Postdoctoral Researcher

Position Information: Announcement Number - STAFF - VA - 27117 For questions regarding this position, please contact: Ethan Linck Assistant Professor ethan.linck@montana.eduClassification Title - Postdoctoral Researcher Working Title - Postdoctoral Researcher Brief Position Overview - The Department of Ecology at Montana State University is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Scholar as part of NSF-funded research on speciation under alternating cycles of gene flow and isolation (funding is currently anticipated for two years). Supported by PI Ethan Linck and external collaborators, the successful candidate will lead the development of a software tool to infer more realistic scenarios of speciation from genomic data. The Postdoctoral Research Scholar will also have the opportunity to contribute to publications on evolutionary theory and the impact of sea level change on divergence in Melanesian birds. Position Number - 4C2677Department - Ecology

Division: College of Letters & Science

Salary: $55,000 - $60,000 annually, commensurate with experience, education, and qualifications

Contract Type: LOAIf other, please specify

Position Details: General Statement - Working closely with the Principal Investigator and research team, the Postdoctoral Research Scholar will conduct independent and collaborative research at the intersection of evolutionary genomics, population genetics, and machine learning. The successful candidate will contribute to method development, software dissemination, and scholarly publications.

Duties and Responsibilities: Lead development of open-source, machine learning–based software for inferring evolutionary history from genomic data. Design and run population genetic simulations to generate training data and validate theoretical predictions. Collaborate with the PI and graduate students on complimentary empirical and theoretical speciation research. Prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed publication and present findings at national and international conferences. Contribute to software documentation and community adoption of the tool.

Required Qualifications: Experience, Education, Knowledge & Skills - Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, or a closely related field by start date. Experience with scientific programming and computational data analysis. Demonstrated research productivity through publications, presentations, related scholarly work, or dissertation research.

Preferred Qualifications: Experience, Education, Knowledge & Skills - Experience with machine learning applications in biology or genomics. Knowledge of population genetics theory and simulation methods. Experience developing or contributing to open-source software. The Successful Candidate Will - Possess excellent written and verbal communication skills. Have the ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary research environment. Represent the department, college, and university to others in a professional and courteous manner. Position Special Requirements/Additional Information - This position is contingent upon continued grant funding. Funding is currently anticipated through December 31, 2028. This job description should not be construed as an exhaustive statement of duties, responsibilities or requirements, but a general description of the job. Nothing contained herein restricts Montana State University's rights to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time.