NASA wants candidate to protect Earth from alien invasion

NASA is looking to hire a special kind of candidate - one to defend the Earth from alien invasion.

No, we’re not talking about the plot of a new Michael Bay movie – this is actually happening. The Independent reports that the full-time role of Planetary Protection Officer will involve ensuring that your fellow members of the human race are not involved in inter-planetary contamination – as well as making sure that aliens don’t suddenly descend.

The pay for a such a jobseeker is a reasonable £141,000 a year, plus benefits. The job post reads: “Planetary protection is concerned with the avoidance of organic-constituent and“NASA maintains policies for planetary protection, applicable to all space flight missions that may intentionally or unintentionally carry Earth organisms and organic constituents to the planets or other solar system bodies, and any mission employing spacecraft, which are intended to return to Earth and its biosphere with samples from extra-terrestrial targets of exploration.”

It’s a three-year role, and candidates must possess a senior-level Government role already, as well as being well-versed in mathematics and engineering. The position requires “demonstrated skills in diplomacy that resulted in win-win solutions during extremely difficult and complex multilateral discussions”.