"Technical Assistant in Physics and Astronomy and Research Facilitator for the Sciences"

Position Overview

The Technical Assistant in Physics and Astronomy and Research Facilitator for the Sciences is a full-time (1.0 FTE) position which provides Unix support for faculty and students in STEM and develops system administration standards for academic Unix systems. The position supports general computer activities in Physics/Astronomy and is a liaison between the Physics/Astronomy Department and Information Technology Services.

The position also provides support for faculty and students using the College’s high performance computing cluster and works closely with the Director of Systems and Infrastructure in Information Technology Services (ITS) to manage and maintain the cluster hardware and software and with staff from the Technology Support Group (TSG) within ITS regarding the process for computer lab management.

Compensation

The expected starting salary range for this position is between $66,700 and $68,900. Actual pay will be adjusted based on job-related factors permitted by law, such as experience and training; licensure and certifications; market factors; departmental budgets; and responsibility.

Essential Job Functions/ Responsibilities

Technical Assistant responsibilities:

• Manage and maintain Physics and Astronomy instrumentation computers, including specifying and purchasing replacements when necessary.
• Assist Physics/Astronomy students, faculty, and staff with computer applications for classes, labs, and senior capstone projects (known internally as “comps”).
• Manage and maintain Physics/Astronomy curricular lab computers, including collaborating with ITS in the design and testing of the base image, and installing software to customize the base computer images.
• Inform impacted faculty when campus-wide technology changes impact Physics, Astronomy, and Chemistry IT and computer needs.
• Be readily available on lab days during academic terms (Tuesdays and Thursdays) to support faculty and students when computer support is needed during lab time. Exceptions can be made in consultation with the Physics and Astronomy Department Chair, with advance notice whenever feasible.
• Stay apprised of current physics laboratory equipment and software compatibility to advise of future equipment upgrades.

Unix/Mac/Windows Administration responsibilities:

• Manage and maintain computational resources used for Physics/Astronomy research, including administration of servers, supporting redundancy and backups, and configuration of software.
• Support, maintain, and manage Physics, Astronomy, and Chemistry (Mac, Windows, and Linux) desktop computers used for research, including updating, adding/deleting accounts, monitoring services, writing routines, etc. as needed.
• Work closely and collaboratively with ITS, and in particular with the staff in the Systems and Infrastructure Group (SIG), to manage and maintain the cluster hardware and software.
• Support faculty and students (in any department, but primarily in STEM) who are using Unix environments, consistent with campus policies and standards for such environments.
• Document in a clear and accurate way support and maintenance work performed on all computers supported by this position using the established ITS documentation framework.

Research Facilitator responsibilities:

• Facilitate faculty and research students (in any department, but primarily in STEM) learning about the College’s high performance computing cluster, including visiting classes to share information about its capacity and availability and providing consultations with faculty and research students.
• Support faculty and research students who are using the cluster, including by maintaining (and writing, when needed) cluster documentation and providing onboarding training.
• Provide advice and support for data management practices, including understanding the full range of options for storing research data.
• Provide technical support to end users for external high performance computing resources such as ACCESS, Open Science Grid (OSG), and cloud services.

Additional Job Responsibilities

• Provide technical support for the geothermal distributed temperature sensing (DTS) data collection system by: specifying, acquiring, and maintaining the Windows PC that talks to the DTS unit in consultation with ITS; making sure DTS is in good working order, converting and migrating the data sets generated by the DTS to a form useable by Carleton consumers.
• Participate in the “embedded staff” cohort of technology-related positions across campus, as one way of staying informed about ITS projects and practices and a way to bring ideas to ITS and other technologists across campus.
• Stay informed of changes to information security trends and maintain a close collaboration with Carleton’s Information Security Officer to ensure that all network-based services comply with all campus security practices.
• Work collaboratively with ITS when developing solutions to support Physics, Astronomy, and Chemistry related technology issues according to the Service Level Agreement between Physics and Astronomy and ITS.
• Stay informed of new developments and changes in scientific computing.

Supervision Received and Exercised

This position will be supervised by the chair of Physics and Astronomy and will also get regular, at least annual, feedback from the Chief Technology Officer.

This position selects and supervises a student who supports Physics and Astronomy computing resources and projects and will perform student worker evaluations.

Education/Experience/Skills (supported by job duties)

Required:

• Ability to interact effectively with students, faculty, and staff.
• Bachelor's degree in a STEM field or a minimum of three years professional experience providing software/hardware support in a networked environment.
• A working knowledge of MacOS, Windows, Linux operating systems, including the installation and/or building of packages written in Python, C, and C++ to support faculty research.

Preferred:

• Experience with a physics lab environment.
• Experience with virtual machine (VM) management.
• Experience coding in at least one language, such as Python or C++, and experience shell scripting.
• Ability to learn other programming languages as necessary to support software packages related to faculty research.

Must have the ability to understand and follow written and oral work instructions, operations, safety procedures, and hazardous labels.

Note: This job description is not intended to be all inclusive. The employee may perform other related duties to meet the ongoing needs of the organization.

Review of applications begins immediately and continues until the hire is complete. We accept only online applications.

Carleton College is an AA/EEO Employer: We are committed to developing our staff to better reflect the diversity of our student body and American society. Members of underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply.

Carleton also offers a robust suite of benefits including: A generous 403(b) retirement plan with a 10% employer contribution and 2% employee contribution. Medical, dental, vision, life and disability insurance. Paid time-off, including 25 annual leave days, 8 paid holidays, and extra days at the end of the calendar year to make a continuous week off before New Year’s. Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for all employees. A dependent tuition program after six years of service.