Job Summary

IPAC at Caltech is seeking a full-time, one-year term, post-baccalaureate researcher position to investigate and implement strategies for leveraging large language models (LLMs) to help users navigate the many mission data sets and data services offered by the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA), with applicability to other IPAC archives in mind. Come be 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 a steward of scientific data sets delivered by NASA’s Astrophysics missions. We enable transformative 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 support space observatories including SPHEREx, a NASA mission conducting an infrared, spectroscopic survey of the entire sky; Euclid, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission studying the geometry and nature of the dark Universe; and NEO Surveyor, an upcoming mission designed to discover and characterize potentially hazardous asteroids that have close approaches to the Earth.

Essential Job Duties

You will work within a small team to investigate strategies for leveraging LLMs to provide assistance to users of IRSA data and tools. These investigations will include developing proofs of concepts in Python, the development of a testing suite of user questions, and evaluating different implementations against this testing suite. You will present the results of these investigations within the team and within the larger IPAC community to those interested in adopting these strategies. Your day-to-day activities will include coding in Python, interacting with scientists and software engineers, reading and writing technical documentation, assessing quantitative and qualitative performance of models, and summarizing and presenting findings.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor’s or equivalent degree in a technical subject such as Astronomy, Physics, Math, Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Sciences, or a related field.
Experience with large language models (LLMs).
Fluency in Python.
Strong communication and writing skills.
Preferred Qualifications

Experience with astronomical data sets is advantageous, but not required.
Experience with APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) is advantageous, but not required.
Required Documents

Resume listing relevant experience and qualifications.
Cover letter describing your interest in and fit for the position.
The expected start date for this role is mid-March 2026. This is a full-time, one-year term position. The application deadline is February 2, 2026.

Life at IPAC

People choose to work at IPAC for many reasons, and the casual, employee-centric culture often leads to fulfilling, long-term careers and positive relationships. Caltech’s benefits program offers a quality, competitive benefits package that is affordable for you and the Institute. We also offer a 403(b) defined contribution plan to eligible staff as well as a Voluntary Retirement Savings (TDA) Plan. IPAC staff have access to the Institute’s facilities, including the athletic center, libraries, on-site daycare, professional development and enrichment classes, and Athenaeum club membership.

Hiring Range
$20.00 – $28.00 Per Hour

The salary of the finalist(s) selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, specialty and training.

As one of the largest employers in Pasadena, CA, Caltech is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, and more. Non-benefit eligible employees will have access to some benefits such as onsite counseling and sick time. Learn more about our benefits and staff perks.

EEO Statement
We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Caltech is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

To read more Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) go to eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf.

Disability Accommodations
Caltech complies with the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants and employees to perform the essential functions of a position.

If you would like to request an accommodation to complete this application, interview, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please contact Caltech Recruiting at [email protected].

Additionally, if you do not meet the basic qualifications of a role but believe you can perform the essential functions of the job with reasonable accommodation, please reach out to Caltech Recruiting at [email protected].

Job Summary
IPAC at Caltech is looking for a developer for RAPID pipeline team. As a part of the Physics, Math, and Astronomy Division at Caltech, IPAC (www.ipac.caltech.edu) provides science operations, user support, data and archive services, and scientific vision to maximize discovery with observatories both in space and on the ground. We are partners with NASA, NSF, JPL, and the international research community to advance exploration of our Universe. Over our three-decade history, we have provided a range of support for more than 20 astronomy missions, helping each to bring forth major advances in astrophysics and cosmology. As a member of our RAPID team, you will enable scientists to explore the dynamic sky; finding supernovae, other rare cataclysmic events, variable stars, asteroids, and all other manner of time-varying phenomena from our solar system to the edges of the Universe.
Where You Fit In:
RAPID is a time-domain Project Infrastructure Team (PIT) for the upcoming NASA Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope. The PIT is responsible for a low-latency pipeline to discover changes between observations, then alert astronomers for follow up with other resources. The pipeline will run within AWS, automatically processing observations on receipt, all without a human in the loop. The PIT will also provide associated resources and services to international community, such as historical light-curves of variable sources, and an on-demand forced-photometry service. The developer will help write, validate, and tune the pipeline and services, working with scientists and engineers across several Roman teams.
Essential Job Duties
• Refine project architecture and interfaces.
• Write python modules for specific tasks.
• Validate performance of delivered code.
• Integrate modules into pipeline scaffolding.
• Deploy, maintain and tune pipeline in AWS.
• Communicate regularly with the rest of the RAPID team.
• We work a regular work week; however during operations you will sometimes need to support off-hours activities.
• We encourage continuing career education, and this position offers occasional opportunities to attend industry conferences and related training.
Basic Qualifications
• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Astronomy, Physics, Math or a related technical field.
• At least 2 years of production experience of Python code development and maintenance.
• Experience with SQL.
• At least 2 years of experience with Linux/Unix operating systems.
• Good written and interpersonal communication skills, with an emphasis on the ability to share ideas in a collaborative setting.
Preferred Qualifications
Beyond these basic qualifications, there are a set of skills and experiences which will add to your ability to contribute to the roles and responsibilities. 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:
• Production experience with AWS.
• Operation of multi-component pipelines, including batch systems, monitoring, logging and dashboards.
• Experience in automating infrastructure and code deployment, such as Terraform and GitOps.
• Familiarity with astronomical image differencing.

Required Documents
• Resume
• Cover Letter
• Submit Application via Caltech Website
Complete applications submitted by November 14, 2025, will receive full consideration, although review of applications will continue until a suitable candidate has been identified.
People choose to work at IPAC for many reasons, and the casual, employee-centric culture often leads to fulfilling, long-term careers and positive relationships. Caltech’s benefits program offers a quality, competitive benefits package that is affordable for you and the Institute. We also offer a 403(b) defined contribution plan to eligible staff as well as a Voluntary Retirement Savings (TDA) Plan. IPAC staff have access to the Institute’s facilities, including the athletic center, libraries, on-site daycare, professional development and enrichment classes, and Athenaeum club membership.
Hiring Range
$40.00 – $48.25 Per Hour

The salary of the finalist(s) selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, internal equity, experience, education, specialty and training.

As one of the largest employers in Pasadena, CA, Caltech is committed to providing comprehensive benefits to eligible employees and their eligible dependents. Our benefits package includes competitive compensation, health, dental, and vision insurance, retirement savings plans, generous paid time off (vacation, holidays, sick time, parental leave, bereavement, etc.), tuition reimbursement, and more. Non-benefit eligible employees will have access to some benefits such as onsite counseling and sick time. Learn more about our benefits and staff perks.

EEO Statement
We are an equal opportunity employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Caltech is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.
To read more Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) go to eeoc_self_print_poster.pdf.

Disability Accommodations
Caltech complies with the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). We consider reasonable accommodation measures that may be necessary for eligible applicants and employees to perform the essential functions of a position.
If you would like to request an accommodation to complete this application, interview, or otherwise participate in the employee selection process, please contact Caltech Recruiting at [email protected].
Additionally, if you do not meet the basic qualifications of a role but believe you can perform the essential functions of the job with reasonable accommodation, please reach out to Caltech Recruiting at [email protected].

To increase the scientific return from its space science missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) welcomes applications from scientists interested in pursuing research projects based on data publicly available in the ESA Space Science Archives (https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc).

The ESA Archival Research Visitor Programme is open to scientists, at all career levels, who are affiliated with institutes in ESA Member States and Cooperating States. All visits must comply with the ESA security directives, which may necessitate additional checks. Early-career scientists and PhD students are particularly encouraged to apply. We encourage applications from women and minorities. The peer-review evaluation process is anonymised to ensure equal opportunities for all applicants.

During their stay, visiting scientists will have access to archives and mission specialists for help with the retrieval, calibration, and analysis of archival data. In principle, all areas of space research covered by ESA science missions can be supported.

Residence lasts typically between one and three months, also distributed over multiple visits. Research projects can be carried out at ESAC (Madrid, Spain) and at ESTEC (Noordwijk, Netherlands). To offset the expenses incurred by visitors, ESA covers travel costs from and to the home institution and provides support for lodging expenses and meals.

Applications received by 10 November 2025, 23:59 UTC, will be considered for visits in spring and summer 2026.

For further details, including areas of research and contact information, please refer to https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/esdc/visitor-programme or write to the programme coordinators at [email protected]