Postdoctoral Research Associate

The above full-time post is available on a fixed-term basis from September 2025 to August 2027 in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

The post
The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of Dr Matthew Witt. This post is part of the Subsea Soundscape (S3) project of the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change programme (OWEC) funded by The Crown Estate. The post is available from September 2025 to August 2027. The successful applicant will be responsible for managing the analysis of several hundred terabytes of acoustic data gathered across an array of seabed mounted underwater sound recorders to be deployed across the Celtic Sea. This project will operate in collaboration with Celtic Sea Power and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

The post will include development of analytical pipelines for underwater sound data analysis, including detecting and characterising biological and anthropogenic noise sources, detection of vocalising species, better characterising noise characteristics of the Celtic Sea and contributing survey effort to the European Tracking Network for animals already fitted with acoustic tracking tags at liberty in the Celtic Sea.

About you
The successful applicant will be able to present information on research progress and outcomes, communicate complex information, orally, in writing and electronically and prepare proposals and applications to external bodies.

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or nearing completion) or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be proven data analysts of large datasets with advanced data management and analytical skills, able to work in scientific programming languages (e.g. R, Python, MATLAB) and with experience of other software environments typical used for acoustic analysis (e.g. PAMGuard, Raven and Triton). Applicants will have demonstrable experience of working at sea (to at least a level of multi-day research cruises), where on vessel analytics will be required to be performed.

Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification (available on the university's website, accessed by the 'Apply' button) for full details of this role.

What we can offer you

• Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research.
• Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly.
• An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development.
• Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career.
• A multitude of staff benefits including sector leading benefits around maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (up to 26 weeks full pay), Paternity leave (up to 6 weeks full pay), and a Fertility Treatment Policy.
• A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon.

Further information
For further information please contact Dr Matthew Witt, e-mail m.j.witt@exeter.ac.uk.

The closing date for completed applications is midnight (BST) on Monday the 7^th of July 2025. Interviews are expected to take place w/c Monday 21^st July 2025.

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