Postdoctoral Research Scientist; Data Science

Applications Close: 17 November 2026

Salary: £39,000 to £46,500 per annum, depending on qualifications and experience

Contract Length:
This is a full-time post until 30 August 2028, with potential for a further 18-month extension depending on funding

We’re looking for a Postdoctoral Research Scientist position in the Hildebrand group at the Quadram Institute.

Poor mental health is a major global health challenge, and growing evidence points to interactions between diet, lifestyle, the gut microbiome and mental wellbeing. This project will investigate their interaction using large-scale cohort data.

Within NUTRIMIND standardised data from >20 European cohorts is being generated, covering dietary intake, metagenomics, metabolomics and mental-health measures. The successful applicant will integrate and analysing these datasets to identify reproducible relationships between data layers, including:

• harmonising heterogeneous dietary, microbiome, metabolomic and mental-health datasets;
• reproducible statistical analysis workflows for longitudinal and multi-omics datasets;
• causal-inference analysis to understand the role of gut microbiomes;
• using validated machine-learning models to develop robust health predictions across cohorts.

Building on previous work from the group (doi:
10.1016/j.chom., doi:
10.1038/s-5, doi:
10.1016/j.chom.), the project will investigate microbial communities associated with specific foods and identify bacterial strains and genes associated with diet–microbiome–mental-health relationships. These analyses will help identify candidate mechanisms and potential avenues for future personalised approaches to supporting mental wellbeing.

Part of the role is to also contribute to the Flavour Ferm project in analysing microbial communities involved in food-fermentation and subsequent gastrointestinal digestion.

The successful applicant will work across the Hildebrand and Traka groups.

Prof Falk Hildebrand studies the diversity, interactions and evolution of microbial communities using high-resolution metagenomics, microbial ecology and custom bioinformatic software. Dr Maria Traka leads the UK Food & Nutrition National Bioscience Research Infrastructure, researching data-driven food and nutrition.

The position will involve close collaboration with researchers across Europe, including participation in consortium workshops, meetings and related international activities. International travel is therefore an integral part of the role.

The ideal candidate will hold a PhD (or equivalent) in bioinformatics or related. Experience with microbiome data analysis, numerical ecology, neuroscience, machine learning, statistical modelling, mediation analysis, metabolomics would be advantageous. Skills in programming languages (R, Python or comparable) are important. We welcome applicants with different combinations of these skills. Specialised methods and project-specific expertise will be developed through mentorship, training and collaboration within the group and consortium.

This is a full-time post until 30 August 2028, with potential for a further 18-month extension depending on funding.

Salary on appointment will be within the range £39,000 to £46,500 per annum, depending on qualifications and experience. A starting salary of £40,100 is guaranteed for candidates who can evidence their PhD certificate at appointment; those awaiting confirmation of their PhD award will be appointed at £39,000 until evidence is provided.

This role meets the criteria for a visa application, and we encourage all qualified candidates to apply.

We are committed to equal opportunities and welcome applications from all…