Phased Array Systems Engineer - Space and Astronomy - CSIRO - GovernmentCareer - Federal

First listed on: 21 January 2022

Phased Array Systems Engineer - Space and Astronomy

 

Acknowledgement of Country

CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation

The Opportunity

  • Innovative and collaborative workplace with fantastic flexibility 
  • Work in a world-class research & development precinct
  • Join CSIRO and support Australia's premier scientific organisation! 

The Technologies for Radio Astronomy program at CSIRO Space and Astronomy (S&A) supports Australia’s leadership in radio astronomy technology and infrastructure. We operate several world-class radio astronomy observatories collectively known as the Australia Telescope National Facility or ATNF. We design and deliver instrumentation and data-processing systems for our own telescopes, for international facilities, and even for space flight.

Your duties will include:

In your role as the Phased Array Systems Engineer you will provide phased-array beamforming and system expertise to the CSIRO Space & Astronomy team as well as external teams, developing innovative instrumentation for radio telescopes and satellite ground stations. 

You will develop procedures to calibrate the antenna array and dynamically update digital beamformer weights to track satellites in low-earth orbit. Electromagnetic (EM) models of the antenna array will be provided by other team members.  The Phased Array Systems Engineer will build  software around the EM models to predict beam weights and beam performance as a function of azimuth, elevation, polarisation, and frequency.

  • Working closely with antenna and signal processing engineers to optimise digital beamforming and calibration approaches for the array.
  • Writing software to evaluate predictions of the beamformed array performance in various scenarios and to calculate weights for the digital beamformer to steer beams.
  • Exploring and implementing spatial nulling techniques in the digital beamformer to reject unwanted radio frequency interference (RFI).
  • Working closely with hardware and software engineers to validate the digital beamformer and implement dynamic beam tracking to receive signals from satellites and null unwanted signals.
  • Conducting on-site commissioning measurement / verification of beamforming performance.
  • Contributing to innovation in beamforming and calibration across a variety of radio astronomy, space tracking, and communication projects.

Location: Marsfield (Sydney) New South Wales
Salary: AU$117k - AU$138k per annum (pro-rata for part-time), plus up to 15.4% superannuation
Tenure: Specified term of 3 years
Reference: 80203

To be considered you will need:

Essential:

  • A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in an area relevant to this position. 
  • Familiarity with digital signal processing (DSP) theory and techniques, such as FFT’s, correlation, linear filters, linear algebra, and demonstrated ability in numerical simulation of DSP systems.
  • Demonstrated experience and proficiency in programming, data manipulation, and visualisation using languages such as Python and C/C++.
  • Aptitude for system development, testing, integration, and verification in a collaborative environment under version control.
  • Ability to work effectively both individually and as a member of a collaborative technical team.

Desirable:

  • Experience in antenna array signal processing, preferably system modelling and/or measurement for beamforming and array calibration.
  • Ground station and satellite tracking domain knowledge including digital communications, modulation, coding, and link budgets and experience with associated hardware and software.  
  • Ability to  help model and measure the signal-to-noise ratio and bit error rate for the end-to-end signal path.
  • Practical experience with digital signal processing systems implemented on field programmable gate array (FPGA) platforms, including basic knowledge of hardware description language (HDL). 
  • Experience with radio astronomy systems including low-noise receiving arrays and associated digital signal processing systems and techniques.

CSIRO thrives on innovation; innovation that is harnessed by the diversity of the minds and lived experiences brought to our greatest challenges. If you meet some, but not all requirements, we encourage you to submit your application. 

For full details about this role please review the Position Description

Eligibility

To be eligible to work in CSIRO you must be an Australian Citizen, Permanent Resident or hold a valid working visa.

The successful applicant will be required to obtain and provide a National Police Check or equivalent. Additional integrity checks may be required for specific roles which require security clearance for working with children, Australian Government cybersecurity requirements or other identified security roles.

Flexible Working Arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. 

Diversity and Inclusion

We are working hard to recruit people representing the diversity across our society, and ensure that all our people feel supported to do their best work and feel empowered to let their ideas flourish. 

About CSIRO

At CSIRO Australia's national science agency, we solve the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. We put the safety and wellbeing of our people above all else and earn trust everywhere because we only deal in facts. We collaborate widely and generously and deliver solutions with real impact. 

Join us and start creating tomorrow today!

How to Apply

Please apply on-line and provide a cover letter and CV that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role.

Applications Close

13th February 2022, 11:00pm AEST