Astronomer Space Scientist for AI Data Evaluation Contract
Listing checked September 4, 2026 · pay as published by SME Careers
Overview
Join SME Careers as a contract astronomer and space scientist focused on validating AI outputs for space science topics. You will assess AI-generated explanations for accuracy, coherence, and completeness across topics like orbital mechanics and cosmology. Remote collaboration with a small team to refine prompts, model responses, and evaluation criteria that improve how AI communicates stellar astrophysics and planetary science. Your findings help guide the next generation of AI systems used by leading research labs.
What You'll Do6
- 1Evaluate AI-generated scientific outputs for accuracy, coherence, and completeness in astronomy topics, with emphasis on orbital mechanics and cosmology.
- 2Create challenging test prompts and calculations that probe research-style reasoning in stellar astrophysics and planetary science.
- 3Review and refine prompts, model answers, and step-by-step solutions detailing units, assumptions, and uncertainty.
- 4Provide structured feedback highlighting conceptual errors, faulty assumptions, missing constraints, and misapplied formulas.
- 5Assess model performance on data interpretation tasks such as signal-to-noise, uncertainties, and red-teaming for space physics and heliophysics.
- 6Help shape AI communication standards for scientific content, emphasizing clearly stated assumptions and uncertainty.
Requirements6
- 1Four or more years of professional work in astronomy, astrophysics, planetary science, space physics, heliophysics, cosmology, observational astronomy, mission science, instrumentation, or a related space science field.
- 2Deep knowledge of core fundamentals such as classical mechanics, electromagnetism, radiative processes, stellar and galactic physics, orbital mechanics, coordinate systems, time standards, statistics, and scientific modeling assumptions.
- 3Strong ability to sanity-check results for orders of magnitude, unit consistency, limiting cases, and error propagation, with clear communication of limitations.
- 4Bachelor's degree in physics, astronomy, space science, engineering, or a closely related field; master's or PhD strongly preferred.
- 5Experience with AI data training, annotation, red-teaming, or evaluating AI-generated technical content is a strong plus.
- 6Familiarity with Python, NumPy, SciPy, data pipelines, catalog queries, photometry or spectroscopy concepts, or mission datasets is a plus.
Who Should Apply
This contract role is a strong fit for scientists with four-plus years in astronomy or related space sciences and a solid physics foundation. A master's or PhD is preferred, and candidates should bring hands-on experience evaluating AI-driven content in technical domains. You excel at precise, quantitative reasoning, data interpretation, and communicating uncertainty clearly. Candidates without AI evaluation experience or without programming and data-analysis skills may struggle to meet the core requirements.
Salary Insight
Hourly rate: $100. This level of compensation reflects specialized contract work demanding physics expertise and AI data evaluation experience.
Pay and demand for AI Training roles
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Most AI Training roles pay $40–$98 per hour. This role's pay sits above that range.
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Compensation
Up to $100/hr
Required Skills
Application Tip
Showcase concrete AI evaluation examples from physics topics, including the prompts you designed, sample model outputs, and reproducible Python notebooks that demonstrate your validation workflow.
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