Database Engineer

Job Category: Fulltime Regular
Exempt Overtime Eligible: Overtime Eligible
Benefits Eligible: Benefit Based
Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.
Job Summary
IPAC at Caltech is seeking a Senior Database Engineer to join the development team of the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). Come be a part of the team that is helping astronomers and data scientists worldwide access and explore IRSA's petabyte archives of astronomy data!
IPAC, part of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Division at Caltech (www.caltech.edu), provides science operations, user support, data and archive services, and scientific vision to enhance discovery with observatories both in space and on the ground. IRSA (http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu) is the steward of scientific data sets, ancillary data products, and documentation delivered by NASA's Infrared and Sub-millimeter missions. We are expanding our systems and services for researchers seeking to exploit our petabyte-scale holdings of astronomy mission data. We are now in development to support upcoming "big data" astrophysics missions including: SPHEREx, a NASA mission which will conduct a spectroscopic, infrared survey of the entire sky; Euclid, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the geometry and nature of the dark Universe; and the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. Additionally, we provide archive services for data from NASA's SOFIA airborne observatory, and the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), an NSF-supported time domain survey led by Caltech. This position will help advance the capability of IRSA's database systems to better realize the science objectives of these and other missions.
Essential Job Duties
As an IPAC Senior Database Engineer, you will work with the engineering and scientific team members on development tasks which may include:

• Research, evaluation and design of database technologies to meet project requirements.
• Building and operating efficient search and retrieval services for IRSA's petabyte-scale growing data holdings.
• Analysis and improvement of performance issues impeding science users.
• Application of cloud services for hosting of archive datasets.
• Identify and assess key technical challenges, and assist in formulation of development plans to address them in meeting upcoming mission commitments.
• Provide consulting to operations staff and application developers.
• Developing and implementing plans to safeguard the integrity of archive contents, and ensuring reliability and scalability of operations services.
• Interpreting and implementing project requirements and documenting the work that you've accomplished.

Basic Qualifications
If you have the following in your background, then we want to hear about your interest in joining our team:

• Bachelor's or equivalent degree in a technical subject such as Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Sciences, Astronomy, Physics, Math, or a related field.
• 5+ years relevant experience in designing, implementing, and administering database management systems.
• Experience with relational database administration using Oracle, Postgres or similar.
• Experience in scripting and programming languages.
• Ability to communicate effectively across various technical levels and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders.

Preferred Qualifications
Beyond these basic qualifications, there are a set of skills and experiences which will add to your ability to contribute to the roles and responsibilities of an IPAC Applications Developer. Any of the following might give you a head start here, but even if these do not describe you or your experience, we would still like to hear from you!

• Master's or equivalent degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Science or related field.
• Experience working with Greenplum, MongoDB, or other scale-out database technologies.
• Experience applying cloud services such as AWS, GCP, Azure.
• Experience manipulating and managing extremely large datasets.
• Experience applying big data technologies and supporting data science activities.
• Experience working with scientific data sets and use cases.
• Experience leading a project involving multiple team members.

Required Application Documents

• Resume
• Cover letter (optional)
• Applications due by January 31, 2024.

People choose to work at IPAC for many reasons, and our casual, employee-centric culture often leads to fulfilling, long-term careers and lasting relationships. IPAC staff have access to Caltech's benefits programs and facilities, including the athletic center, libraries, on-site daycare, professional development and enrichment classes, and Athenaeum club membership.
To be considered for this position please visit our web site and apply on line at the following link: https://hr.caltech.edu/work/job_openings
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
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