Euclid’s External Data observing programme includes massive ground-based imaging surveys such as the Dark Energy Survey, Kilo-Degree Survey, CFHT, LSST, Pan-STARRS and the Javalambre Survey Telescope. The Organizational Unit External Data is responsible for bringing the multi-band photometry and astrometry of these ground-based surveys into a common reference system for combination with the optical and near-infrared data from the Euclid satellite. The EXT team at OmegaCEN has delivered, together with the EXT team at the Max-Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, a qualified initial version of the software system for production. The coming four years, the international team will focus on developing the software system for data validation, improving calibration algorithms, performing system integration and extensive qualification runs using real and simulated ground-based data.

The appointee will be involved in:
Development of software for data validation
• support infrastructure: interfaces between databases and pipelines
• software for data quality assessment: automated and interactive
• implementation interactive visualization.

Astrometric calibration development
• algorithms
• processing code.

Qualification of software through iterative cycles of testing and improvement
• lead operations for massive data production and validation
• test data releases.

The appointee will be embedded in a team of two dozen experts in information technology and astro-informatics. The team has two decades of experience in this area with technologies used in the successful Astro-WISE (www.astro-wise.org/) system and has a leading role in the Euclid Archive System and the national Science Data Center.

We are looking for the following qualifications and experience:
• a university degree in astronomy
• experience with astronomical image processing and software in the optical or near-infrared
• software engineering experience: setting up and maintaining development environments for software prototyping and software testing
• affinity with databasing, detailed software design and data modelling
• mastery of Python, C++ and XML, affinity with visualization software, Jupyter
• proactive and independent working attitude
• team player, communicative, experience with distributed software project teams is a plus
• flexibility in dealing with different organisational cultures and structures
• prepared to travel several times per year to international partners
• good mastery of the English language.

Fixed-term contract: 12 months.

The University of Groningen offers, depending on experience, a salary of maximally € 4,274 (salary level 10 Dutch universities) gross per month for a full-time appointment. The successful candidate will be offered a temporary position of one year. After a positive performance evaluation this position can be extended for up to three more years.

Job application
You may apply for this position until 03 March 23:59h / before 04 March 2019 Dutch local time by means of the application form (click on "Apply" below on the advertisement on the university website). Candidates will be considered immediately until the position has been filled.

Unsolicited marketing is not appreciated.

Kapteyn Astronomical Institute

There is a vacancy for a temporary position for a scientific programmer in the Euclid Organisational Unit External Data (OU-EXT) within the OmegaCEN centre. OmegaCEN is the expertise centre for astronomical data science at the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute of the University of Groningen. The Kapteyn Astronomical Institute is the university’s department for research and education in astronomy, astrophysics and astronomical instrumentation.
The Euclid Mission is an ESA mission, with an optical and near-infrared imager and spectrograph to be launched in 2022 and aimed at studying the dark universe and cosmology. OU-EXT is part of the Euclid Science Ground Segment that delivers all space- and ground-based calibrated data ready for scientific analysis. It is being developed by a large international consortium including OmegaCEN-Kapteyn as a member of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA).
The Euclid OU-EXT team is an international team co-led by G.A. Verdoes Kleijn at Kapteyn Institute and includes team members at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich and Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics.