Data Access Engineer

Department :

Physics and Astronomy-319000

Career Area :

Research Professionals

Posting Open Date : 01 / 01 / 2026

Application Deadline :

02 / 27 / 2026

Open Until Filled : No

Position Type :

Permanent Staff (EHRA NF)

Working Title : Data Access Engineer

Appointment Type : EHRA Non-Faculty

Position Number : 20072972

Vacancy ID : NF0009292

Full Time / Part Time :

Full-Time Permanent

FTE : Hours per week :

40

Position Location : North Carolina, US

Hiring Range : $51,000-$100,000

Proposed Start Date :

03 / 02 / 2026

Be a Tar Heel! :

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation’s top public universities . Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.

One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package , paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work / life balance.

Primary Purpose of Organizational Unit :

Our primary mission is providing instruction of the highest quality in physics and astronomy to undergraduate and graduate students at UNC-CH. Training in physics is fundamental among the natural sciences because it provides understanding of the forces governing the structure of matter, from subatomic particles to the large-scale structure of the universe.

Our departmental instructional mission spans all segments of the student community. Over 60% of all college graduates from UNC-CH have taken a course in our department. Among them : undergraduate liberal arts majors who should master the power of quantitative reasoning; undergraduates seeking a degree in another of the natural sciences, who need physics as a foundation for their advanced scientific training; the small number of undergraduates who major in physics, to whom we provide broad and rigorous training. Our graduate education and research advances frontiers of knowledge at the two extremes of space and time, from the very small) the realm of particle physics) to the very large (the realm of astronomy, while expanding the boundaries of knowledge in the many subfields spanning length scales between. Forefront physics and astronomy research requires access to well-equipped laboratories and extensive computing capabilities; it also must be supported by comprehensive and accessible library collections. Again, in research at this advanced level, the bridging aspect of physics provides basic interdisciplinary insight for many other sciences.

A strong managerial, administrative, and technical staff supports this instructional mission. Duties of these employees range from budget planning and management for the numerous research grants held by faculty in the department to maintaining course and student records. These activities are usually accomplished in a standard 40- hour week schedule.

Position Summary :

The Argus Array will be the largest optical telescope array ever assembled, with a collecting area comparable to the largest monolithic telescopes in the world. The Array will push our observations of the universe into a new regime, scanning the sky 100,000x faster than current nightly-cadence sky surveys. Argus will capture a continuous multi-color, 55-gigapixel movie of the night sky, shared with the entire astronomical community in real-time through public transient alerts, images, and light curves with millions of epochs for hundreds of millions of stars.

Joining our local team of astronomers, telescope-instrumentalists, and engineers, the Data Access Engineer will build software systems to get Argus data products into the hands of astronomers around the world. Three years of prototyping efforts have demonstrated the core pipeline architecture and built an archive of representative data; we are now working to build pipelines and platforms for broad accessibility that scale to the full array. This scale up involves integration with cloud services, existing distributed storage networks, and the Array’s high-performance GPU accelerated pipelines.

In collaboration with a worldwide network of real-time data release and processing centers, the Data Access Engineer will take the alert distribution system to production, bringing streaming notifications and images of new and changing phenomena in the night sky to both professional and amateur astronomers alike. As Data Access Engineer, you will also oversee periodic data releases of our trillion-point light curves, establishing best practices for data versioning, integrity, and accessibility. Other responsibilities will include contributing to collaborative development of intuitive, API-first user interfaces for both internal quality assurance and public data access.

Our project management philosophy emphasizes a small and local team; flat management structure; and a highly collaborative working environment. We routinely produce and test prototypes and complex hardware in-house. While you will lead the data access systems, team members frequently collaborate across boundaries and contribute hands-on to various Argus hardware and software subsystems.

Minimum Education and Experience Requirements :

Relevant post-Baccalaureate degree required (or foreign degree equivalent); for candidates demonstrating comparable independent research productivity, will accept a relevant Bachelor’s degree (or foreign degree equivalent) and 3 or more years of relevant experience in substitution. May require terminal degree and licensure.

Required Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience :

We are searching for an engineer with deep Python expertise (5+ years) and demonstrated success in designing and optimizing high-throughput, distributed message systems (3+ years). Experience with large software projects, including proficiency across the software development lifecycle (version control, documentation, and testing) is required.

Preferred Qualifications, Competencies, and Experience :

Experience with both cloud-based relational databases (PostgreSQL and Apache Kafka or equivalents) and time-series databases optimized for astronomical data storage and retrieval is preferred. Prior experience translating scientific requirements into technical specifications and building researcher-friendly interfaces for complex datasets.

Special Physical / Mental Requirements :

Ability to sustain nighttime validations testing and monitoring (as part of a rota of qualified support personnel).

Campus Security Authority Responsibilities :

Not Applicable.