Staff Scientist

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Job Summary

IPAC at Caltech seeks a full-time science staff position to lead the new Data Science Team at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). Come be a part of the team that is helping astronomers and data scientists all over the world access and explore IRSA's petabyte archives of astronomy data!

IPAC, part of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Division at Caltech (www.caltech.edu), provides science operations, user support, data and archive services, and scientific vision to enhance discovery with observatories both in space and on the ground. IRSA (http://irsa.ipac.caltech.edu) is the steward of scientific data sets delivered by NASA's Astrophysics missions. We enable ground-breaking scientific research using data from these and other missions. IRSA ingests petabyte-scale imaging datasets, maintains multi-billion row databases, and develops a variety of tools for accessing, visualizing, and analyzing data from cutting-edge astronomical facilities. We are also preparing to support upcoming astrophysics missions including: SPHEREx, a NASA mission which will conduct a spectroscopic, infrared survey of the entire sky; Euclid, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the geometry and nature of the dark Universe; and NEO Surveyor, a mission designed to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids that are near the Earth.

Team responsibilities include:

• Creating and maintaining Python tutorial notebooks.
• Designing and implementing tools for community use of IRSA's large data sets.
• Running data science workshops using IRSA-curated data sets and tools; and
• Providing user support (e.g., help desk, community forum, documentation) for the NASA Astrophysics Science Platform, a collaboration between HEASARC, MAST, IRSA, and Goddard: https://pcos.gsfc.nasa.gov/Fornax/.

Essential Job Duties

As lead of IRSA's Data Science Team, you will manage the activities of a group of IRSA scientists and developers who share the overarching goal of supporting community science with archival IRSA and other NASA data sets. Essential job duties include:

• Defining deliverables related to the development of the NASA Astrophysics Science Platform, in collaboration with external stakeholders.
• Estimating workforce, participating in hiring, and tasking team members appropriately to achieve deliverables on a schedule.
• Coordinating and strategizing with the other IRSA Leads and with IPAC supervisors.
• Participating directly in the activities the team is responsible for, as needed.
• Creating reports and writing proposals for NASA.
• Representing IRSA and IPAC to multiple stakeholders and the astronomy community.
• Conduct independent research.

Basic Qualifications

If you have the following in your background, then we want to hear about your interest in joining our team:

• PhD degree in astronomy, physics, or a closely related field.
• 4 years of post-PhD experience.
• Strong background in data science techniques and packages.
• Fluency in Python.
• Experience overseeing projects involving multiple team members.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Preferred Qualifications

Beyond the basic qualifications, there are additional skills and experiences which are relevant to this position. Any of the following might give you a head start here, but even if these do not describe you or your experience, we would still like to hear from you!

• Experience working in the cloud.
• Experience with Machine Learning.
• Experience with Open-Source software.
• Communication among diverse stakeholders in a large project environment.

Required Documents

• Resume.
• Cover letter.
• Curriculum Vitae and Bibliography.
• Contact information of three references.

Applications are due by November 8, 2024.