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Contract Opportunity: NASA Openscapes Suborbital Team Member

September 30, 2025 - original posting.
October 6, 2025 - added “Ideal Canditate” clarification, thanks to several queries we received.

NASA Openscapes supports researchers using data from NASA Earthdata data centers (Distributed Active Archive Centers [DAACs]) as they migrate workflows to the Cloud collaboratively and reproducibly through open science. NASA Earthdata has volumes of remote sensing data collected from satellites, as well as substantial suborbital data collected from field sampling, airborne sampling, boats, and buoys. Suborbital science teams working with suborbital data via NASA programs currently archive data at several NASA DAACs.

We are looking for an experienced and well-organized NASA Openscapes Suborbital Team Member to support suborbital science teams by developing, documenting, and teaching reproducible workflows using computational notebooks. The team member will work with the NASA Openscapes community and deliver a Notebook Clinic to a cohort of suborbital science teams in early 2026 in support of Openscapes strategies, goals, and outcomes. 

This position is a part-time (20 hrs/week) contract. The contract may start as early as December 1, 2025. This is a 6-month contract likely to be extended further into 2026. The work is fully remote.

The Ideal Candidate has experience with NASA suborbital Earthdata, including data discovery, access, and analytical workflows.

Primary responsibilities

  • Engage with NASA suborbital science teams to help strengthen a cross-DAAC suborbital community, and to understand challenges and opportunities for open and reproducible workflows using suborbital data.

  • Collaborate closely with Openscapes partners at NASA DAACs, CryoCloud, and 2i2c to design lessons for developing reproducible notebooks (using Jupyter, Quarto, GitHub, Markdown) focused on data access, and analysis of suborbital data. 

  • Facilitate and teach clinics with a team, using open and adaptive facilitation techniques and preparing through synchronous online calls and asynchronous collaboration. 

  • Support a tutorial review process and tutorial cross-indexing (example: reuse and automation to support the Earthdata Cloud Cookbook).

  • Stay up-to-date with emerging issues and collaborate with the broader open community as it pertains to research (ex: Pangeo, #rstats, pyOpenSci, rOpenSci). 

  • Track, document and communicate stories and lessons learned; contribute to documentation for open source approaches, for example the Openscapes’  Openscapes Approach Guide, blog posts, talks, and report-outs.

Education and Experience

  • 5+ year track record contributing to successful collaborative projects, including experience:

    • Collaborating with diverse groups of people, including individuals and teams with different skill sets;

    • Following a project management plan and reporting; and

    • Communicating incremental work in progress to share with different audiences.

  • 2+ years of experience in open science or open source software. 

  • Familiarity with open source/science infrastructure (example: Jupyter Notebooks, Quarto, GitHub, Markdown). 

  • Familiarity with coding languages that researchers use (example: Python, R, MATLAB, Julia) is preferred.

  • Familiarity with spatial data, data standards and curation requirements that are critical to improving suborbital data stewardship 

  • Competency teaching in an empathetic, learner-centered way (example: Carpentries Instructor).

  • No specific degree is required, but a bachelor’s or master’s degree or equivalent level of coursework, training, or on-the-job experience is preferred.

Qualities and Abilities

  • A growth mindset to learn and to support others’ learning. 

  • Comfortable with open and adaptive facilitation of meetings and workshops online (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet)

  • Strong project management, including time management, work organization skills, and problem solving abilities.

  • Strong verbal and written communication skills and presentation effectiveness.

  • Strong synthesis skills and ability to summarize clearly, written and verbally.

  • Demonstrated ability to work in a dynamic environment with a high degree of flexibility.

  • Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team.

  • Fluent in English.

Diversity

We know that diverse teams build better services. Openscapes works openly as part of a global community, guided by collaboratively developed codes of conduct and anti-harassment policies. 

Work Environment and Location

We are committed to fostering a global and welcoming environment. NASA Openscapes is an initiative from Openscapes; our team is distributed and all positions are in a remote working environment. This position will collaborate closely with US time zones. Applicants in time zones that are +/- 4 hours from US Pacific time are preferred. This position may require occasional travel. All Openscapes work abides by our Code of Conduct.

Compensation
NASA Openscapes is an open source project transitioning into sustainability. We offer this part-time contractor position at $100 USD per hour (corrected rate on Oct 3). This is a contracted funded position for 6 months, that could be extended further into 2026. 

How to Apply

Please email your resume/curriculum vitae and cover letter as a single PDF to “hello@openscapes.org” with the subject heading of “[Last Name] for NASA Openscapes.” Please include a link to example open source software contributions, documentation, or tutorial materials if available. Your cover letter should address why you are interested in this job, why you’re a good fit based on the requirements and responsibilities, and respond to the question “why is user-centered support for changing workflows important for science?” . We are looking to hire for this role starting by December 1, so please share this opportunity and do not hesitate to apply. No phone calls or recruiters please.

Application deadline: October 26, 2025, at midnight in your timezone. We will not be reaching out to schedule any interviews until after that date.

Thank you to Creative Commons Open Climate Campaign, whose job posting was used as an open model for this post.


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