Student Assistant II - CIRRUS
Confirmed on the employer's own hiring board on Sep 25, 2026. First seen by Alion on Sep 10, 2026.
Position Type:
Term - Casual (Fixed Term)Visa Sponsored Job:
NoRelocation Assistance Eligible:
NoHiring Range:
46,675.00 USD - 48,738.00 USD*Final salary and rates are based on education, experience, and skills relevant to the role.
Application Closes at 12:00am MST on:
2026-09-26About the Role
This position works with the CIRRUS platform team within the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory (CISL) to support the team’s mission to deploy, operate, and maintain CIRRUS, a cloud native, Kubernetes based scientific computing platform spanning multiple bare-metal clusters at the Mesa Lab (Boulder) and the NCAR Wyoming Supercomputing Center (Cheyenne).While specific tasks and level of complexity will depend on the skill set of the incumbent, the primary focus areas are:
- Collaborate with the CIRRUS platform team and the scientific researchers who use the platform.
- Verify and validate platform workflows, new functionality, and supporting documentation prior to release.
- Improve the clarity, accuracy, and usability of CIRRUS documentation for an audience of scientific and HPC-background users.
- Develop reusable, repeatable workflows that validate new workloads onboarded to the platform.
This position requires a working understanding of Kubernetes and familiarity with cloud native tooling. The incumbent will work alongside more experienced teammates and will not perform platform administration tasks initially; the early focus is on workflow verification and documentation quality.
Job Description
Application Deadline:
- This position will be posted until 12 am MDT (at the beginning of) Saturday, September 26, 2026.
Required application materials: (preferably uploaded as a pdf)
- Resume
- Questionnaire - embedded in application
Background Checks: Conducted for candidates selected for hire. Learn more.
Work Location: Regardless of flexible work arrangements, UCAR requires ALL positions to be performed within the U.S., excluding U.S. Territories.
What You Will Do
Here is a brief summary of what one would expect to be generally responsible for in this role.
- Tests and verifies platform workflows, new functionality, and supporting documentation prior to release. Works through documentation as an end user would to confirm it is accurate, complete, and easy to understand, and provides written feedback and recommendations for improvement. Validates that documented procedures produce the expected results on the Kubernetes-based CIRRUS environment.
- Develops and maintains reusable, repeatable workflows that validate new workloads onboarded to the platform. Modifies and runs existing workflows, scripts, and manifests, and proposes improvements to the validation process. Documents these workflows so other team members and platform users can reuse them.
- Authors, edits, and improves CIRRUS documentation, including user-facing guides and onboarding material, for an audience of scientific and HPC-background users. Composes clear technical writing and may assist in producing technical reports, walkthroughs, or presentations on platform functionality.
- Develops knowledge and understanding of the CIRRUS platform atmospheric and Earth system science workloads. Gains experience with platform operations under the supervision of senior staff. Additional tasks may be assigned from time to time.
- Works under the supervision of senior staff with a moderate degree of independence in organizing assigned work. Recognizes and proposes solutions to moderately complex problems encountered during workflow verification and documentation testing. Possesses the ability to evaluate whether documented procedures and platform workflows function as intended and to provide clear oral and written recommendations to the team.
Who We'd Love To Join Our Team
Successful candidates will ensure their application materials speak to the following criteria:
Education and Experience:
- Must be enrolled (or intend to enroll in the next regular session) for credit in an accredited secondary or post-secondary school, college or university, or in a trade school that has received a Certificate or Approval from the Colorado State Board for Community Colleges and Occupational Education.
Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
Required:
- Knowledge of and proficiency with Kubernetes and container-based workloads.
- Ability to work with a team and convey technical concepts to engineers and platform users.
- Good oral and written communication skills, with an aptitude for clear technical writing and documentation.
- Ability to follow moderately complex procedures/practices.
Desired:
- Experience with at least one GNU/Linux distribution.
- Experience with at least one scripting language such as Python or Bash.
- Familiarity with GitOps tooling and CI/CD (e.g., Git, GitHub Actions, Argo CD, Helm, Kustomize).
- Familiarity with containerization and image building (e.g., Docker).
- Familiarity with observability tooling (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana).
- Familiarity with public cloud and cloud-native software development practices
- Familiarity with scientific or high-performance computing environments.
Preferred Qualifications
Hiring Hourly Rate: $23.81
*Final salary and rates are based on education, experience, skills relevant to the role.*
Application Requirements
Questionnaire, Resume/CVFor full consideration, all application materials must be submitted by 12am (MST) at the start of the application deadline. These should highlight how your skills and experiences align with the responsibilities of this position. We recognize that no candidate will meet 100% of the listed qualifications. If you believe your background has prepared you for success in this role, we encourage you to apply.
Supplemental questionnaires are often requested in lieu of a cover letter, where you address critical skills needed for the position. Your answers will be read and weighed equally to your resume and should provide specific, detailed, and informative responses based on your direct and previous work experiences.
Background checks and/or federal screenings are conducted for candidates selected for hire.
UCAR is an Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes applications from all individuals. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, age, sex, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Applicants are not required to provide age-related information (like date of birth or graduation dates) in initial submissions.
For sponsored positions: UCAR can sponsor individuals for H-1B status only if they are already in the U.S. in H-1B status or another visa status that allows them to change to H-1B status within the U.S. UCAR is unable to sponsor new H-1B visas for individuals who are outside the U.S. and need to obtain H-1B status through Consular Processing.
While UCAR does not prohibit the use of AI tools in job applications, we strongly recommend that applicants submit primarily original work.
All roles require compliance with U.S. export control regulations and work location requirements. All hybrid staff are expected to work on-site approximately 3 days per week.