A one-year Data Scientist position is available immediately at The Royal Veterinary College, London. The successful candidate will perform research in collaboration with Dr Sarah Hill, Dr Jayna Raghwani and Dr Guillaume Fournié in the Veterinary Epidemiology, Economics and Public Health group – an FAO reference centre for veterinary epidemiology and an OIE collaborating centre for risk analysis and modelling. They will lead research within a BBSRC-funded, multi-partner and inter-disciplinary project aiming to improve our understanding of the transmission dynamics of highly pathogenic avian influenza H5Nx clade 2.3.4.4b viruses, which are circulating extensively within wild bird populations and can spill over into domestic poultry. The post-holder will develop a pipeline for extracting and visualising quasi-real time, UK-focused wild bird distribution and movements from diverse data sources, and analyse networks of potentially infectious contacts between poultry premises. Candidates with skills in mathematical modelling of disease transmission, spatial analysis, or phylodynamics will be able to conduct additional analyses using the combined data sources (salary and job title will be commensurate with experience and agreed responsibilities).

Through this project, the post-holder will work collaboratively with partners from different academic and governmental institutions, and with varied disciplinary backgrounds. They will have opportunities to contribute to ongoing projects on avian influenza virus transmission dynamics such as, for instance, as part of the UKRI GCRF One Health Poultry Hub (https://www.onehealthpoultry.org/). While the position is funded for one year, there will be opportunities to apply for further funding.

Candidates are expected to have an MSc or a PhD in a relevant field (such as ecology, epidemiology, computational science, statistics, mathematics, physics), and a strong interest in wild bird ecology and network data analysis. Alternatively, a relevant undergraduate degree and very strong evidence of desirable analytical skills and knowledge acquired within industry would be considered. The successful candidate will have freedom to develop analyses in the programming language in which they are most proficient. Experience in communicating quantitative analyses to a non-technical audience and experience working with large collaborative groups is an advantage.

For informal inquiries, please email Sarah Hill (sahill@rvc.ac.uk), Jayna Raghwani (jraghwani@rvc.ac.uk) and Guillaume Fournié (gfournie@rvc.ac.uk ). The advert closes on 5th July, and interviews are currently planned for 15th July.