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This article is reproduced from the article "Hispanic IT Pros" published by Diversity Careers in Engineering & Information Technology February/March 2014 edition.

Rafael Hiriart is a Subsystem Team Leader at NRAO

"I'm a mid-level manager," says NRAO's Rafael Hiriart. "Part of my time is administrative, but I also get to participate in the technology. I'm a sergeant, not a general," he laughs.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) is funded by the National Science Foundation and operates state-of-the-art radio telescopes that are used by astronomers around the world. Hiriart works at NRAO's Socorro, NM facility.

He joined NRAO in 2005 after spending three years with its sister organization, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO, formerly Kitt Peak National Observatory, Tucson, AZ).

He was born in Santiago, Chile. "I didn't have computer when I was growing up, so I first started learning about them at the university. But as a kid, I was always inclined toward science," he says. He attended the University of Chile (Stantiago), where he earned a 1995 BSEE. The electrical engineering program in Chile takes six years to complete, and Hiriart graduated with the highest honor of "Maximum Distinction."

"I began doing programming and liked it," he continues. "I liked being able to build something and see it work."

After graduation, Hiriart worked as a research engineer for the Mining and Metallurgical Research Center (CIMM, Santiago), working in electronics instrumentation.

In 1997, he moved to ENDESA (Santiago), Chile's largest electric utility company, working as a software specialist on the system that controls the main Chilean electrical network.

"I spent Y2K looking at a screen," he says with a chuckle. "They put me there so that if something happened, someone would be there to prevent a catastrophe. Of course, nothing happened."

Hiriart joined a startup called Ubinet Telecom, but soon decided he wanted to move back into programming. "At the time, Chile didn't have a very large technology industry."

In 2001, Hiriart volunteered to come to the United States to work for the National Park Service in California at Death Valley National Park, guiding tours and helping with archaeological surveys.

After six months, Hiriart returned to Chile to look for a job in IT. He started at NOAO as a software engineer working as a project manager for the NOAO Science Archive.

In 2005, he moved to NRAO as an ALMA control subsystem developer. The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), representing an international parntership among countries in North America, Europe and East Asia in cooperation with the Republic of Chile, is the largest astronomical project in existence.

"I designed and implemented the telescope monitoring and configuration database," he explains. "This holds configuration information for the whole telescope software and hardware systems." He also participated in the integration and testing of the overall ALMA software system.

Back in the States

After several promotions, Hiriart assumed his current role at NRAO as ALMA Control/Correlator Subsystem Leader. This position brought him to the United States.

"I maintain the development plan for the control and correlator subsystems, and coordinate the development and support activities for upcoming and already-deployed releases. I'm also responsible for maintaining and documenting the software architecture of the system, defining the necessary modifications to fulfill requests made by scientifc and engineering stakeholders."

Hiriart supervises a team of ten people. "I have one foot on the astronomical side and one on the engineering side," he notes. "My team includes astrophysicists, electrical engineers, computer programmers, and computer science professionals. It's also diverse geographically with people form Germany, Cuba, Australia and the U.S."

"So far, so good" is his assessment of his time at NRAO. "I feel this is a good place to develop a career. I'm working on things that I find exciting."

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