Postdoctoral Research Associate

Location: Department of Biology, Life and Mind Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3EL

About the role

The Kelly lab is excited to announce a new post-doctoral position in computational biology. This position is funded as part of an international consortium of scientists who are looking to improve the performance and resilience of feedstock crop plants (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2435360).

About you

As part of this consortium, the successful applicant will use computational approaches to mine natural biodiversity in gene sequences to identify engineering targets to increase lipid content and enhance the water use efficiency. The project will make use of comparative genomics and molecular evolution analyses to identify these targets. The project will make use of software developed in the Kelly group as well as other widely used software for biological sequence analysis. The engineering targets identified using computational approaches by the successful applicant will be validated in crop plants by other members of the consortium. This is an exciting collaborative project that leverages disparate expertise across the consortium to attempt to deliver real-world impact.

Candidates who have submitted their final PhD thesis at the point of interview and are awaiting final examination are eligible to apply.

How to apply

Where Covid-19 has resulted in substantial disruption to your work or research outputs, please explain this by providing an additional paragraph in your supporting statement. The University of Oxford is committed to equality and valuing diversity. All applicants will be judged on merit, according to the selection criteria. This post is full time and available until 28 February 2029. The closing date for applications is 12.00 noon on Tuesday 4 November 2025, interviews are likely to be scheduled for mid to late November. Applications for this vacancy are to be made online via our e-recruitment system, and you will be required to upload a supporting statement and CV as part of your online application.