stakeholders to implement, test, integrate, and commission ATAC;

coordinate with developers; conduct automated testing; deliver software to the software test team; and support integration, verification, and validation testing in Chile.

A key component of the ATAC project is the IDTF (Integrated Development and Test Facility) located in Charlottesville VA. The successful applicant will play a key part of the development of the IDTF, integration testing with other projects in the signal chain, and the fielding, testing, and commissioning of ATAC. We expect this effort to be a primary focus of the ATAC team for the next three to five years.

Testing is an integral part of the development process and it is expected that the applicant will write and maintain test software that will be run in an automated system. They will also help maintain the internal test systems used daily for initial testing of the software. It is expected that the successful candidate will…