"Postdoctoral Scholar with the Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science in the Geography Department"

Position overview

Position title: Postdoctoral Scholar with Center for Spatial Studies

Salary range: $66,737- $80,000.

Percent time: 100%

Anticipated start: 8/15/2025 or later

Position duration: 2 years, with potential to renew for a 3rd year depending on performance

Application Window

Open date: June 26, 2025

Next review date: Wednesday, Jul 16, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Apply by this date to ensure full consideration by the committee.

Final date: Friday, Oct 31, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

The Department of Geography, at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science seeks to hire a qualified candidate for a postdoctoral research position focused on the intersection of geography and public policy analysis. Successful candidates will have research experience in quantitative geography, geographic information science, and applied social science research. This position is well-suited for someone interested in research design and the application of geographic principles and methods to policy analysis and evaluation, including topics related to geographic metascience, spatial causal inference, and external validity.

The successful candidate will collaborate with Dr. Peter Kedron, members of the Center for Spatial Studies, and professionals at a leading policy research firm to design and implement empirical and computational studies examining policy variation, transfer, and scaling. With the spatial analysis of policy interventions as a central interest, research activities may span a broad range of topics, such as evidence generation and aggregation; external validity, generalizability, and transferability of evidence across geographic contexts; methods for assessing geographic replicability; spatial causal inference; and veridical spatial data science. The successful candidate will be expected to coordinate research activities, develop refereed publications, contribute to proposals for extramural funding, and present research findings at professional conferences. There will be opportunities for the candidate to contribute to specialist meetings, training events, and curriculum development activities led by the Center for Spatial Studies.

The Center for Spatial Studies and Data Science at UCSB focuses on promoting spatial thinking and spatial analytics across academia, industry, and government agencies. The center contributes to the advancement of knowledge in disciplines ranging from the humanities to the physical sciences. The center is recognized as the global leader in the development of Geographic Information Science dating back to its role as the flagship institution of the three university National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis (NCGIA).

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Applicants must have completed all requirements for a PhD Degree in Geography or a related discipline except the dissertation at the time of application.

Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

A Ph.D conferred in Geography, GIScience, or a related field is required by the time of appointment.

Preferred qualifications

Familiarity with research design and statistical techniques for causal inference

Interest and experience in the study and evaluation of policy and/or researcher practices

Fluency in programming languages such as R and Python.

Demonstrated ability to make reproducible code for cleaning, integrating, and modeling spatial/temporal data from multiple sources, spatial scales, and temporal frequencies.

Proven record of independently leading research projects, conducting reproducible research, publishing journal articles and presenting at international and national conferences.

Application Requirements

Document requirements

Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

Cover Letter

Statement of Research (Optional)

Reference requirements

2 required (contact information only)

References will be contacted for final candidate(s) by email and/or phone, requesting one (or more) of the following: discussion over email or phone, letter of recommendation.

Apply link: https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02931

Help contact: lucy.lopez@geog.ucsb.edu