Flatiron Research Fellow

Overview

The Center for Computational Astrophysics (CCA) at the Simons Foundation is recruiting Flatiron Research Fellows. Fellows carry out an independently directed research programme, encouraged to involve substantial collaboration with other members of the CCA and the Flatiron Institute. They also help build the scientific community by taking part in seminars, colloquia and group meetings, developing their software, mathematical and computational expertise through internal educational opportunities, and sharing knowledge through publications, presentations and software releases. Fellows may have the chance to organise workshops and mentor students through programmes including the CCA Pre-Doctoral Program, the CUNY Astrophysics Masters Program, the Simons-NSBP Scholars Summer Program and the AstroCom NYC Program.

Fellows can draw on CCA partnerships such as the Simons Observatory, the Terra Hunting Experiment, Sloan Digital Sky Survey V, Gaia, HIRAX, LIGO and the NASA SPHEREx mission, and join software projects such as MESA, AstroPy, Entity, Dedalus and PASTA. The CCA welcomes any applicant whose research would thrive there, and has identified several strategic areas of particular interest.

Requirements

Applicants must have, or receive before appointment, a PhD in a related field. They should be able to do original research in astrophysics, work independently and collaboratively, present their work inside and outside the centre, and communicate well in speech and writing. Expertise in technical elements of computational astrophysics is expected, such as algorithm and software development, computational or statistical methods, data analysis, modelling, machine learning, scientific simulation or theoretical astrophysics.

What you get

Positions are generally two-year appointments that can be renewed for a third year, depending on performance. Full-time annual compensation is $95,000, with an outstanding benefits package. Fellows receive a research budget for travel and visitors and access to the Flatiron Institute's computing resources, including two HPC clusters with a combined 180,000 cores, 600 GPUs and 60PB of raw storage. Subsidised housing within walking distance of the CCA may be available. The posts are based in the New York City offices, with start dates expected between late August and early October 2027.

Key dates

The closing date for applications is 31 October 2026.