Astronomer & Space Scientist

SME Careers is seeking Astronomers and Space Scientists to help evaluate and improve advanced AI systems on highly technical astronomy and space science topics.

This remote contract opportunity focuses on:

• Scientific reasoning evaluation
• AI-generated content review
• Quantitative problem solving
• Physics-based validation
• Technical accuracy assessment

Contributors will help improve how frontier AI systems understand, reason about, and communicate complex scientific concepts related to astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, planetary science, and space physics.

This is part of SME Careers’ expert network program for future AI training and evaluation projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Evaluate AI-generated responses for:
  • Scientific accuracy
  • Logical consistency
  • Completeness
  • Clarity

across astronomy and space science domains.

• Challenge AI systems using:

  • Research-style reasoning tasks
  • Quantitative calculations
  • Technical edge cases
  • Realistic scientific scenarios

• Review and refine:

  • AI prompts
  • Model answers
  • Step-by-step solutions
  • Assumptions
  • Unit handling
  • Error propagation

• Identify:

  • Conceptual mistakes
  • Incorrect assumptions
  • Formula misuse
  • Unit inconsistencies
  • Overconfident scientific claims

• Assess AI performance across topics such as:

  • Orbital mechanics
  • Stellar astrophysics
  • Galactic astrophysics
  • Cosmology
  • Planetary science
  • Space physics
  • Magnetospheres
  • Radiative processes
  • Data interpretation
  • Statistical uncertainty

• Help establish standards for responsible scientific AI communication, including:

  • Assumption transparency
  • Uncertainty communication
  • Limits of inference

Required Qualifications

• Minimum 4 years of professional experience in:

  • Astronomy
  • Astrophysics
  • Planetary science
  • Space physics
  • Heliophysics
  • Cosmology
  • Observational astronomy
  • Mission science
  • Space instrumentation
  • Related space science fields

• Deep understanding of:

  • Classical mechanics
  • Electromagnetism
  • Orbital mechanics
  • Coordinate systems
  • Radiative processes
  • Scientific modeling
  • Statistical reasoning

• Strong ability to:

  • Sanity-check scientific outputs
  • Validate orders of magnitude
  • Evaluate uncertainty
  • Assess physical plausibility

• Bachelor’s degree required in:

  • Physics
  • Astronomy
  • Space science
  • Engineering
  • Related disciplines

• Master’s degree or PhD strongly preferred

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with:

  • AI training
  • AI evaluation
  • AI annotation
  • AI red-teaming

• Familiarity with:

  • Python
  • NumPy
  • SciPy
  • Scientific data pipelines
  • Mission datasets
  • Spectroscopy
  • Photometry
  • Catalog queries

Additional Information

• No immediate active project
• Qualified applicants will join SME Careers’ expert network for future opportunities
• Flexible remote work
• Weekly payments once work is approved
• Referral bonuses available

About SME Careers

SME Careers is an AI Data Services company and subsidiary of SuperAnnotate focused on providing expert training data and evaluation workflows for frontier AI systems.

The company partners with major AI labs and foundation model developers to improve the reasoning, accuracy, and communication quality of advanced AI systems.