Release Engineer - Software Engineer III-IV

Release Engineer - Software Engineer III-IV (111)

NRAO Albuquerque Office, 800 Bradbury Dr SE Ste 235, ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, United States of America •

NRAO Headquarters, 520 Edgemont Rd, CHARLOTTESVILLE, Virginia, United States of America •

NRAO Array Operations Center, PO Box 0, SOCORRO, New Mexico, United States of America •

Green Bank Observatory, PO Box 2, GREEN BANK, West Virginia, United States of America

Posted Thursday, January 22, 2026 at 7:00 AM | Expires Wednesday, March 11, 2026 at 5:59 AM

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is an exciting and prestigious research facility that plays a vital role in the study of the universe. The Observatory operates a variety of radio telescopes that span the globe, including the famous Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico, the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) in Chile, and the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA).

These telescopes are among the most advanced in the world, allowing astronomers to explore the universe in unprecedented detail.

The Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a transformative astronomical observatory designed to deliver science‑ready data products to a broad community of users. The Computing and Software System (CSS) is the backbone of this vision, encompassing all the software and hardware required to control the telescope, manage the flow of data, execute processing pipelines, and provide user‑facing services. The CSS is decomposed into several major systems, each with a distinct role in the data lifecycle, from observation planning to final data analysis.

The ngVLA project is committed to an Agile development methodology, emphasizing frequent delivery of high‑quality software and continuous stakeholder engagement.

The ngVLA project is seeking a skilled and enthusiastic Release Engineer to play a crucial role in delivering software to stakeholders early and often. This individual will be responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining the continuous integration and continuous delivery systems and (CI/CD) pipelines, ensuring seamless integration of various software components and efficient deployment of different software versions. This role requires strong software development and integration skills.

This role is essential for accelerating the development lifecycle and getting functional software into the hands of commissioning scientists, telescope operators, and other users for rapid feedback and validation.

This position will be located at one of the NRAO facilities in Charlottesville (VA), Socorro (NM), Albuquerque (NM) or Green Bank (WV). Fully remote work may be possible for a highly qualified candidate.

CI/CD Pipeline Development and Management

• Design, build, and maintain robust and automated CI/CD pipelines for all ngVLA computing systems spanning the entire observing lifecycle.
• Implement continuous integration practices, including automated builds, testing, and static code analysis, to ensure code quality and identify integration issues early.
• Develop and manage continuous delivery pipelines to automate the deployment of software to various environments (development, testing, staging, production).
• Ensure CI/CD pipelines are scalable, reliable, and efficient to support frequent software releases.
• Integrate security scanning and compliance checks into the CI/CD process.
• Maintain Git Hub Enterprise organization and services, including all variants of self-hosted runners.

• Collaborate closely with development teams from different ngVLA subsystems to understand their integration points and dependencies.
• Facilitate the integration of software components from various teams, resolving compatibility issues and ensuring smooth interoperability.
• Implement and maintain integration testing frameworks to validate the end‑to‑end functionality of integrated systems.
• Work with the Technical Infrastructure (TI) team to ensure proper networking, compute, and storage resources are available for integrated systems and deployments.

• Champion the…