Postdoctoral position in Molecular Evolution

Role Overview
Postdoctoral position in Molecular Evolution at Uppsala University, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. The position is placed in the Molecular Evolution program, with main supervisor Jennifer James. The applicant will become a member of a newly established research group working at the intersection of population genetics, phylogenetic analysis, and proteomics. This is a VR-funded postdoctoral research position.

Responsibilities
The proposed work will be entirely computational, focussing on analysing existing proteomic and genomic datasets. The postdoctoral researcher will be responsible for writing code, conducting statistical analyses, and for writing and publishing scientific articles. The project aims to understand how protein domains come to be combined and arranged in protein coding genes, addressing the following research questions:
- How do protein domains become associated over evolutionary time, and do any domain properties predict having a high number of interaction partners?
- Where does selection tend to act in multidomain proteins?
- Is variation in the rate of association of protein domains, or variation in rates of rearrangement, driven by selection?
- Are particular domain combinations associated with certain clades of organisms, and could this be an informative character to understand phylogenies, or to infer genome rearrangement events?

The successful applicant will be expected to spearhead the project work and to develop upon these ideas, with flexibility to shape the precise direction of the research to their own interests.

Requirements and Qualifications
- A PhD degree in the field of biology, or a foreign degree equivalent to a PhD degree in the field of biology. The degree needs to be obtained by the time of the decision of employment.
- Priority will be given to applicants who have completed their degree no more than three years before the deadline for applications. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc.
- Ability to express oneself fluently in spoken and written English.
- An ability to code (e.g., in Python) is a valuable skill.
- Experience working with a high-performance computer cluster is important.
- Ability to use command line tools.
- Ability to conduct statistical analyses using programmes such as R.

Additional qualifications considered beneficial:
- An evolutionary biology background.
- Experience with computational biology, bioinformatics or mathematics.
- Good communication skills and an ability to work collaboratively and independently.
- An interest in developing research ideas and exploring new methods.
- Comfort with bioinformatics and population genetics.

What They Offer
- Temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement.
- Full-time position.
- Starting date 2026-09-07 or as agreed.
- Placement in Uppsala, Sweden.
- Support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment.
- Employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions.