Ever wanted to save the Earth from aliens? NASA has a job for you. The space agency is hiring a “Planetary Protection Officer,” and despite the Hollywood-sounding name, the job is serious. One of the main duties is to protect Earth from “organic-constituent and biological contamination”—in other words, prevent aliens from hitching a ride back to Earth. How will the Planetary Protection Officer do that? By ensuring astronauts follow NASA’s strict protocols for space travel and avoid contamination. With a manned trip to Mars possible as soon as the 2030s, this job is critical. Although no aliens have been discovered in the universe yet, many space experts think alien life will turn up somewhere in one form or another. John O’Meara, a physicist at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, says bringing back an alien organism could be devastating because humans might not be immune to it. “It would be the equivalent of Columbus bringing smallpox to the New World,” he says. “We wouldn’t be prepared for it.”