About Precision Federal
Precision Federal is a small business building AI, data and software systems for government agencies. The company’s founder loves God, and the company is built on Christian faith: every number we publish is real, every claim we make is verifiable, and the work is done with excellence as service to God. Faith is welcome here and openly shared.
How this role works
- You join the bench. You apply with your weekly hours and start time. We set your hourly rate from your résumé, and we may name you on proposals that match this role. If we don't win, you owe nothing.
- A contract is awarded. The award funds the team named in the proposal. Your engagement begins at the hourly rate we agreed on.
- You work remote, paid from the contract. ~100–500 hrs per funded award — and if no award ever funds, you owe nothing and lose nothing.
What you'll do
- Serve as principal investigator or co-investigator on funded research, owning the science case and the technical approach
- Review our data pipelines, calibration and reduction steps against how ground-based observations are actually taken
- Tell us where an approach breaks on real survey data: systematics, selection effects, photometric or astrometric calibration
- Check scientific claims and results before they reach the Government
- Point us at the survey, archive or catalog we should be using
Required qualifications
- PhD in astronomy, astrophysics or a closely related field
- Hands-on ground-based observing experience, from proposals and observing runs through data reduction
- Software development for an instrument, an observatory, or a data-reduction or survey pipeline
- A peer-reviewed publication record using survey data
- U.S. citizen or lawful permanent resident (U.S. person)
- Willing to be named on a federal proposal with a one-page resume, and to sign a short letter of commitment
Preferred qualifications
- Experience as PI or co-PI on a funded research proposal
- Rubin/LSST, SDSS, DES, Pan-STARRS, ZTF, Gaia or comparable surveys
- Astrostatistics: Bayesian inference, hierarchical models, MCMC or machine learning on large catalogs
- Python astronomy tools such as Astropy, photutils or instrument pipeline frameworks
Compensation & structure
1099 consulting engagement. $65–$130 per hour; we set your rate from your résumé and experience. Hours are funded by federal contract awards — this seat is scoped at roughly 100–500 hours per funded award, fully remote. Work and pay begin only if the contract is awarded — no award, no hours, no obligation.