Outreach Astronomer

The ESO Education and Public Outreach Department (ePOD) is responsible for providing information about ESO's activities to the public in the Member States and beyond. ESO ePOD manages and performs public astronomy communication activities aimed at various target groups, including the media, the public, educators, the ESO user community, industrial partners and decision-makers. ePOD is based partly at the ESO Headquarters in Garching near Munich, Germany, and partly in Santiago de Chile. These existing outreach activities and the new ESO Supernova - Planetarium & Visitor Centre (supernova.eso.org) will make ESO an exciting global centre for astronomy outreach and education.

The Outreach Astronomer functions as the scientific "gatekeeper" for ePOD and ePOD's scientific image processing specialist. The successful candidate will be expected to conduct an internationally competitive research programme, and will have a significant fraction of his/her time to enable this.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

1. Scientific "gatekeeper" - Science Liaison;

• Evaluate scientific papers as possible press releases for their astronomical and astrophysical novelty and importance,
• Scientific validation: Ensure that the ePOD products are published without scientific errors or misrepresentations,
• Scout for potential newsworthy science papers.

2. Astronomical Image Production - Coordinate the production of around 100 astronomical outreach images/year from ESO, Hubble, ALMA, APEX and survey telescope data;

• Lead the acquisition of new outreach images with the ESO telescopes (through the ESO Gems programme),
• Supervise, and/or contribute to the work of the outsourcing companies and collaborators performing the data processing leading to final clean and dynamically compressed images suitable for publication.

3. Other miscellaneous tasks as requested by the Head of Department are possible. Examples may include;

• Miscellaneous Public Information Officer duties: production of English texts and visuals for a fraction of ePOD's news products such as press releases and announcements and occasionally stand-in for the primary public information officer during absence periods,
• Supervision of ePOD/Chile,
• Quarterly harvesting of the data for, and presentation of, a small set of objective metrics measuring the impact of ePOD's products,
• Special projects such as being the interface for the Paranal and ALMA webcams.

As a member of the ESO Science Faculty, the Outreach Astronomer is expected and encouraged to conduct an active astronomical research programme on a 50/50 basis.

Reports to:

Head of Education and Public Outreach Department

Experience:

• Strong broad astronomy background (to the level of being able to analyse if a paper in any astronomy field is cutting-edge or not),
• Good knowledge of the capabilities of ESO's and other observatories' instrumentation,
• Very good astronomical/data processing skills (imaging),
• Knowledge of the procedures for writing, submitting and executing imaging observing proposals,
• Good public science communication skills with proven experience in writing journalistic texts,
• Fluent English speaker with the demonstrated ability to write, edit and proofread English texts.

Key Competences:

• Logical thinker with excellent project management skills,
• Good team management skills,
• Precise communication and documentation skills,
• Effective and committed team player,
• Excellent written communication skills with experience in producing materials for different audiences,
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills,
• Ability to design and implement departmental procedures and workflows,
• Result-oriented, proactive, highly motivated and creative - delivering prompt and efficient service on multiple concurrent projects under tight deadlines,
• Good spreadsheet skills,
• Diplomatic skills are also desired.

Qualifications:

• Educated to MSc degree level in Astronomy,
• Desirable: A PhD qualification in Astronomy.

Language Skills:

• Native or perfect fluency of the English language.

Remuneration and Contract:

We offer an attractive remuneration package including a competitive salary (tax free), comprehensive pension scheme and medical, educational and other social benefits, as well as financial support in relocating family members and the possibility to place child/children in daycare.

The contract is for a fixed term duration of three years, and is subject to successful completion of the probation period. There is a possibility of extension(s) subject to individual performance and organisational requirements, and as defined in the applicable policies and staff rules and regulations. For any further information, please visit http://www.eso.org/public/jobs/conditions/intstaff.

Duty Station:

Garching near Munich, Germany

Career Path:

V

Application:

If you are interested in working in areas of frontline technology and in a stimulating international environment, please visit (<http://www.eso.org>) for further details.

Applicants are invited to apply online at <http://jobs.eso.org/>. Applications must be completed in English and should include a motivation letter, CV containing a publication list with a research statement. Also required are the names and contact details of three scientists familiar with your work and willing to provide a recommendation letter. Referees will be automatically invited to submit a recommendation letter. However, applicants are strongly advised to trigger these invitations (using the web application form) well in advance of the application deadline.

Closing date for applications is 29 February 2016.

Interviews are expected to start soon after this date.

No nationality is in principle excluded however, recruitment preference will be given to nationals of Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

The post is equally open to suitably qualified female and male applicants.