Faculty.Professor.Research Assistant - Full-Time

The LINCC Frameworks Team at the University of Pittsburgh is seeking to hire a full-time Project Scientist who will lead the development, testing and deployment of scalable analysis pipelines to enable science on data from the next generation of sky surveys, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) and the Schmidt Observatory System. We seek computationally talented scientists with a background in astronomy who are ready to work with early adopters of these software platforms for this position, which will hold the rank of non-tenure-stream Research Assistant Professor. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. in astrophysics or a closely related field and a strong computational background.

The LINCC Frameworks team’s goal is to build analysis frameworks that can store, search, analyze and annotate data of the volume and complexity of next-generation data from surveys such as LSST. As a Project Scientist you will work with a team of software engineers to lead the development of one of the team’s focus areas such as scalable spatial analysis, time domain studies, minor planet observations, or photometric redshift measurements.

In this position, you will lead the development and application of astronomical analyses using the software, work with external researchers to design and implement their analyses, and train and mentor junior staff. You will be integrally involved in producing, critiquing, improving, and disseminating results. Throughout this process, software engineers and research scientists involved in the project will develop example notebooks, facilitate testing for specific science use cases, and provide user support to ensure the scientific utility of the products. Successful candidates should be able to further their own research goals via the LINCC analysis frameworks.

Interested candidates should provide a letter of application; a CV which includes lists of invited talks, of grant, telescope, and computing time applications, and of leadership and mentoring activities; a research statement; a publication list; and a brief statement of teaching and community-building interests and experience via www.join.pitt.edu by 15 December, 2026 to ensure full consideration; applications will continue to be considered on a rolling basis. Candidates should have 3 reference letters sent to Jeffrey Newman (janewman@pitt.edu) with the subject line LINCC.

This position is part of the LINCC Frameworks program, https\://lsstdiscoveryalliance.org/programs/lincc-frameworks/, which includes multiple institutions\: the University of Washington, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Pittsburgh.

For questions please contact Professor Jeffrey Newman (janewman@pitt.edu) or Professor Michael Wood-Vasey (wmwv@pitt.edu).

Compensation and Benefits

The University provides a comprehensive package of fringe benefits including medical insurance, life insurance, disability insurance, a wellness program, and a retirement plan through TIAA.

The University of Pittsburgh is an equal opportunity employer.