ESA/AURA Astronomer Opportunities

Space Telescope Science Institute•Baltimore, MD

13d•$115,000 - $160,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Astronomer positions are available at the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA). The ESA Office at STScI provides scientific and technical personnel at STScI as part of ESA’s partnership with NASA on the HST and JWST missions. The openings are in support of HST science operations at STScI, funded by the ESA Directorate for Science, through a contract with AURA. These astronomer positions are three-year term contracts, renewable, with salaries and benefits commensurate with those of AURA employees at STScI. This role is eligible for hybrid work and requires on-site presence in our Baltimore office. Astronomers spend 50% of their time providing functional support to the ESA-NASA partnered missions at STScI, and 50% of their time on personal research. Therefore, the successful candidates are expected to maintain an active program of research in astronomy, in addition to carrying out functional tasks related to the HST mission support within STScI for ESA. The ESA/AURA astronomers generally provide functional support to all major aspects of science operations. Functional duties usually encompass all activities associated with support of the suite of active instruments currently on board HST. These duties include, but are not limited to, support of the calibration, data reduction and analysis of HST data, on-orbit performance verification and monitoring of the health of the scientific instruments, direct support to the user community during the preparation, implementation and execution of the observing programs, and documentation. Efforts are made to suitably match the background and experience of qualified candidates to current mission needs.

Requirements

Ph.D. or equivalent degree in astronomy, physics, or related discipline.
Strong, established record of active, independent research and scientific publications.
Excellent technical skills.
Demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills.
Intermediate (or higher) level coding experience in Python.
Experience working with common Python libraries such as astropy.
Experience performing astronomical data reduction and analysis.
Experience with Jupyter notebooks.
Familiarity with object-oriented programming.
Familiarity with collaborative coding practices such as Github.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience in science operations of astronomical space or ground observatories.
Experience in UV or IR detector characterization and calibration.
Experience in data reduction and analysis of UV spectroscopic data or IR imaging/spectroscopic data.
Experience working with the HST ecosystem of tools and packages, such as the Astronomers Proposal Tool and Exposure Time Calculator.
Experience with the HST calibration pipeline.

Responsibilities

Provide functional support to ESA-NASA partnered missions at STScI (50% of time).
Maintain an active program of research in astronomy (50% of time).
Support calibration, data reduction, and analysis of HST data.
Perform on-orbit performance verification and monitoring of scientific instruments.
Provide direct support to the user community for observing programs.
Documentation related to HST mission support.