For its Science Data Management Centre in Zeuthen, Germany, the CTAO Central Organisation is seeking two DevOps Engineers to play a key role in the team responsible for building the software for one of the largest scientific installations ever constructed.
We have an exciting opportunity for two DevOps Engineers to join the CTAO Computing Department’s Assembly, Integration and Verification team. In this role, you will work on the integration of the various computing systems – hardware and software – that will be involved in the operation of the CTAO. Your responsibilities will include integrating the control software systems of the telescopes with the Array Control and Data Acquisition (ACADA) system. You will also integrate ACADA with the on-site computing infrastructure and the Data Processing and Preservation system (DPPS) and Science User Support System (SUSS) with the off-site computing infrastructure. Lastly, you will participate in the integration of ACADA, DPPS, and SUSS with each other and the CTAO telescopes.
The successful candidates will be responsible for defining procedures to deploy and test the integration of the software systems. This will be done, first, in the CTAO integration and test cluster and then in the production environment. You will work closely with experts from the Computing Department and Systems Engineering and Integration (SEI) teams. The role has a strong emphasis on automation, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), and the use of containerization.

Your key responsibilities:

• Define integration and test plans for the integrated computing products, in cooperation with the Computing Department and SEI team members, and according to the overall CTAO development plan.
• Execute the integration and test plans, by deploying and testing software releases in the test and production infrastructures.
• Plan, develop, and maintain CI/CD pipelines, with a focus on automation of testing.
• Execute end-to-end and performance tests of the integrated systems.
• Carry out the verification of the integrated products, in cooperation with the Computing Department and SEI team members.
• Provide support to Computing Department and In-kind contribution teams to define or improve building, packaging, and deploying application code.
• Support the ACADA, DPPS, and SUSS teams to optimize the speed, efficacy, and output of the used testing methodologies.
• Deliver continuous and fast feedback to the software developer teams on the delivered products’ quality and compliance with the expectations.

Your skills:

• Relevant degree: Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Mathematics, or a related field
• Experience in configuring and deploying one or more CI/CD tools (ideally Jenkins and/or GitLab CI) and supporting a team of developers in the usage of these tools effectively
• Experience with one or more configuration management tools such as Puppet or Ansible
• Experience with system administration practices, such as provisioning and managing servers, deploying databases, security monitoring, system patching, and managing internal and external network connectivity will be considered a plus
• Familiarity with containerization and container orchestration (e.g. Kubernetes or Docker Swarm)
• Experience in coding and scripting, particularly to automate repetitive tasks
• Understanding advanced software development practices and how to implement agile development practices such as code reviews and using source control would be desirable
• Excellent problem-solving skills, with the ability to work both independently and in a team
• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Good command of the English language

You’ll be reporting to: CTAO Computing Coordinator
Your duty station: Zeuthen, Germany

• Define integration and test plans for the integrated computing products, in cooperation with the Computing Department and SEI team members, and according to the overall CTAO development plan.
• Execute the integration and test plans, by deploying and testing software releases in the test and production infrastructures.
• Plan, develop, and maintain CI/CD pipelines, with a focus on automation of testing.
• Execute end-to-end and performance tests of the integrated systems.
• Carry out the verification of the integrated products, in cooperation with the Computing Department and SEI team members.
• Provide support to Computing Department and In-kind contribution teams to define or improve building, packaging, and deploying application code.
• Support the ACADA, DPPS, and SUSS teams to optimize the speed, efficacy, and output of the used testing methodologies.
• Deliver continuous and fast feedback to the software developer teams on the delivered products’ quality and compliance with the expectations