Research Associate in Microbiome Ecology

Job reference: SAE-030756
Salary: £37,694 - £39,906 per annum depending on relevant experience
Faculty/Organisational Unit: Science and Engineering
Location: Manchester
Employment type: Fixed Term
Division/Team: Department of Earth & Environmental Sciences
Hours Per Week: 1 FTE
Closing date (DD/MM/YYYY): 01/03/2026
Contract Duration: 30 months
School/Directorate: School of Natural Sciences

We wish to appoint a PostDoctoral Research Associate to an exciting project exploring the assembly, stability and function of microbial decomposer communities.

This post is part of an interdisciplinary, Pushing the Frontiers grant funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, involving data and models for microbial communities both assembling in the field and constructed in the laboratory.

The post-holder will lead mathematical modelling and bioinformatic analyses, collaborating in experiments to explore microbiome dynamics, with particular focus on community assembly. The postholder will join a dynamic research environment with access to state-of-the-art lab and computational facilities. Chris Knight, Kat Coyte, Sophie Nixon and Mike Brockhurst are all investigators on the grant, whose research groups are part of the MERMan research cluster of more than 100 researchers working in microbial ecology and evolution.

The Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences is strongly committed to promoting equality and diversity, including the Athena SWAN Charter for gender equality in higher education. The School holds a Bronze Award which recognises their good practice in relation to gender; including flexible working arrangements, family-friendly policies, and support to allow staff to achieve a good work-life balance.

As an equal opportunities employer we welcome applicants from all sections of the community regardless of age, sex, gender (or gender identity), ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation and transgender status. All appointments will be made on merit.

For further information, please visit http://www.sees.manchester.ac.uk/about-us/athena-swan/

What you will get in return:

• Fantastic market leading Pension scheme
• Excellent employee health and wellbeing services including an Employee Assistance Programme
• Exceptional starting annual leave entitlement, plus bank holidays
• Additional paid closure over the Christmas period
• Local and national discounts at a range of major retailers

Our University is positive about flexible working – you can find out more here

Hybrid working arrangements may be considered.

Please be aware that due to the number of applications we are unfortunately not able to provide individual feedback on your application.

Please note that we are unable to respond to enquiries, accept CVs or applications from Recruitment Agencies.

Any recruitment enquiries from recruitment agencies should be directed to people.talent@manchester.ac.uk

Any CV’s submitted by a recruitment agency will be considered a gift.

Enquiries about the vacancy, shortlisting and interviews:

Name: Chris Knight

Email: chris.knight@manchester.ac.uk

General enquiries:

Email: recruitmentservices.people@manchester.ac.uk

Technical support:

https://jobseekersupport.jobtrain.co.uk/support/home

This vacancy will close for applications at midnight on the closing date.

Further particulars including job description and person specification are available on the University of Manchester website - click on the 'Apply' button above to find out more.

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