Vacancy Notice: Head of the ALMA Department of Science Operations

Published: 16 Nov 2018
ALMA bird-eye view

For the JAO Department of Science Operations (DSO) in Santiago and the OSF in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, the ALMA Observatory is opening the position of

Head of the ALMA Department of Science Operations

The closing date for receipt of applications to be considered for the position is 15 January, 2019.  

The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) is seeking a senior science manager, with extensive experience, to lead its Department of Science Operations, which is responsible for the science operations of the international ALMA radio astronomy observatory in Chile. This is an outstanding opportunity to lead the scientific operations of the most ambitious ground-based observatory operational in the world today. The Head of the ALMA Department of Science Operations (DSO) is responsible for the management and leadership of the scientific program from data acquisition to data delivery, observatory calibration, and improvements to overall performance of the observatory. 

The Head of DSO will report to the ALMA Deputy Director and will be a member of the JAO's Core Management Team where it is expected that he/she will make key contributions to the strategic planning, policy development and implementation, as well as the overall decision-making at the JAO, ensuring they are adopted within DSO staff and procedures and monitoring their effectiveness.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

  1. Leading the team responsible for science operations outcomes, science program optimization, data quality assurance and monitoring, and associated budget and staffing.
  2. Delivering all JAO science operations outcomes
  3. Leading a high performance and diverse team and keep it highly engaged through the implementation of policies and best practices in people management, including professional development and training of DSO staff. Empower the managers and supervisors to create high performing sub teams, while maintaining the unity within the team.
  4. Optimizing and executing the science program
  5. Overseeing scientific data quality assurance, including trend analysis and fault investigation and reporting. 
  6. Monitoring the array status and providing science program requirements to the Deputy Director for integration and eventual implementation with the Departments of Engineering and Computing activities.
  7. Coordinating the testing, validation, and acceptance of relevant software for science operations. 
  8. Managing the DSO resources, including the budget, staff plan, and the allocation of staff to tasks and projects. 
  9. Leading an integrated team consisting of the science operations leads from the three regional ALMA Support Centers, which provide considerable portions of ALMA science operations. 
  10. Maintaining awareness of, and some active participation in, the research astronomy community. To this end, the Head of DSO will have support and a fraction of time reserved for active research that will depend on the applicant contractual conditions.

For more details on submitting an aplication to ESO, please see the full vacancy announcement on the ESO Recruitment Portal website.

Contact:
Email: vacchile@eso.org