Staff Scientist NEO Surveyor

IPAC at the California Institute of Technology invites applications for an Applied Data Scientist to work on the Near Earth Object (NEO) Surveyor program. NEO Surveyor is a NASA Planetary Defense mission that will launch in early 2026. The NEO Surveyor observatory consists of a passively cooled 50 cm telescope located at Sun-Earth L1 equipped with a wide-field camera that will image the sky simultaneously in two mid-infrared bands.  Scientists at IPAC have access to Palomar Observatory and other research facilities.

As the Applied Data Scientist, your duties will include:

• Designing and developing software for the automated classification of sources extracted from NEO Surveyor imaging data using supervised machine learning methods.
• Working with NEO Surveyor scientists to validate, optimize, and refine all automated classifiers used to discover moving objects.
• Documenting the design and usage of software modules and their key interfaces.
• Documenting methodologies to validate the performance of the automated classifiers and update them according to changes in survey data quality or content.

The candidate will also be encouraged to plan and conduct an independent research program. 

For more information and to apply:

Visit the Caltech Career Center listing at

 https://phf.tbe.taleo.net/phf03/ats/careers/v2/viewRequisition?org=CALTECH&cws=37&rid=6258