Astronomical Lead Software Developer
University of Alberta — Edmonton, AB, Canada
Posted 2026-11-02
This competition is open to all applicants; however, internal applicants will be given priority consideration based on minimum qualifications, or a combination of experience, skills, and abilities before external applicants are considered.
This position has a term length of 3 years.
Location - This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.
The staff member will join the research team building the Canadian Data-Intensive Astrophysics Platform (CanDIAPL; https://www.candiapl.ca/), an international, university-led team based in Canada. This manager will supervise the development of software infrastructure hosted on CanDIAPL servers operated with the Digital Research Alliance (Alliance; https://www.alliancecan.ca/) and the Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy (IDIA; https://idia.ac.za). This manager will act as lead software developer for the “Multi-Messenger Portal” component of CanDIAPL.
Primary tasks will include coordinating and overseeing software development activities at the University of Alberta, coordinating contributions with five other Canadian universities and international partners, developing uniform codebase through a central repository, and ensuring that all components are interoperable and meet scientific and technical specifications. The incumbent will also coordinate, prioritize and oversee the project's software milestones, feature requests and bug reports, and participate in the project’s management committee. Throughout this work, the incumbent will facilitate multi-site collaboration.
(70%) Software Project Deployment
- Analyzing, recommending, and designing highly complex software architecture;
- Reconciling business requirements with information architecture needs for highly complex system integration;
- Designing, testing, and modifying programming code;
- Evaluating programming code to ensure it has validity, compatibility, and that it meets appropriate standards.
(30%) Team leadership
- Leading and planning IT projects;
- Developing project schedules including milestones, critical path, timelines, deliverables and reporting;
- Coordinating tasks for projects and other strategic initiatives with stakeholders; and
- Serving as an expert resource to a group of professionals in the speciality.
- BSc in Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, or related field;
- Minimum five (5) years of recent and related experience in software development and software product management;
- Experience in managing and offering technical advice to a team of software developers;
- Demonstrated capability to develop software in the programming languages required by the project (Python and C++);
- Demonstrated experience developing and maintaining interactive web applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, including experience with a modern front-end framework and integration with back-end APIs; and
- Ability to translate complex scientific and technical requirements into intuitive, accessible, and responsive user interfaces, with attention to consistent navigation, visual presentation, and refinement through user feedback.
Application Instructions
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This position is subject to all applicable terms and conditions of the collective agreement between the Governors of the University of Alberta and the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA).
This position offers a comprehensive benefits package.