Engineering Scientist Associate Full-time NEW

Engineering Scientist Associate

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the leading supercomputing centers in the world, supporting advances in computational research by thousands of researchers and students. TACC staff help researchers and educators use advanced computing, visualization, and storage technologies effectively, and conduct research and development to make these technologies more powerful, more reliable, and easier to use. TACC staff also educate and train the next generation of researchers, empowering them to make discoveries that advance knowledge and change the world.

This position will provide engineering and support services to LEARN stakeholders, from project planning to execution.

Responsibilities:

• Provide engineering and support services to LEARN customers and members.
• Plan, implement, and execute projects, including technical network design and detailed network documentation.
• Isolate and diagnose root causes of hardware and software issues, develop, and carry out plans of action for timely problem resolution.
• Provide second and third level network support for optical network issues.
• Troubleshoot physical and optical connections, and isolate problems with network interfaces, transponders, multiplexers, amplifiers, dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) line and client optics.
• Design and implement advanced configuration of network and transport systems, including 1Gb/s, 10Gbs, 40Gb/s, 100Gb/s, and 400Gb/s ethernet circuits.
• Design and implement co-location space, power, and copper and Fiber cable management systems. Installs and maintains Fiber optic cross-connects.
• Collaborate with vendors and contractors for product/platform evaluation, technical implementation, and planning, and procuring network products and services.
• Develop, implement, and maintain standard operational procedures and established standards.
• Interacts frequently with network, Fiber and service providers, other regional and national networks, content, and cloud providers, and with application and infrastructure providers.

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree + 3 years of experience with advanced service provider and WAN optical technologies, including advanced fiber optic networks, in house and outside plant fiber systems, and Wavelength-division Multiplexing (DWDM, CWDM).
• Proven working experience with Ciena and Adtran optical platforms, as well as other common metro and long-haul Ethernet transport platforms.
• Proven experience with network management and monitoring systems (ex: PerfSonar, NetBox, LibreNMS, Rancid, etc.) and diagnostic tools commonly used within the service provider networks.
• Demonstrated team‑building abilities, a proven record of taking initiative to resolve technical and logistical issues, and strong oral and written communication skills, including effective use of modern collaboration tools.
• Strong project development and implementation skills, along with demonstrated experience in creating and maintaining accurate network documentation.
• Prior experience working with research and education networks.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Familiarity with Coherent Detection and modem modulation techniques.
• Fiber optic troubleshooting knowledge and experience with variety of test equipment.
• Working knowledge of fiber and networking tools, including spectrum analyzer, OTDR, Chromatic Dispersion, BER test sets
• Knowledge of WAN routing protocols & technologies (ex: BGP, ISIS, OSPF, MPLS, LACP, LDP, VPN, VPLS, QoS) preferred.
• Knowledge of networking protocols, with a thorough understanding of TCP/IP, IPv4/v6 address management and DNS preferred.
• Familiarity with co-location and Internet Exchange point practices and policies.

Salary Range: $100,000 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions:

• Typical Office Environment
• Repetitive use of a keyboard
• Frequent travel (up to 40%) is required, including visits to existing and prospective member venues and LEARN sites across Texas, as well as attendance at regional and national meetings and conferences throughout North America. Some overnight travel (up to 20% annually) is also expected.
• On‑call availability to respond to and resolve network emergencies during regular and off‑hours, including 24×7×365 emergency support as required.

Required Materials:

• Resume/CV
• Letter of interest
• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor