Scientific Computing Systems Engineer

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.

This position is in-person and located in Richland, WA.

LIGO Laboratory (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory) seeks a highly motivated and skilled scientific computing systems engineer to join its team.

This position is responsible for the curation, distribution, and supporting the analysis of LIGO scientific data. This involves maintaining computing infrastructure, participating in scientific computing, and managing the distribution and archival of data. The person selected will also have significant interaction with the LIGO Scientific Collaboration’s data analysis teams.

LIGO Laboratory is a U.S. National Science Foundation facility that, in 2015, launched the field of gravitational wave astrophysics through the direct detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Jointly operated by the California Institute of Technology and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the LIGO Laboratory operates the world’s largest laser interferometers; the most sensitive measuring devices ever engineered. Encompassing detectors located in Washington State and Louisiana and R&D centers at Caltech and MIT, and working with collaborators around the world, the Laboratory’s mission includes operating the detectors; data management and analysis; R&D to improve detector capabilities; research in the fundamental physics of gravitation, astronomy, and astrophysics; and public education and outreach. LIGO’s remarkable technology and achievements earned its founders the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2017.

For more information, please visit the Laboratory website at www.ligo.caltech.edu

Life at LIGO Hanford Observatory as a Caltech Employee
LIGO’s observatory in the shrub-steppe of Eastern Washington is an approximately 20-minute commute from Richland, WA., where it is located on the edge of the Department of Energy Hanford Site. Caltech employs a staff of 49 at the Hanford observatory. Caltech has an extraordinary science impact across many fields. Its small size creates a community where innovation and collaboration are the norm. Caltech manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) for NASA, the leading US center for the robotic exploration of the Solar System. Caltech also operates large-scale research facilities such as the Palomar and Keck Observatories.

The Tri-Cities (Richland, Kennewick, Pasco) is a rapidly developing community set in the heart of wine-country in southeast Washington state, where the Columbia, Yakima, and Snake rivers meet. The rivers and nearby Cascade and Blue mountain ranges provide ample outdoor recreation opportunities from water-skiing to fishing to hiking. The region is known for its contributions to science and technology in the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the DOE Hanford Site.

People choose to work at LIGO for many reasons, often with fulfilling, long-term careers. LIGO is a family-friendly laboratory and strives to ensure everyone is able to achieve the work-life balance they desire. Employees have access to a wide range of benefits including a child-care assistance program. Caltech’s benefits program offers a quality, competitive benefits package that is affordable for you.

Job Summary

This position is responsible for the curation, distribution, and analysis of LIGO scientific data. This involves maintaining computing infrastructure, participating in scientific computing, and managing the distribution and archival of data. This position will be a key component of both the local computing team and the international gravitational wave network analyzing gravitational data.

Essential Job Duties

• Support the scientific collaborations’ activities to process the data and run analysis jobs on distributed high throughput computing clusters. This involves working with students and other scientists in developing, running, and troubleshooting analysis jobs on both a local computing facility at the LIGO Hanford Observatory and on a globally distributed set of remote computing resources.
• Work as a part of the system administrator team for the LIGO Hanford Observatory with a focus on high throughput computing and data management.
• Manage the distribution of instrumental and derived data after acquisition from the observatory instruments to enable scientific analysis both in near real-time and off-line.
• Assist in porting scientific analysis pipelines to run a globally distributed high throughput computing platform.
• Other duties as assigned.

Basic Qualifications

• Master’s Degree in Computer Science, Science, or related field, or 6 years of experience in a related field.
• 3+ years supporting or using a high throughput computing environment.
• 3+ years supporting or using Linux servers (hardware and operating systems).
• Experience physically maintaining, installing, or upgrading computer systems.
• Must have (or obtain and maintain) reliable transportation to and from the observatory. 

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in Computer Science, Science, or related field preferred.
• Experience deploying and administering computing jobs with the HTCondor system.
• Experience running jobs on the Open Science Grid.
• Experience developing and supporting Conda environments.
• Experience deploying and running processing jobs via Linux based container systems such as LXC, Apptainer, or Docker.
• Experience working in an Academic or research environment.
• Experience with remote management and systems automation concepts such as Puppet or Ansible.
• Experience with software scripting or programming in Python. 

Required Documents

• Cover letter that summarizes your relevant experience and how it pertains to LIGO Lab, as well as your interest in working at LIGO.
• Resume