Curator, Assistant

Curator, Assistant

California Academy of Sciences

Founded in 1853, the California Academy of Sciences is a globally renowned, AZA-accredited non-profit scientific and cultural institution located in the heart of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Home to a world-class planetarium, aquarium, rainforest, research institute, and natural history museum—all under one living roof—our mission is to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.

Our living collection reflects Earth's vast biodiversity, consisting of nearly 60,000 animals representing over 800 species. Our research collections are the largest west of the Mississippi, spanning nearly 46 million plants, animals, fossils, and cultural artifacts from across the globe and throughout history. Our diverse team includes leading biodiversity scientists, educators, storytellers, designers, and communicators who are passionate about advancing knowledge and catalyzing action through science and storytelling.

Whether you're conducting research behind the scenes or engaging the public on the museum floor, your work will help connect people to the natural world and empower them to protect it.

Do you have a passion for arthropod biodiversity, collections-based systematics, and the next generation of natural history infrastructure? Are you interested in joining a team of scientists at a world-renowned natural history institution that is investing in genomics, systematics, and biodiversity monitoring at scale?

The California Academy of Sciences is seeking a candidate for an endowed curatorial position in the Entomology Department, housed within the Institute for Biodiversity Science and Sustainability (IBSS): the Schlinger Chair of Arachnology. We seek a scientist who takes a lineage-focused approach to questions in the evolution, systematics, and biodiversity of terrestrial arthropods, and who will lead an internationally recognized, collections-based research program that integrates traditional systematic and morphological work with modern genomic, imaging, and informatics tools.

We seek a systematic arachnologist whose research advances the discovery, description, and classification of arachnids. Candidates working across spiders, scorpions, mites, or other arachnid lineages are welcome. We are particularly interested in candidates who will work with and strategically grow the Academy's globally significant arachnid collection and its type holdings.

This position is expected to contribute to the Academy's signature initiative in entomology, Project BEACON (see below). Applicants whose research programs are currently based in public or private institutions, including museums, state or federal collections, or similar organizations, are encouraged to apply. We also seek candidates passionate about science communication, engagement with broad audiences, and fostering and diversifying the next generation of arachnologists.

When you join the California Academy of Sciences, you become part of a mission-driven community that values curiosity, collaboration, and innovation, and celebrates its accomplishments together. Staff share a commitment to executing a new strategic plan that will strengthen the organization's financial foundations, cultivate a vibrant internal culture, and foster smart growth to secure the Academy's future.

We hope you are inspired by what we do and are motivated to contribute to our mission. The Academy is looking for candidates who do great work, and we know they may come from a number of different backgrounds and experiences. We encourage you to apply even if you do not believe you meet every qualification for the position.

This position is based in San Francisco, California. The specific onsite/hybrid schedule for this position is listed below.

The new curator will join a collaborative, internationally engaged group of scientists in the Entomology Department, which stewards more than 17 million arthropod specimens. Among the largest and most diverse arthropod collections in North America, the Department's holdings include extensive material from insects (especially Diptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera) and…