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Really depends what you mean by “a career in astronomy”.

Being a research astrophysicist at a university or major lab likely requires a PhD and (to achieve tenure) many years of postdoctoral experience.

However, systems like Rubin (which I have worked on) require complex data processing and management systems to make them effective. Building those doesn't require expertise a PhD astronomy — although some level of interest and enthusiasm certainly helps — but rather the sorts of engineering skills that the typical Hacker News reader might possess. Skillsets like that are increasingly vital as astronomy moves towards large-scale, data-intensive infrastructures like Rubin, SKA, etc.

That said, it's certainly true that taking your career down this path isn't likely to be as well remunerated as a career in commercial software development (although that varies a bit with geography).

Should you be interested, check us out at https://www.werkenbijastron.nl/ (probably mainly of interest to folks in Europe) or try the American Astronomical Society Job Register at https://aas.org/jobregister?f%5B0%5D=category%3A514&f%5B1%5D....