Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Pain Research Seattle Children's Hospital Seattle, WA,

Postdoctoral Fellowship in Pediatric Pain Research

The
Pediatric Pain and Sleep Innovations Lab
(PPSI) at
Seattle Children's Research Institute
is seeking 1-2 postdoctoral research fellows to begin in Summer/Fall 2026.This two-year fellowship program offers remarkable opportunities to develop a career in innovative pediatric pain research.

The PPSI lab is NIH-funded with a primary emphasis on prevention and management of chronic pain from childhood to young adulthood, including evaluating mobile and internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral pain and sleep interventions, understanding causes and mechanisms for the development of chronic pain, pain inequities, and the interrelationship between pain and sleep.

A primary component of this fellowship is contributing to the INSPIRE (Identifying Novel Signatures of Chronic Pain in Real-world Environments) project, funded by the NIH Helping End Addiction Long term (HEAL) Initiative. The postdoctoral fellow will be actively involved in a project involving biopsychosocial phenotyping of children with chronic primary pain and qualitative research to refine the content validity of a patient-reported outcome measure.

This position offers exceptional training in pediatric pain management and advanced research methodologies, including:

• Working with large-scale retrospective, multi-cohort data from EHRs
• Advanced biostatistical methods
• Stake-holder engaged qualitative research
• State-of-the-art measure development and validation

The fellow will also receive mentorship to cultivate independent research skills, manuscript and grant writing, and scientific communication.

The program is led by Dr. Tonya Palermo , with co-mentorship from Drs.

Rui Li andSee Wan Tham. Fellows will have access to numerous career development opportunities at the University of Washington and Seattle Children's Research Institute, as well as support to attend conferences. We encourage and support fellows in developing independent projects.

Our mission is to train and mentor the next generation of leaders in pediatric pain research.

Applicants must have: (a) completed their doctoral training in a health-related science (e.g., psychology, epidemiology, health services research, nursing, etc.) prior to the start date; and (b) demonstrated strong potential for an academic career in pain research. Experience with EHR/registry data, advanced multivariate analysis, machine learning, or qualitative or mixed methods research is preferred.

Applicants should send by January 10, 2026
: a 1-2 page statement of research interests, 2-3 letters of recommendation from mentors/supervisors, sample publications (1-3), and Curriculum Vitae via email (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below). Seattle Children's Hospital is an equal opportunity employer.

Information about the Pediatric Pain and Sleep Innovations Lab can be found at: