EAS Job Directory

SKAO is looking for a Media Relations Manager to develop and deliver the Observatory’s media relations strategy across its Member States and beyond.

Reporting to the Director of Communications and working within the Communications team in the observatory’s Director-General Office, the Media Relations Manager will identify, develop and distribute newsworthy content targeted at journalists internationally, nationally and locally. Other responsibilities include: handling press enquiries, organising press conferences and media visits across SKAO’s facilities, briefing and training senior leaders and colleagues for media appearances, and being responsible for media monitoring and reporting.

Full-time hours will be 35 hours per week and flexible working may be considered compatible with reviews, milestones and sites activities.

• Deputise if required for the LOW Lead AIV Engineer.


• Supporting establishment and overseeing a small competent CSIRO team as well as providing a high standard of technical support and safety management to all areas of the Integration Test Facility.


• Integrating and maintaining a subset of the LOW Telescope (System Under Test) and its Test Environment at the ITF, developing procedures and scripts for automatic and remote testing and logging of the system under test.


• Leading and providing technical expertise and guidance for evaluation, verification, and performance review of the System Under Test.


• Supporting the LOW Telescope System Requirements verification in the Integration Test Facility, coordinating with the AIV LOW Team workflows and procedures at the ITF and being followed on-site.


• Attending training provided by international suppliers and providing technical training to the AIV LOW Team, Science Commissioning and Operation users.


• Cooperating with the Project Office Planning Manager, the LOW PDT and the LOW AIV Manager in the development, reviewing and optimization of the planning and preparation of the Integration Test Facility and on-site AIV activities.


• Attending and supporting test activities at suppliers and prototype integration facilities.


• Occasional national and international travel to suppliers will be required (typically 3-4 times a year for one or two weeks).

• Relevant professional experience (typically at least three years) in the AIV and commissioning of large multidisciplinary high technology projects.


• A proven track record of successfully addressing hardware and software issues with suppliers, with the ability to identify, manage and solve complex and novel technical issues through engineering analysis and out of the box thinking.


• A proven record of successful technical delivery in the field of assembling, integrating, testing and verifying of large electronic multidisciplinary projects.


• A good understanding of standard Project Management tasks and concepts, such as structural breakdowns, schedule and resource planning, change and risk management, in order to be able to deputise for the Lead Engineer.


• Able and keen to build, develop and lead a small engineering team, working as part of a larger team.


• Able to communicate with and effectively influence senior technical experts.


• Be a flexible team player who is adaptable to change.


• Be willing and able to travel as required.

• Membership of or elibigility for membership of recognised national or international system engineering institutes.


• Experience in design verification for volume production and/or in large-scale manufacturing and assembly.


• Experience in the area of Quality Assurance.


• Software development and integration for scientific projects.


• Knowledge of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).


• Experience of leading and managing a team.


• Experience of Project Management.

The Senior Project Manager SKA-Mid will:

• Represent the SKA1-Mid facility at Observatory level internally and externally;


• Lead the remaining Procurement Preparation activities for the SKA1-Mid telescope;


• Work with procurement specialists and members of the Assurance and Operations teams as needed;


• Lead the matrixed SKA1-Mid project team;


• Line manage Project Managers dedicated to Mid and matrix manage others involved in the delivery of both telescopes, as appropriate;


• During the Construction stage, oversee the management of the SKA1-Mid construction contracts;


• Ensure project controls implementation and delivery of SKA1-Mid to the expected cost, time and quality parameters;


• Ensure all stakeholders are appropriately engaged and informed;


• Successfully deliver the SKA1-Mid telescope and handover to Operations;


• Undertake the necessary training in order to perform in their role successfully (e.g. NEC contracts, occupational health and safety, etc.);


• Undertake any other reasonable duties as directed by the Head of Project Management or a member of the SKA Observatory Senior Leadership Team;


• Undertake frequent travel to the SKA telescope site in South Africa and occasional international travel to contractor sites (usually for one week 5-6 times a year).

• Recognised university degree-level education/training in engineering or physical sciences;


• Membership of, or eligibility for membership of, recognised national or international project management and/or engineering institutes;


• A proven track record of managing delivery of complex engineering projects in a multi-disciplinary, international setting (typically at least 10 years);


• Experience of successfully managing contract deliveries as client or contractor;


• Experience of project management of engineering projects within a radio astronomy/telecommunications/defence/space or systems development environment;


• Ability to learn and embrace new technologies and use hybrid waterfall and agile delivery methodologies;


• Strong analytical and organisational skills;


• People management and team leadership skills with experience of working collaboratively with geographically dispersed teams over multiple companies and time-zones;


• Experience in leading professional staff/project team with the ability to coach and mentor;


• Ability to influence and change behaviour through effective relationship building;


• Fluent in the English language with excellent oral and written communication skills;


• Flexible team player who is adaptable to change;


• Willingness to travel nationally and internationally as required (usually for one week 5-6 times a year).

• Post-graduate qualification in management, engineering or physical sciences;


• Experience of delivery of engineering projects in Southern Africa;


• Experience in NEC contracting;


• Experience in large scale science infrastructure projects;


• Experience with project management tools such as Primavera or Microsoft Project and with collaboration tools such as Confluence, Jira, G-Suite, Miro etc.


• Familiarity with the formalism for, and requirements of, quality control environments such as ISO9001.

• Experience of working effectively in complex business system architectures and be able to demonstrate their impact on the successful improvement and evolution of the system and processes;


• An appreciation of and ability to operate effectively in a research institute environment;


• A working understanding of new and emerging technologies and roadmaps in information systems;


• Be able to demonstrate understanding of working based on principles such as lean-agile, continually iterating plans and solving problems to adjust to changing circumstances.


• Able to commission and manage rollout of the new business software


• Excellent communication and influencing skills with distributed, highly specialised project teams and stakeholders, involving a wide range of cultures and backgrounds


• Able to assimilate user requests, working through and with others in order to develop workable and joined up solutions accepted by stakeholders


• Be willing and able to advocate for well reasoned change to established practice; with a positive and resilient attitude in response to challenge


• Flexible team player who is adaptable to change

• First hand knowledge of modern business processes such as enterprise resource planning and project management


• Experience in working in a large engineering/scientific project environment


• Demonstrable interest for science or astronomy


• Have significant experience in the development of microservice tools to communicate between modern web APIs.

The postholder will undertake the following responsibilities:

• Manage the Corporate Risk Register


• Manage expenditure on insurance of £1m + per annum


• Manage internal policies regarding what constitutes ‘acceptable risk exposure’ (self-insurance) and what should be insured with an insurer, supporting internal owners of risk


• Continuously ensure value for money for the spend on insurance and insurance related products


• Work with the organisation to reduce risk, sell this to insurers (and underwriters) and identify gaps and opportunities,  develop insurance programmes and make recommendations to senior leadership


• Manage the existing portfolio of insurance policies in respect of renewals and claims, liaising with brokers as appropriate


• Lead the specification of new policies by working with Observatory Departments who require insurance coverage as their activities develop


• Ensure that Risk Management at the Observatory level makes use of the correct insurance mitigations and periodically report on the status of insured risks and their associated policies


• Provide expert advice and support on the procurement process for new policies including the assessment of tenders, driving value and long term benefits within the strategic context of an entire organisation
  


• Build and manage strong partnering relationships across SKAO and relevant external suppliers or partners, influencing and challenging approaches to provide best outcomes for SKAO.

The successful candidate will have the following skills and experience:

• Ability to think strategically across an entire organisation


• Experience of successfully managing an insurance portfolio of the order of £1M


• Experience of providing insurance advice expertise, including decisions on what to insure in an enterprise with a wide range of requirements


• Extensive and authoritative specialist knowledge and understanding of the types of insurance required by a complex enterprise involved in the knowledge economy but with construction, logistics and maintenance operations in multiple jurisdictions


• Knowledge of mandatory insurance requirements under the regulations of one or more jurisdictions of UK, South Africa and Australia; able to interpret and apply relevant policies


• Knowledge and experience of the procurement of a wide range of insurance policies
  


• Knowledge and experience of claims handling


• Able to communicate and influence effectively up to senior levels, listening effectively and shaping conversations, providing clear justification for decisions so that they are accepted by stakeholders


• Able to build and manage strong partnering relationship across SKAO and with relevant external agencies, able to develop and lead on delivery of joined up solutions, managing change and business improvements effectively


• A flexible team player who is adaptable to change

• Experience in working within a Research Infrastructure organisation


• A Masters Degree in Business Administration or equivalent experience


• Ability to coach and mentor others

Working as a member of the Engineering Performance Group within SKA Operations, the Engineering Management Systems Engineer will drive and manage the development of interfaces between different software systems that will include:

• Telescope Control Systems;


• Engineering Data Archives;


• Telescope Operations Planning Tools;


• Building Management Systems;


• Configuration Management System;


• Electronic Documentation System;


• Common Source Database (CSDB);


• Maintenance Management System;


• Failure Recording System;


• Problem Reporting, Tracking and Ticketing Systems.

The Engineering Management Systems Engineer is also responsible for communication, integration, and co-operation among all relevant operational teams at the SKA Observatory in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The Engineering Management Systems Engineer will play a leading role to plan, develop, test, deploy, release, and maintain the operation and maintenance solutions. In addition, they will:

• Be responsible for managing the development of software interfaces and features;


• Be responsible for the integration of the EMS into operational SKA environments in Australia, South Africa and the United Kingdom;


• Identify requirements for data archives;


• Act as an interface with the SAFe program;


• Support the Operations Group by developing the Engineering and Maintenance data structures;


• Lead Requirements definitions;


• Lead Architecture definitions;   


• Provide Software Implementation Training to the maintenance personnel;


• Lead electronic documentation web portal development;


• Communicate and collaborate with international operational teams;


• Travel to all of the observatory locations in Australia, South Africa, and the United Kingdom as required.

• University degree or equivalent in Engineering or a closely related field or equivalent experience;


• Membership (or eligibility for membership) of a recognised national or international engineering institute;


• Experience (typically at least 10 years) in software engineering, in radio astronomy, telecommunications, defence or another closely related field;


• Experience in integration of software products;


• Experience in Configuration Management Systems;


• Experience in Maintenance Management Systems (MMS);


• Experience in Failure Data Analysis and engineering software systems;


• Experience in international projects with the ability to work effectively with engineers, maintenance personnel and scientists in a multi-cultural environment;


• Good English verbal and written communication skills;


• Ability to influence stakeholders in a complex organisation;


• >Ability to plan and organise work effectively, and act independently and decisively;


• Ability to analyse data, identify issues and propose solutions;


• A flexible team player who is adaptable to change;


• Ability and willingness to travel nationally and internationally as required (typically for one week a few times a year, and subject to current international travel limitations).

• Experience using interfaces such as Jira - API and development environment, eB - API and configuration management software, netTerrain - API, Confluence - API, Logistic Support Analysis Systems, Control Systems and TANGO;


• Experience using electronic documentation software such as ASD S1000D specification and or DITA, Common Source Database (CSDB), Content Management Systems, Structured and xml documentation;


• Experience using a SAFe Framework;


• Experience in Jira ticketing systems, or similar.

• Deputise if required for the MID Lead AIV Engineer.


• Supporting establishment and overseeing a small competent SARAO team as well as providing a high standard of technical support and safety management to all areas of the Integration Test Facility.


• Integrating and maintaining a subset of the MID Telescope (System Under Test) and its Test Environment at the ITF, developing procedures and scripts for automatic and remote testing and logging of the system under test.


• Leading and providing technical expertise and guidance for evaluation, verification and performance review of the System Under Test.


• Supporting the MID Telescope System Requirements verification in the Integration Test Facility, coordinating with the AIV MID Team workflows and procedures at the ITF and being followed on-site.


• Attending training provided by international suppliers and providing technical training to the AIV MID Team, Science Commissioning and Operation users.


• Cooperating with the Project Office Planning Manager, the MID PDT and the MID AIV Manager in the development, reviewing and optimization of the planning and preparation of the Integration Test Facility and on-site AIV activities.


• Attending and supporting test activities at suppliers and prototype integration facilities.


• Occasional national and international travel to suppliers will be required (typically 3-4 times a year for one or two weeks).
  

The successful candidate will have:

• Relevant professional experience (typically at least three years) in the AIV and commissioning of large multidisciplinary high technology projects.


• A proven track record of successfully addressing hardware and software issues with suppliers, with the ability to  identify, manage and solve complex and novel technical issues through engineering analysis and out of the box thinking.


• A proven record of successful technical delivery in the field of assembling, integrating, testing and verifying of large electronic multidisciplinary projects.


• A good understanding of standard Project Management tasks and concepts, such as structural breakdowns, schedule and resource planning, change and risk management, in order to be able to deputise for the Lead Engineer.


• Be able and keen to build, develop and lead a small engineering team, working as part of a larger team.


• Be able to communicate with and influence effectively senior technical experts.
  


• Be a flexible team player who is adaptable to change.


• Be willing and able to travel as required.

• Membership of or eligibility for membership of recognised national or international system engineering institutes.


• Experience in design verification for volume production and/or in large-scale manufacturing and assembly.


• Experience in the area of Quality Assurance.


• Software development and integration for scientific projects.


• Knowledge of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe).


• Experience of leading and managing a team.


• Experience of Project Management.

PhD position in planet formation

• a cover letter (email text or PDF)


• a CV (PDF)


• a research statement (PDF describing the motivation to apply for the proposed PhD project and previous research experiences or other accomplishments, max. 2 pages)

Project Description

Your tasks:

• Study angular momentum transport, meridional flows, and magnetic field generation (via the mean-field dynamo mechanism) in the convection zones of cool stars.


• Setup state-of-the-art direct numerical simulations of stellar convection and extract the resulting Reynolds stress and the turbulent electromotive force from the simulations.

Your profile:

• Applicants should hold a MSc degree or equivalent in astrophysics or a related discipline at the time of starting the position.
  
• Previous experience in the fields of fluid dynamics or magnetohydrodynamics, and/or a background in stellar astrophysics will be considered a strong asset.


• Ideally, you are already equipped with a skillset covering basic scientific programming, as well as running and analysing high-performance computer simulations.

The SKA Operations Group is seeking to employ a talented and motivated person to act as a Product Manager to support and guide the software development for the construction of the SKA telescopes. As a large and globally distributed project, the software is being developed by many teams across different time zones from outside of the SKA Observatory.

The appointee will be an expert focal point for the development teams, providing expertise and guidance to those teams in areas of Observation Management. The role, therefore, calls for an organised person who understands, or is able to quickly acquire, system knowledge in the area of (radio) astronomy telescopes and their operation.

To manage the software development of the project, the SKA has adopted the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe®) for Lean/Agile development processes. As a Product Manager, the appointee will represent the interests and priorities of the SKA Operations team for the construction and operation of the SKA telescopes. They will be responsible for ensuring that the SAFe teams deliver value to the SKA by specifying and defining the priorities of the work and developing the programme roadmap. As a Product Manager they will have the responsibility for defining work, and assessing when it is completed, and accepting that work into the Programme. As such, the appointee will need to understand software development practices and technology.

Although the appointee will be a member of the Operations Group, they will spend the majority of their time working closely with the software development SAFe teams.

Full-time hours will be 35 hours per week. Flexible working arrangements are possible in agreement with the Line Manager, as long as contributions to telescope delivery are not impacted.

Working as a member of the SAFe Product Management team with key internal and external SKA stakeholders, including the Lead Software Product Manager, the Head of Science Operations, and the SKA System Scientist, the post holder will:

• Contribute to the Product Management Team in the development and communication of the vision and roadmap for the SKA Observatory’s software development programme to all relevant stakeholders.


• Contribute to the Operations group, engaging with the Science Operations and Data Operations teams to understand their priorities in the development of the roadmap.


• Develop Features aligned with the vision and roadmap and enter them into the SAFe Program Backlog.


• Engage with the teams to define Program Backlog items. Clarify Backlog items and confirm their understanding within the development teams.


• Define acceptance criteria for the work under their ownership and be responsible for accepting the results of the work carried out.


• Be an expert stakeholder for the development teams with respect to issues regarding Observation Management. 


• Attend SAFe Program Increment (PI) planning meetings (every 3 months) to prioritise and plan future work and report on work carried out.


• Provide inputs to define and prioritise the content of the SAFe Program Backlog in collaboration with the Product Management team.


• Work with stakeholders to understand and define SKA Programme objectives.

The post holder will have:

• A PhD, or equivalent, in Astronomy, Physics, Computer Science or a closely related field, or equivalent experience in a professional scientific operational capacity.


• Significant experience in software development in a scientific environment, preferably in a (radio) astronomy setting, or equivalent, with an end-user perspective.


• Experience with the operation of (radio) observatories, science operations and observation management, from proposal management and handling through to the execution of science projects on the telescope.


• The ability  to resolve multifaceted and complex problems, developing coherent solutions and managing workloads and targets in a dynamic and collaborative environment.


• The ability to build effective working relationships and influence with engineers and scientists from a variety of cultures.


• The capability to work in a team as a flexible, adaptable team player, able to work to deadlines.


• Excellent communication skills in English, especially within multicultural teams, able to translate technical concepts into clear guidance and advice.


• The ability to accommodate occasional travel, nationally and internationally (typically 1 week, 3 or 4 times a year, and subject to current international travel limitations).

• Experience in a similar role within a Software Development Project in a Scientific/Astronomical environment.


• Agile certification (Scaled Agile Program Consultant, BCS Agile Practitioner certification, or similar).


• Project management experience in a software development environment.

Defining the strategic vision for the PSA, in coordination with the Archives Mission Scientist and in line with the Department?s overall strategy for the archives;

Interfacing with all relevant stakeholders from planetary missions, including the PSA Users Group, to ensure long-term preservation of the data and to encourage the use of multi-mission data for planetary science research;

Providing, in cooperation with all planetary archive scientists, scientific development priorities for the PSA, taking into account mission-specific as well as general purpose requirements and constraints;

Contributing actively to the ESAC Science Data Centre reporting and outreach activities, in collaboration with the Archives Mission Scientist and the other Archive Science Leads;

Representing ESA and actively promoting cooperation at planetary scientific conferences, fora, workshops, and reviews, as well as at the International Planetary Data Alliance and with external partner space agencies and organisations;

Acting as Archive Scientist for all ESA planetary legacy missions.

Assuming the ownership of use cases and drivers for the mission archive;

Monitoring the implementation, testing and performance of the archive, prior to its release to the scientific community;

Supervising and coordinating the definition and provision of science data products and higher-level data products from the community or Instrument Teams;

Liaising with any internal and external providers to ensure completeness of all levels of data products, contributing to the optimisation and refinement of the archive products when possible;

Organising, where required, peer reviews for the assessment and evaluation of the archive?s products and documentation;

Supporting the scientific community through a helpdesk;

Encouraging the science exploitation of mission data products through archive use;

Contributing to the strategy for and promotion of the ESA Science Archives.

Ability to lead disciplinary and inter-disciplinary groups of top experts

Science operations development, in particular regarding data management and archiving systems

Experience in interfacing with external parties, especially the scientific community and Principal Investigator teams

Breadth of exposure coming from past and/or current research/activities

Background in one or more of the following domains: solar systems science, astrophysics, space science (astrophysics, planetary and solar system), computer science

Broad knowledge of scientific discipline, including strategic vision of the area Planetary Science

the potential to manage individuals or a team of experts;

the ability to organise their activities and ensure a motivating work environment;

strong leadership capabilities, with proven relationship management and communication skills;

the ability to drive their team?s performance, developing their people by encouraging learning, delegating responsibility and giving regular and constructive feedback;

strong problem-solving skills to deal with day-to-day operational challenges, together with demonstrated planning and organisational skills;

a strong results orientation with the ability to set priorities and present practical solutions both orally and in writing;

the ability to manage challenging situations proactively and constructively and to be customer focused.