Software Engineer - Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) job in Fairbanks

The Alaska Satellite Facility (ASF) is seeking a seasoned Software Developer to join our development team. The applicant hired for this position will join and help guide a team responsible for developing operational software to support processing, archival, and science applications for a multi-petabyte satellite data archive. The ideal candidate is creative, adaptive, and flexible, experienced working with geospatial data and in the cloud, and would enjoy working on collaborative teams that iterate quickly.

The Software Developer position at ASF is a mid-level software engineering position. Applicants are expected to have experience with a broad set of software development tools and techniques and to be comfortable participating in the entire software development lifecycle. This position will be assigned, on a semi-permanent basis, to one of several functional project teams based on alignment of skills, experience, and team needs.

Important core capability pillars are related to Language, Automation, Science/GIS, Cloud technologies, and Project management. While no candidate is expected to be familiar with all capabilities, successful candidates will be able to contribute meaningfully across most pillars.

This position will be expected to be comfortable programming in several languages or distinct frameworks. Applicable languages include Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Shell, Rust, and SQL. Additionally, familiarity with markup languages like HTML, CSS, JSON, YAML, or HCL would be desirable, as would the ability to work within common web frameworks like React and Angular.

A candidate should be experienced working with version control systems like GitHub or GitLab, including utilizing workflow automations for enforcing code quality and dispatching automated deployments. Having the ability to build, extend, and troubleshoot automated tests is also important. Experience creating, packaging, or contributing to open-source code is highly desirable.

ASF’s primary mission involves making satellite data discoverable and accessible to the global community. Prior experience with GIS data, GIS frameworks, and geospatial libraries and tools is beneficial. Experience working with large-scale geospatial datasets, data processing, and tools like GeoPandas, GDAL, Xarray, and Rasterio would be valuable.

Project teams at ASF extensively utilize cloud technologies and container orchestration to provide scalable, durable, and repeatable execution environments. Experience working with AWS or other cloud platforms, or within Kubernetes, is extremely desirable. Applicants should be familiar with Infrastructure-As-Code solutions such as CloudFormation, CDK, Helm, or Terraform.

The full lifecycle of software development is owned by the project teams. They work with leadership and stakeholders to define project objectives as well as create schedules and roadmaps. They’ll also build, test, and document the software, and own operations and maintenance indefinitely. Software Engineers are expected to participate in every aspect of this lifecycle, including interfacing with external entities and partners.

Experience, or expertise in any set of these skills, is not a fundamental requirement. Instead, applicants should bring a broad familiarity with software engineering concepts and, critically, a curiosity to learn and enthusiasm for building exciting projects collaboratively.

Minimum Qualifications:

A Bachelor’s degree in information technology, software development, or a science research field, or equivalent experience, and 4 years of experience in a science or IT field, or equivalent experience.

US CITIZENSHIP IS REQUIRED FOR THIS POSITION. TO BE CONSIDERED FOR THIS POSITION, PLEASE LIST YOUR CURRENT CITIZENSHIP STATUS IN EITHER YOUR COVER LETTER OR RESUME

This position is full-time, Grade 81 , term-funded, exempt, 12-month position complete with a competitive salary and UA employee benefits package. UA provides a generous compensation package that includes retirement options, annual leave, 12 paid holidays per year, tuition waivers for employees and family members, and affordable medical, dental, and vision care coverage. New hires will be placed on the UA staff salary schedule , based on education and experience., This position is a term-funded position and is reviewed annually for contract renewal at the University’s discretion.

The University of Alaska ( www.alaska.edu ) is an Equal Opportunity/Equal Access Employer and Educational Institution. The University is committed to a policy of non-discrimination ( www.alaska.edu/nondiscrimination ) against individuals on the basis of any legally protected status.

The successful applicant is required to complete a background check. Any offer of employment is contingent on the background check.

Your application for employment with the University of Alaska is subject to public disclosure under the Alaska Public Records Act.

The University of Alaska reserves the right to require employees to work on-site at University of Alaska facilities. Remote work may be approved for employees based in Alaska at the discretion of the University. Remote work for employees based outside the State of Alaska may be approved only in exceptional circumstances or where required by the job duties of the position.

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