Staff Scientist: Extragalactic Data & AI Validation

California Institute of Technology; Pasadena (CA); On-site; USD 78,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health insurance

Retirement savings plans

Paid time off

Tuition reimbursement

Onsite counseling

Job summary

IPAC, part of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Division at Caltech, invites applications for a full-time Staff Scientist to work with the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). The role focuses on monitoring data quality across ingestion flows, validating data, and developing AI-powered tools to scale data quality across large heterogeneous datasets.

You will collaborate with scientists and engineers to accelerate data fusion into NED, respond to user support requests, and contribute to service

Qualifications

• PhD in astronomy, physics, computer science or a related field.
• Two years of post-PhD experience in astronomy.
• Knowledge of astronomical coordinate systems, nomenclature, astrometry, photometry, galaxy classifications, and observational techniques.
• Demonstrated experience in at least one stage of the production, validation, or analysis of astronomical data sets.
• Experience in computer programming.

Responsibilities

• Apply NED's current methods for locating, extracting, transforming, and integrating data into the system.
• Perform science-based validation of NED data, including vetting the results of automated cross-matching software.
• Develop new tools (e.g., powered by AI) for validating data quality on larger scales from heterogeneous data sources
• Work with scientists and engineers on the team to develop and apply new tools to accelerate the flow and fusion of data into NED.
• Respond to user support requests related to the scientific content of NED.
• Help design and validate NED services and interfaces to enable science use cases for NED data.
• Conduct research, including archival research exploiting NED's content and data synthesis.

Skills

Post-PhD experience

Coordinate systems/astrometry

Experience in programming

Python proficiency

Machine Learning/AI

Education

PhD in astronomy, physics, computer science or related field

Tools

Cross-matching software

Job description

IPAC, part of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Division at Caltech, invites applications for a full-time Staff Scientist to work with the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). The role focuses on monitoring data quality across ingestion flows, validating data, and developing AI-powered tools to scale data quality across large heterogeneous datasets.

You will collaborate with scientists and engineers to accelerate data fusion into NED, respond to user support requests, and contribute to service