Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Pandemic Epidemiology

University of Oxford - Pandemic Sciences Institute, Li Ka Shing Centre for Health and Information Discovery

Location: Old Road Campus, Headington, Oxford, OX3 7LF And on occasion, the Life and Mind Building, South Parks Rd, Oxford OX1 3EL.

Salary: Research Grade 7: Salary in range £39,424 - £47,779 per annum with a discretionary range to £53,483 p.a. This is inclusive of a pensionable Oxford University Weighting of £1,730 per year.

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Pandemic Epidemiology to join our vibrant research environment at the Pandemic Sciences Institute’s (PSI) in Oxford. You will contribute to the development of a benchmarking framework for epidemiological modelling, covering tasks such as disease forecasting, spatiotemporal outbreak reconstruction, phylodynamic/phylogeographic inference, and epidemiological parameter estimation.

This position is funded by Google.org through their Health AI Programme and will be based at the Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford. You will work closely with collaborators across multiple disciplines including computational epidemiology, evolutionary biology, computer science, and software engineering to design, implement, and maintain benchmarks that will help shape how the field evaluates and compares new modelling and inference methods. Beyond the core research, you will have the opportunity to undertake funded training in related disciplines where necessary. You will also be part of the Data Analytics and Epidemiology (DAE) group (PSI) with opportunities for collaboration and career development.

The position is suitable for a highly motivated computational epidemiologist, mathematical modeller, or statistician with expertise and interest in infectious disease modelling. You will hold, or be near completion, of a PhD/DPhil in a relevant quantitative discipline (e.g., epidemiology, computational biology, computer science, biostatistics, or other quantitative discipline). You should have experience developing software and maintaining deployments, and proficiency in Python, R, and/or other common programming languages/frameworks (familiarity with web development technologies will be advantageous). Beyond technical expertise, we value candidates with genuine enthusiasm for the project’s goal and a willingness to learn and develop new skills as the work evolves. Given the highly interdisciplinary nature of the role, you will be expected to collaborate closely with researchers from diverse research backgrounds, including evolutionary biologists, computer scientists, and public health policymakers. Excellent communication skills and the ability to bridge ideas across disciplines are therefore essential.

Applications for this vacancy should be made online and you will need to upload a supporting statement and CV. Your supporting statement must explain how you meet each of the selection criteria for the post using examples of your skills and experience. Please restrict your documentation to your CV and supporting statement only. Any other documents will be requested at a later date.

This position is offered full time on a fixed term contract until 30 April 2027 and is funded by Google.org.

Only applications received before 12 midday on Monday, 16 March 2026 will be considered. Please quote 184915 on all correspondence.