Specialty Trades Technician

Physics and Astronomy-319000

Research Professionals

No

09/08/2025

09/19/2025

Permanent Staff (SHRA)

Specialty Trades Technician - Advanced

NC11 / GN13

Specialty Trades Technician

20072942

P020525

Full-Time Time-Limited

40

Flexible

CHAPEL HILL, NC

North Carolina, US

$33,540-$80,000

To learn more about the pay band for this branch and role, please see the Career Banding rates spreadsheet.

Our primary mission is providing instruction of the highest quality in physics and astronomy to undergraduate and graduate students at UNC-CH. Training in physics is fundamental among the natural sciences because it provides understanding of the forces governing the structure of matter, from subatomic particles to the large-scale structure of the universe.

Our departmental instructional mission spans all segments of the student community. Over 60% of all college graduates from UNC-CH have taken a course in our department. Among them: undergraduate liberal arts majors who should master the power of quantitative reasoning; undergraduates seeking a degree in another of the natural sciences, who need physics as a foundation for their advanced scientific training; the small number of undergraduates who major in physics, to whom we provide broad and rigorous training. Our graduate education and research advances frontiers of knowledge at the two extremes of space and time, from the very small) the realm of particle physics) to the very large (the realm of astronomy, while expanding the boundaries of knowledge in the many subfields spanning length scales between. Forefront physics and astronomy research requires access to well-equipped laboratories and extensive computing capabilities; it also must be supported by comprehensive and accessible library collections. Again, in research at this advanced level, the bridging aspect of physics provides basic interdisciplinary insight for many other sciences.

A strong managerial, administrative, and technical staff supports this instructional mission. Duties of these employees range from budget planning and management for the numerous research grants held by faculty in the department to maintaining course and student records. These activities are usually accomplished in a standard 40- hour week schedule.

The Argus Array will be the largest optical telescope array ever assembled, with a collecting area comparable to the largest monolithic telescopes in the world. The Array will push our observations of the universe into a new regime, scanning the sky 100,000x faster than current nightly-cadence sky surveys. Argus will capture a continuous multi-color, 55-gigapixel movie of the night sky, shared with the entire astronomical community in real-time through public transient alerts, images, and light curves with millions of epochs for hundreds of millions of stars.

The Argus Array Integration and Testing Technician will serve as a key technical contributor responsible for the design, development, construction, and testing of a range of equipment for the array. The successful candidate will work with the project team to develop and implement quality control protocols, design custom mechanical systems, troubleshoot complex technical issues, and serve as a technical resource while supporting array integration and testing activities.

High school diploma or equivalency and two years of experience related to the area of assignment; or equivalent combination of training and experience.

Not Applicable.