Senior Software Engineer - Australian SKA Regional Centre (AusSRC)

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. 

Role Highlights

• Great opportunity to work at the intersection of astronomy and data science
• Collaborate with leading teams including AAO’s Data Central platform
• Use your software skills to support cutting-edge astronomical research

About CSIRO

As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.

Visit CSIRO.au for more information.

The Opportunity 

The Square Kilometre Array Observatory (SKAO) is a major international project to construct the world’s largest radio telescopes, enabling unprecedented exploration of the cosmos. To support the vast data output from these instruments, SKAO is working with national SKA Regional Centres (SRCs). The Australian SKA Regional Centre (AusSRC) is Australia’s contribution to this global network, delivering data infrastructure, tools, and support to the astronomy community. With significant investment from the Australian Government, the AusSRC is driving innovation in scientific computing and data management.

This role sits within the AusSRC team at CSIRO’s Marsfield site in Sydney, NSW, and includes a strong collaborative link with the Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO) team at Macquarie University. A key focus will be the integration and alignment of AusSRC systems with AAO’s Data Central platform, which is a national science data service supporting research across the electromagnetic spectrum. The team works in a highly collaborative, multi-institutional environment, contributing to a globally connected scientific infrastructure.

As a Senior Software Engineer joining this dynamic team, you will be instrumental in developing and supporting software components that enable seamless data access, processing, and analysis. You will work closely with both AusSRC and Data Central teams to ensure interoperability and technical excellence across platforms.

If you’re excited by the opportunity to build impactful software in a collaborative research environment, this is a fantastic chance to grow your career and we’d love to hear from you!

Your high-level duties will include: 

• Working together with project stakeholders, including SKA Scientists, Software Engineers, Data Central Engineers, and technical staff to determine their needs and priorities.
• Developing and maintaining software components that coordinate and manage the dissemination of SKA data.
• Participating in operational support of AusSRC by contributing to fault analysis and deployment of software components.
• Sharing your knowledge and experience, creating software solutions, and nurturing innovation by becoming a valued and trusted team member.
• Creating software solutions by exploring innovative ideas and approaches, and networking with science and engineering colleagues.
• Contributing to initiate and maintain collaborative relationships with external researchers and experts, manage contracts and transfer technology to industry.

Role Particulars

Location and office arrangements: Sydney (Marsfield), NSW

Salary: AU$114K – AU$123K per annum plus up to 15.4% superannuation

Tenure & work schedule: Indefinite; Full-time (preferred) – part-time and flexible work arrangements may be considered based on needs of the role and individual circumstances.

Reference: 100835

As the successful candidate, you will bring:

• A relevant Bachelor’s or Master’s degree, or equivalent relevant work experience, in Computer Science and Programming.
• Extensive experience developing distributed or enterprise software solutions.
• Proven ability to identify and manage complex problems and adapt quickly to changing circumstances.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills, including a demonstrated ability to liaise effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in a computation-focused science domain, such as astronomy/radio astronomy, bioinformatics, genomics, geosciences, control systems and their interfaces, or other related domains.
• Desirable: Experience and familiarity with formal software modelling and design techniques, cloud and containerisation technologies, agile software development methodologies and practices, high performance computing (HPC) systems, programming languages, etc would be highly advantageous.

For full details about this role, please review the Position Description. 

Not sure if you meet all the criteria?

While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don’t let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.

Setting You Up for Success

We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contact the Talent Acquisition Partner via email (see details in the Position Description) and let us know how we can support you.

Eligibility 

Applications for this position are open to Australian/New Zealand Citizens and Australian Permanent Residents.

Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.

Life at CSIRO and Flexible Work Arrangements

We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process. CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements, benefits and career development opportunities. To find out more, visit Careers at CSIRO.

Inclusion and belonging

Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.

CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.

Child safety 

CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy. 

How to apply 

Please apply online, and provide a CV and a detailed cover letter, responding to each of the selection criteria in detail, that best demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the requirements of this role. Please attach your selection criteria responses to your cover letter as one document.

Applications close 

14 September 2025, 11:00pm AEST

We encourage early applications as we will be starting to review applications as they come through. CSIRO reserves the right to withdraw this ad prior to the closing date if required.