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On the Human Health and Performance Contract we are at the forefront of safeguarding astronaut health, ensuring human performance, and advancing technologies for human space exploration. We are seeking a Spaceflight Data Scientist with deep expertise in Bayesian inference, Bayesian decision theory, and normative decision theory to contribute to NASA’s Mars Backwards Planetary Protection efforts to support the Statistics and Data Science team for the Biomedical Research and Environmental Sciences division at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, TX.
What You’ll Do:
In this highly specialized role, you will build rigorous, mathematically grounded frameworks that inform critical decisions regarding contamination risk, biosafety protocols, evidence-evaluation strategies, and risk-management tradeoffs for Mars sample return and human/robotic exploration. Your work will directly influence policies and operational strategies that protect Earth’s biosphere while enabling scientific advancement. You will help define the decision frameworks that safeguard Earth during one of the most significant scientific endeavors of our time. Your contributions will shape how humanity explores Mars, evaluates extraterrestrial samples, and manages biosafety risks across multiple mission architectures. This is a rare opportunity to apply high-level decision science to challenges at the frontier of planetary exploration, astrobiology, and human spaceflight.
This position is 100% on site and in person. Occasional travel may be required.
Primary Responsibilities:
Required Education and Experience:
Desired Skills:
Must be able to obtain a Public Trust Clearance; due to contract requirements, U.S. Citizenship or U.S. Permanent residency is required.
If you're looking for comfort, keep scrolling. At Leidos, we outthink, outbuild, and outpace the status quo - because the mission demands it. We're not hiring followers. We're recruiting the ones who disrupt, provoke, and refuse to fail. Step 10 is ancient history. We're already at step 30 - and moving faster than anyone else dares.
For U.S. Positions: While subject to change based on business needs, Leidos reasonably anticipates that this job requisition will remain open for at least 3 days with an anticipated close date of no earlier than 3 days after the original posting date as listed above.
The Leidos pay range for this job level is a general guideline only and not a guarantee of compensation or salary. Additional factors considered in extending an offer include (but are not limited to) responsibilities of the job, education, experience, knowledge, skills, and abilities, as well as internal equity, alignment with market data, applicable bargaining agreement (if any), or other law.