Scalzo, RichardYuan, FangChildress, Michael J.Moller, AnaisSchmidt, BrianTucker, Brad E.Zhang, BonnieAstier, PierreBetoule, MarcRegnault, Nicolas2017-08-012017-08-011323-3580http://hdl.handle.net/1885/122862The SkyMapper 1.3 m telescope at Siding Spring Observatory has now begun regular operations. Alongside the Southern Sky Survey, a comprehensive digital survey of the entire southern sky, SkyMapper will carry out a search for supernovae and other transients. The search strategy, covering a total footprint area of ~2000 deg2 with a cadence of $\leq 5$ days, is optimised for discovery and follow-up of low-redshift type Ia supernovae to constrain cosmic expansion and peculiar velocities. We describe the search operations and infrastructure, including a parallelised software pipeline to discover variable objects in difference imaging; simulations of the performance of the survey over its lifetime; public access to discovered transients; and some first results from the Science Verification data.Parts of this research were conducted by the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (CAASTRO), through project number CE110001020. RS and CW acknowledge support from ARC Laureate Grant FL0992131. This research was made possible through the use of the AAVSO Photometric Allsky Survey (APASS), funded by the Robert Martin Ayers Sciences Fund.13 pagesapplication/pdf© Astronomical Society of Australia 2017; published by Cambridge University Press.2017-02-1810.1017/pasa.2017.24