Job Opening to Develop an Astronomy Curriculum for Data Carpentry

Datasets in astronomy are ever larger and more complex, and data analysis and visualisation is now essential for astronomical research, yet there are few opportunities for astronomers to become experts in working with these large datasets. An Astronomy Curriculum Development Committee (Azalee Bostroem, Rodolfo Montez, and Phil Rosenfield) has been working for several years, teaching and developing curriculum to meet that need. They have taught Software Carpentry workshops for astronomers at the American Astronomical Society (AAS) Winter meeting for the past five years and through surveys and working with the community, identified core modules that need to be developed to teach astronomers relevant foundational skills.

The Astronomy Curriculum Development Committee (ACDC) proposed the development of these modules to the American Institute of Physics through the American Astronomical Society, and were funded to develop new Data Carpentry lessons for Astronomy. This funding supports curriculum development work, adapting some current Software and Data Carpentry lessons to work with astronomy data, and developing new modules on core skills.

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We are hiring for Astronomy Curriculum Development!

This Astronomy curriculum development position will be hired through The Carpentries and the work will be guided by the ACDC. We are seeking a six-month part-time (20 hours per week) curriculum developer, based in the United States, to create open-source Data Carpentry lessons in astronomy in advanced Python, data management, and data visualisation.

The successful candidate will develop 3-4 self-contained Carpentries-style lessons on predefined topics of data organisation, data management, interactive data visualization, and publishing data for longevity and interactivity. The lesson development process will be supported by regular reviews by the ACDC by remote meetings and GitHub project management tools. The lesson developer will present the completed lessons for community review and incorporate feedback. There is possibility for the lesson developer to teach the lessons at a future national meeting of the American Astronomical Society.

See the full job posting and application form. Applications received before midnight Pacific January 16, 2020 will receive full consideration. In compliance with federal law, all persons hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in the United States and to complete the required employment eligibility verification form upon hire. We are not able to offer employment-based visa sponsorship for this position. We are not able to offer employment-based visa sponsorship for this position.

Please contact jobs@carpentries.org with any questions about the role.