Physicist / Engineer

The Max Planck Institute for Astronomy (MPIA) in Heidelberg is one of the world-leading research institution with about 350 employees from 40 different countries. The institute is developing instruments for ground-based observatories as well as for space missions.
We are looking for a Physicist / Engineer (m/f/d), Ref. 354 for the integration and verification of the adaptive optics sensor system of METIS.

METIS (Mid-infrared ELT Imager and Spectrograph) is one of the three first generation instruments for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) of ESO (European Southern Observatory). METIS is being built by an international consortium of scientific institutes. MPIA is responsible, among other things, for the adaptive optics system (SCAO).

The position is provisionally limited to 4 years. The starting date is March 1, 2023.

The position, focusing on AIV (Assembly, Integration, Verification), will complement a multidisciplinary engineering and software team developing and building the SCAO system. Specifically, the scope of duties includes the following:

• Assembly of the SCAO wavefront sensor and integration into the test cryostat.
• Assembly of the ELT telescope simulator in the laboratory.
• Functional testing of the wavefront sensor and telescope simulator.
• Support of the SW team in the integration of the RTC (Real-Time Computer) with the wavefront sensor and the telescope simulator.
• Test and verification of the overall SCAO system in the MPIA laboratory.
• Support for the integration and test of SCAO into the overall METIS instrument in the Leiden laboratory.
• Support in the preparation of ESO compliant documentation.