Are you pursuing a career in software engineering, or are you inclined toward innovation and exploration? Are you keen on contributing to research on distant galaxies and sharing your discoveries with the world? If this excites you, we have an exciting opportunity that aligns perfectly with your aspirations!

Software Engineer

As a software engineer you will contribute to the continuous development of our LOFAR telescope, and will strengthen one of our SCRUM teams. LOFAR is a big, modern radio telescope with over 50 antenna fields across Europe. LOFAR provides petabyte-scale amounts of data, and the number of devices it encompasses is within the hundreds of thousands. The software development team focuses its efforts on monitoring and operating our telescopes and making sure the data can be stored, found, retrieved, and processed in one of our archives. The team you would join consists of software engineers to build the monitor and control applications that are close to the hardware of the stations and who automate the full lifecycle of software using CI/CD pipelines.

What you can expect from us:

• An inspiring, innovative, and pleasant working environment with an international and inclusive work culture where we value ownership, super specialism, sharing responsibility and teamplay
• Opportunities and encouragement to grow and develop yourself and your career.
• The exceptional combination of astronomy, operations, and engineering in one building.
• Employment conditions tailored to your needs (part-time appointment, parental leave, a balance between working at the office and working from home*, etc.).
• A temporary appointment in the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research Institutes (NWO-I) service for 2 years (with a possible contract for an indefinite period based on good performance).
• A gross monthly salary in the range of €3.458 to €5.486 (full-time salary), based on relevant experience, an 8% holiday allowance, and an 8.33% year-end bonus
• A comprehensive and solid pension scheme (ABP).
• 42 vacation days per year on a full-time basis.
• Ambitious colleagues who are driven by collaboration in an international work environment.

* Collaboration at our office sparks some of the best ideas and solutions to complex problems. Therefore, we work at least 60% of our time at ASTRON. If you face difficulties coming to the office, we will gladly consider exceptions on a case-by-case basis.

We strongly believe that progress, creativity, and innovation are only possible in an inclusive environment, and therefore, we value the unique skills and qualities you bring to the table. While we appreciate a range of software engineering expertise, not ticking all the boxes does not diminish our interest in your application. Therefore, we warmly welcome everyone, particularly women and individuals from underrepresented groups, to apply for an interview.

To discover firsthand experiences of colleagues who love working at ASTRON, click this link.

We need software engineers who help us:

• Do software development and life-cycle maintenance for distributed systems like the LOFAR telescope enabling the astronomers and operators of the telescope to do research
• Improve our relational and/ or time-series database technologies (such as PostgreSQL or Prometheus)
• Interpreting Interface Control Documents (ICDs) enabling clear communication and a minimum of misunderstanding regarding the design and functionality of components
• Provide 1st-line support to internal customers as a shared responsibility in the team; once you have achieved good and basic understanding of all the tools and systems
• Apply principles from DevOps, like collaboration, figuring out requirements and timelines, automation, and continuous improvement.

Calling all talented software engineers who:

• Have experience in a modern programming language, preferably Python, for Linux environments. C++11 experience is a bonus.
• Have experience with developing multiprocess/multithreaded software.
• Have experience building instruments or doing development work in Monitor and Control frameworks (especially Tango-Controls or Prometheus/Grafana).
• Have working knowledge of the set-up and deployment of containerized execution environments like Docker or Singularity, and provisioning systems such as Nomad and Consul.
• Like working in a team and connecting with non-software engineering disciplines too.