Postdoctoral position in Molecular Evolution Full-time

Postdoctoral Position in Molecular Evolution

Are you interested in conducting evolutionary biology research, with the support of competent and friendly colleagues in an international environment? Are you looking for an employer that invests in sustainable employeeship and offers safe, favourable working conditions? We welcome you to apply for a postdoctoral position at Uppsala University.

The Department of Cell and Molecular Biology is divided into seven research programs, each focusing on different areas within cell and molecular biology: computational biology and bioinformatics, microbiology and immunology, molecular biology, molecular biophysics, molecular evolution, molecular systems biology, and structural biology. The department has over 200 employees, including around 50 doctoral students. Please read more about our work at https://icm.uu.se.

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. If you are interested in using bioinformatics and computational biology to address big questions in evolutionary biology, please get in touch!

Duties

This is a VR-funded postdoctoral research position. The proposed work will be entirely computational, focusing on analysing existing proteomic and genomic datasets. The postdoctoral researcher will therefore 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, in order to address the following three research questions:

1. How do protein domains become associated over evolutionary time, and do any domain properties predict having a high number of interaction partners?
2. Where does selection tend to act in multidomain proteins?
3. 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

We are looking for a highly motivated and creative individual with 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. Due to special circumstances, the degree may have been obtained earlier. The three-year period can be extended due to circumstances such as sick leave, parental leave, duties in labour unions, etc. Candidates must be able to express themselves fluently in spoken and written English.

An ability to code (e.g., in Python) is a valuable skill for this post. Experience working with a high-performance computer cluster is also important, as is an ability to use command line tools, and to conduct statistical analyses using programmes such as R.

Additional qualifications

An evolutionary biology background will be considered beneficial for this position. Experience with computational biology, bioinformatics or mathematics is desired, as are good communication skills and an ability to work collaboratively and independently. An interest in developing research ideas and exploring new methods will also be advantageous. The ideal candidate is comfortable with bioinformatics and population genetics, and is excited to make this project their own!

About the employment The employment is a temporary position of 2 years according to central collective agreement. Full time position. Starting date 2026-09-07 or as agreed. Placement: Uppsala

Application The application (in English) should include:

1. A letter of intent describing yourself, your research interests and motivation of why you are applying for this position
2. CV
3. Name and contact information to at least two reference persons (e-mail address and phone no.)
4. Relevant publications
5. PhD exam

For further information about the position, please contact: Jennifer James, Jennifer.james@icm.uu.se.

Please submit your application by 29th of June 2026, UFV-PA 2026/1828.