Jobs

Purpose

The resident astronomer (RA) acts as the on-site scientific observing specialist for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at McDonald Observatory. The RA employs various facility instruments and has the opportunity to conduct personal research while contributing to the scientific community at McDonald Observatory.

Responsibilities

• Science Operations. Lead nightly science operations safely and efficiently from sunset to sunrise, selecting and executing observations of targets from the queue.  Observations are taken on facility instruments based on weather constraints and queue priorities as set by the principal investigator (PI) and Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC). Evaluate the scientific quality of all observations based on the needs of various research projects and communicate effectively with HET partner scientists. Verifies the integrity and quality of the observations and helps optimize the scientific productivity of the facility.
• Night Operations. Communicate with the telescope operator regarding scientific, facility, and weather constraints. Maintain accurate, professional, and clear night report and problem report logs. Foster a productive and efficient working environment.
• Engineering Operations. Conduct projects to characterize and/or improve night operations. Work with instrument scientists and engineering staff to support, maintain, and document the performance of the HET and its instruments. Coordinate with visiting and remote engineering staff to complete engineering, instrument commissioning, and observing goals. Provide support and advice to maximize observing run outputs. Monitor the condition of the facility’s science instruments. Document the current status of science operations and the facility through wikis and web pages.
• Day Operations. Support night operations by preparing the facility for science operations, including testing and calibrating equipment and software and communicating with the resident astronomer on night duty regarding the status of the facility and queue.
• Research Environment. Conduct personal research to become an active user of the observatory instruments and contribute to the scientific life at the observatory. Prepare and present scientific papers at astronomical meetings. Participate in outreach activities such as giving public talks, giving tours of the facility, and attending colloquiums.
• Administrative Operations. Work with other resident astronomers to maintain a fully staffed work schedule every night of the year. Attend general and night-time operation staff meetings. Keep accurate and updated time sheets and complete required training and paperwork in a timely manner. Perform other duties as assigned to meet business operations.

For additional information and to apply: HET Resident Astronomer

Purpose

The Science Operations Manager for the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at the McDonald Observatory will provide leadership, high-quality science, and technical support in the science operations of the HET, including managing the HET science and engineering support operations, supervising night-time operations, monitoring and reporting on HET optical and instrumentation performance, data acquisition and reduction.

Responsibilities

• Manage HET science and engineering support operations. Coordinate with engineering and special program leads to facilitate HET Board discussions of these allocations and produce Telescope Allocation Committee (TAC) allocations. Manage the HET observing queue and resolve time conflicts. Work closely with science and engineering staff to specify and conduct night-time engineering tests and analyze/reduce data/results as needed.
• Conduct personal research. Become an active user of the Observatory instruments to contribute to the scientific life at the Observatory. Participate in outreach activities such as giving public talks, tours of the facility, and attending colloquia. Submit research proposals to outside funding agencies as principal investigator (PI) or on research grants/contracts.
• Monitor and report on science operations. Lead operations meetings. Oversee HET Observing Metrics and report to the HET Board, Time Allocation Committees, and Users Committee on HET science operations performance and time usage.
• Conduct night operations. Serve as a resident astronomer approximately two nights per month, or as needed, in the night operations team to conduct science observations on behalf of HET users, using facility instruments and based upon queue priorities, weather conditions, and facility constraints. In addition, also maintains a working understanding of the essential duties of the Telescope Operator position, including stacking and acquiring targets.
• Supervise HET night-time operations staff. Manage projects to improve operations. Monitor and evaluate work performance. Supervise training.
• Conduct projects to improve HET operations and/or add new capabilities or features. Projects may include theoretical work, documentation, hardware, and software projects, depending on the candidate's skill set.
• Conduct daytime operations. Support daytime engineering testing, including instrument commissioning tests as needed and daily telescope functional tests on a rotation basis.
• Observatory operations. Participate in observatory-wide duties and serve as deputy facility manager.
• Perform other duties as assigned to meet business needs. Keep accurate and updated time sheets and complete required training and paperwork. Staff living on-site in the residential community are considered essential employees as determined by the HET Facility Manager and the Observatory Superintendent. They will be required to serve on the Observatory Emergency Response team “ERT" and perform tasks to help respond to emergencies, such as fire, medical, hazardous material, or other emergencies threatening or interfering with the facility's normal operations.

For additional information and to apply: HET Science Operations Manager

Purpose

This position performs electrical engineering tasks on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope's (HET) equipment and facility infrastructure, with a wide latitude for independent action and decision-making. This hands-on position maintains, designs, and improves the functionality of electrical, electronic, electromechanical, and electro-optical subsystems on the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) to achieve McDonald Observatory's scientific goals. The position reports to the HET Electrical Engineer Manager at McDonald Observatory.

Responsibilities

• Engineering. Conducts electrical engineering duties that modify, repair, or reconfigure the HET electrical, electro-optical, and electro-mechanical subsystems.
• Team Collaboration and Backup. Works cooperatively and constructively with the HET and Austin electrical and mechanical teams on design, improvements, and preventative maintenance on HET electrical, electro-mechanical, and electro-optical subsystems. Periodically performs operations engineering and cross-functional duties.
• Planning Meetings. Attends and constructively participates in morning planning meetings, weekly HET staff meetings, weekly electrical team meetings, periodic technical and/or design review meetings, and other meetings as needed for an efficient and productive operation.
• Project Management. Provides input into long-term planning and technical direction for HET engineering tasks. Provides daily reporting of activities.
• Respond to Problems. Responds as necessary to night-time repair and maintenance calls from telescope operations staff.
• Other Duties. Performs other related duties as assigned to meet business needs. Serves as an essential employee, and acts as a member of the McDonald Observatory’s Emergency Response Team (ERT), responds to fire, medical, hazardous material, or other emergencies that threaten or interfere with the facility’s normal operations

For additional information and to apply: HET Electrical Engineer 

Purpose

To program, install, maintain, and support the computers and network of the Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET) at the McDonald Observatory with emphasis on designing and authoring new code, and maintaining existing code for the control of the telescope sub-systems. These efforts are part of continuing telescope development projects to operate and upgrade the HET as needed.

Responsibilities

• Serves as a programmer in the development of new software products directly related to the design and operation of telescope and instrument control systems. Also includes the upgrade of existing software in support of existing telescope hardware.
• Maintains existing software already in production, providing for the rapid resolution of software bugs identified by operators and site staff, continuously develops familiarity with all code bases.
• Serves in a broad-spectrum backup role in the event that another team member is unavailable; includes maintaining an active interest in other systems related to those directly involved in assigned projects.
• Linux system administration.
• Act as HET Operations Engineer as required in the schedule rotation.
• Respond as necessary to nighttime repair and maintenance calls from the telescope operations staff.
• Attends meetings and delivers status reports as necessary. Works directly with project scientists, engineers, and computing staff. Maintains consistent pre and post-incident communication with team members to ensure full problem resolution and project completion. Updates the content of both internal and external documentation archives, notifies users and staff to software changes in production packages, retains backup copies and version archives of software products.

For additional information and to apply: HET Software Engineer

Purpose

Provides administrative support to McDonald Observatory's West Texas operations, including procuring goods and services, contracts, inventory, accounting and reporting, and other administrative duties.

Responsibilities

• Administrative Support. Support the administrative and clerical operations for the Superintendent’s office and staff. Assists with shipping and receiving packages and mail and ensuring the proper recipients are contacted. Helps maintain site calendars. Composes and proofreads departmental correspondence. Prepares required documentation for special events and assist with special event staffing as required. Serve as backup to administrative staff and Astronomers Lodge. Maintains a professional manner and ensures confidentiality. Drives UT vehicles as needed. Performs other related duties as required to meet the business needs.
• Physical Plant Administrative Support. Assists the Physical Plant Manager and Technical Trades Supervisors with administrative tasks, including, but not limited to, purchasing research, fuel reports, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) reports. Provides quarterly account reconciliation reports to the managers. Performs radio dispatch, sends faxes, copying, scanning, and other job-related duties.
• Procurement. Serves as a point of contact for West Texas staff regarding University purchasing policies and procedures and ensures compliance, including the Superintendent's office, in coordination with the Austin Business Office. Procures goods and services for the Observatory's West Texas operations. Issues department transaction numbers and sets up vendor ID's. Obtains quotes, processes electronic documents, maintains records, and orders merchandise. Prepares purchase orders and ProCard purchases following University policies and procedures. Posts and maintains the purchasing database. Maintains department's ProCard and assists with the ProCard logs for the Superintendent's staff. Coordinates all information, services to and from suppliers/vendors concerning purchase orders. Coordinates and monitors all purchases through contracts between UT and the West Texas site. Develops relationships with suppliers and vendors to promote the availability of supplier resources to meet and exceed project needs. Monitors all purchasing requests and escalates issues with internal customers and vendors to appropriate managers.
• Inventory and Surplus. Responsible for over site of West Texas Inventory, including issuance and maintenance of inventory tags, database entry, and inventory reporting. Coordinates West Texas surplus, tracking the returns on spreadsheets, taking photos, arranging for vehicle and trailer usage to deliver to UT's Surplus site, in coordination with the Austin Business Office.
• Accounting. Prepares interdepartmental transfer paperwork for various event and lodging charges. Enters weekly deposits for the Astronomers Lodge. Prepares and processes payment vouchers for goods and services received at the Observatory in West Texas. Reconciles Mt. Locke West Texas accounts and prepares detailed monthly reports, including appropriate use of funds. Required to be an authorized signer on the local bank account.

For more information and to apply: Administrative Associate

Purpose

Provides custodial and grounds services for McDonald Observatory buildings, domes, and public spaces as assigned. Assists in custodial and uniform inventory, and ordering custodial supplies. Assist in staff training and special events setup and breakdown. Weekend and holiday work is required.

Responsibilities

• Custodial Services, Grounds, and Buildings. Responsible for general building cleaning, cleaning and sanitizing restrooms, maintaining floors, trash and litter abatement, and other related tasks. Responsible for raking granite and sweeping sidewalks in the Visitor Center patio and plaza areas, emptying all outdoor trash cans (mountain-wide), and general cleaning of trash in parking areas, fences, and grounds. After completing scheduled daily tasks, move to tasks that improve the condition of the facility: i.e., re-painting restrooms, changing light bulbs, cleaning otherwise neglected areas. Weekend and holiday work is required and will be rotated. Driving a UT vehicle is required.
• Work Orders. During primary duties, inspects buildings and facilities for maintenance issues. Interfaces with building occupants and listens to and receives concerns about buildings, grounds, or services. Reports issues or any obvious repairs needed to a building or equipment using the work order system and provides additional details to Physical Plant management as required.
• Inventory. On a rotational schedule, tracking inventory of custodial supplies and relaying ordering needs to the purchaser. Anticipates needs based on calendar cycles and for special events, ensuring adequate supplies are available. May complete product research and make purchasing recommendations. Responsible for receiving and stocking supplies and completing associated paperwork.
• Performs Other Duties as Assigned. May participate in preparing areas for meetings, public programs, and other functions and perform other cleaning and maintenance as required. Assist with setting up special events, clean-up, and removal of set-ups. May be required to assist with the training of incoming or temporary staff. May attend Physical Plant management team meetings.
• Uniforms. Maintains a professional appearance according to local dress code. Responsible for wearing applicable personal protective equipment. On a scheduled basis, is responsible for inventorying Physical Plant team uniform and work boot needs and submitting order requests to purchasers.

Additional information and to apply:  Custodial Maintenance

Responsibilities

• Performs preventive maintenance and routine repairs on research equipment. Installs new or improved electronic instruments. Performs quality checks on telescope systems and research instruments to ensure effective operation for researchers.
• Designs replacement and upgraded electronics for telescope operations, research instruments, and other infrastructure systems. Collaborates with PIs to understand appropriate improvements to scientific instruments.
• Creates and maintains documentation for electronic systems applicable to the telescopes and research instrumentation.
• Coordinates the efforts of the electronics team to ensure the effective operation of telescope systems and research equipment. Coordinates work with other McDonald Observatory teams. Plans and schedules team assignments.
• Evaluate science needs, in some cases during commissioning periods, and conduct research and development to support new systems consistent with science goals.
• Supports science operations in the field, evaluating required changes to new and existing research instruments, designing field-expedient solutions in collaboration with PIs, and implementing them promptly to avoid operational interruptions.
• Troubleshoots electronics systems to determine the cause of deficient operation or failure. Devises new approaches to problems with electronic systems. Assumes responsibility for acceptance or rejection of new systems.
• Maintains a current knowledge of electronic systems. Develops new skills. Participates in training. Assists in the training of the electronics team members.
• Performs other related functions as assigned to meet business needs, including configuration change support, event support, etc.

For additional information and to apply: Electronics Engineer

Purpose

Perform day-to-day technical trades skills in the maintenance, repair, fabrication, and operations of a remote research facility, and perform skilled work in an electrical, mechanical, and HVAC environment.

Responsibilities

• Assists with carpentry and general residential maintenance, including but not limited to concrete work, structure repair, drywall, painting, appliance servicing, and plumbing.
• Troubleshooting, repairing, and maintaining commercial facilities' electrical and HVAC systems, residential structures, elevators, and telescope enclosure buildings. General maintenance on the telescope dome systems, infrastructures, and mechanical and hydraulic systems.
• Performs preventative maintenance tasks incidental to operating mechanical and electrical equipment, systems, and residential structures. Maintains logs and records on equipment. Inspects, lubricates, and troubleshoots equipment. Informs supervision of conditions.
• Assists with welding of mild steel, stainless steel, and aluminum, as well as torch welding, cutting, and brazing on various mechanical equipment and structures. Assists with fabrication and precision machining of metal parts and equipment using metal lathes, milling machines, and drill presses. Interpret three-dimensional assemblies from two-dimensional drawings, knowledge of material properties.
• Helps co-workers as necessary in their various disciplines in a team-oriented environment. Perform additional tasks as assigned. Drives a UT vehicle. According to UT policy, we maintain professionalism in interacting with the public, our fellow workers, and our appearance. Wear protective safety equipment and follow safety guidelines or procedures.
• Performs emergency services duties as assigned, including fire department participation, response, training, and related activities.

For additional information and to apply: Mechanic/Technician