Position Description
Application Developer
Job Category: Fulltime Regular
Exempt/Overtime Eligible: Exempt
Benefits Eligible: Benefit Based
Caltech is a world-renowned science and engineering institute that marshals some of the world's brightest minds and most innovative tools to address fundamental scientific questions. We thrive on finding and cultivating talented people who are passionate about what they do. Join us and be a part of the diverse Caltech community.
Job Summary
IPAC at Caltech has an opening for an experienced Application Developer to manage the Data Systems development team at the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA). This is first and foremost a people-management and leadership role: you will supervise, mentor, and set priorities for a team of software developers, represent the team to stakeholders, and guide its technical direction, while the team builds the tools that let 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 the steward of scientific data sets delivered by NASA's Astrophysics missions. We enable ground-breaking 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. Current missions include SPHEREx, a NASA mission which will conduct a spectroscopic, infrared survey of the entire sky; and Euclid, a European Space Agency (ESA) mission to study the geometry and nature of the dark Universe. We are also preparing to support upcoming astrophysics missions including NEO Surveyor, a mission designed to discover and characterize most of the potentially hazardous asteroids that are near the Earth.
Essential Job Duties
As IRSA Data Systems Team Lead you will supervise a group of IRSA developers who share the overarching goal of supporting community science with archival IRSA and other NASA data sets, set direction on technical approach, and work with scientists and other stakeholders to interpret and implement project requirements. You will also lead the team through IRSA's transition of services and data to the cloud. Essential job duties include:
- Estimating workforce needs, participating in hiring, and tasking team members appropriately to achieve deliverables on schedule.
- Supervising, mentoring, and evaluating the performance of team members
- Coordinating and strategizing with other IRSA team leads.
- Representing IRSA and IPAC to multiple stakeholders and the astronomy community.
- Setting technical direction and reviewing the team's design and architecture decisions.
- Leading IRSA's transition of services and data into the NASA cloud environment, including planning, sequencing, and staffing the migration.
- Guiding the development of tools that help scientists combine, extract, and exploit information from archived datasets.
- Overseeing the operation of efficient search and retrieval mechanisms for IRSA's petabyte-scale, growing data holdings.
- Ensuring databases and archive content remain maintained and up to date.
Basic Qualifications
If you have the following in your background, then we want to hear about your interest in joining our team:
- Bachelor's or equivalent degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Sciences, or related field.
- Experience directly supervising or managing a team of software developers or engineers, including hiring, task assignment, and performance management.
- 8+ years' experience as a professional software developer in a Unix/Linux environment.
- Proficiency in one or more of C, C++, or Python.
- 2+ years' experience working with cloud technologies like AWS or Google Cloud.
- Experience using relational databases with SQL.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and leadership skills, with a demonstrated ability to mentor and develop staff.
- Qualify as a US PERSON as defined by ITAR regulations: A US person is a citizen of the United States, a lawful permanent resident alien of the US ("Green Card" holder), or an individual granted refugee or asylee status under US law.
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 of the IRSA Application Developer and Data Systems Team Lead. 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:
- Experience planning or leading a migration of services or data to a cloud environment.
- Expertise in Linux systems administration, database architecture and operations, particularly in a large data environment.
- Master's or equivalent degree in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Sciences, or related field.
- Experience with web server administration and operation.
- Experience with software containerization and deployment technologies, such as Docker and Kubernetes.
- Database design for large-scale data processing.
- Experience working with scientific data sets and use cases.
- Experience using AI-assisted coding tools (e.g., Claude Code, GitHub, Copilot)
Required Documents
- Resume
- Cover Letter
Application Details
- Applications are due by November 27, 2026.
- This is an on-site position at the Caltech campus in Pasadena, California. Remote workdays are typically allowed 1-2 days per week after training.
Life at IPAC and Caltech
Caltech is an award-winning workplace and one of the best places to work in the greater Los Angeles area. We offer an exciting and dynamic work environment, career development opportunities, competitive pay programs, great benefits, and the opportunity to participate in many campus programs and activities.
People choose to work at IPAC for many reasons, and the casual, employee-centric culture often leads to fulfilling, long-term careers and lasting relationships. We seek the best and brightest talent to join our workforce and become members of our community.
Hiring Range
Hiring Range: $131,800 - $172,000 Per Year
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.