We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to contribute to research at the intersection of disease surveillance, health informatics, and digital epidemiology. The Fellow will lead and contribute to projects that use novel data streams and computational methods to detect, characterize, and forecast diverse threats to population health, and that evaluate how emerging digital tools perform in real-world clinical and public health settings.

This fellowship offers substantial opportunity for translational impact. The Laboratory’s research has directly informed public health guidance and response, and the broader IDHA team’s surveillance platforms are used by researchers, clinicians, and the public. The Fellow will build tools with real-world reach, work closely with hospital and public health partners, and have opportunities for peer-reviewed publication.

This is a one-year hybrid position with opportunity to be extended.

About the Lab
The Rader Lab is housed in Boston Children’s Hospital’s Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA). The Laboratory develops and evaluates methods that leverage novel digital data streams to detect, characterize, and forecast threats to population health. Recent work includes mapping disease risk from sparse case reports with Geospatial AI, measuring vaccination coverage through digital participatory surveillance, conducting privacy-preserving cohort studies with federated analytics, and evaluating how large language models perform in pediatric settings.

The Innovation and Digital Health Accelerator (IDHA) at Boston Children's Hospital surfaces, supports, and accelerates innovations across the hospital—from digital health tools and medical devices to diagnostic technologies and care process innovations—in pursuit of Boston Children's mission to improve pediatric care until every child is well. Artificial intelligence and intelligent automation are a core focus of the team's work, used both to drive operational effectiveness and expand capacity within the hospital and to power the applied research and digital health platforms IDHA develops and deploys. IDHA brings together a cross-functional team spanning informatics, software development, data analytics, clinical care, and business development to move ideas from concept to global deployment, combining Boston Children's data and clinical expertise with partnerships across industry, including start-ups.

Qualifications
-PhD (or similar, e.g., ScD, MD with strong quantitative research experience) in any discipline that emphasizes quantitative modeling + scientific writing, including but not limited to epidemiology, economics, or demography, completed within the last few years or nearing completion
-Strong computational skills, with proficiency in R and/or python; experience with common data science and NLP libraries, and the ability to work independently and collaboratively on applied research problems
-Strong written and verbal communication skills, with a record of first-author peer-reviewed publication
-Demonstrated ability to move rapidly from question to working analysis, comfort with imperfect data, and a preference for applied problems where results inform real-world decisions
-Ability to be in-person in IDHA’s Fenway office weekly on Tuesdays

What We Offer
-Mentorship in experimental design, grant and manuscript writing, and long-term career development from PIs with extensive experience across academic research, industry partnership, and public health practice
-Access to a rich ecosystem of proprietary and public health datasets, computational infrastructure, and cross-disciplinary collaborators across Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
-The potential for a secondary appointment as a Postdoctoral Fellow within Harvard Medical School’s Department of Anaesthesia
-Opportunities to contribute to widely used public-facing digital health platforms with real-world reach
-Competitive salary and benefits package in accordance with institutional and NIH postdoctoral guidelines
-Access to Boston Children's Office of Postdoctoral Affairs programming, including career development workshops, scientific writing training, and cross-institutional networking

To Apply
Please send a CV, a brief statement of research interests, and contact information for three references to Dr. Benjamin Rader at benjamin.rader@childrens.harvard.edu with “Postdoctoral Fellow – Public Health Intelligence” in the subject line.