About us

King s College London is one of the world's leading universities, ranked 31st globally and 5th in the UK in the QS World University Rankings 2026. Founded in 1829, King s is a Russell Group university with a world-renowned reputation for excellence in education, research and innovation, particularly across medicine, health and the life sciences.

This post will be based within the newly established Department of Primary Care & Data Science, an interdisciplinary department that brings together expertise in primary care, population health, health informatics, artificial intelligence, epidemiology, biostatistics and health services research. The Department aims to develop innovative data-driven approaches to improve health and healthcare, working closely with patients, communities, policy-makers, healthcare providers and international partners.

The Department sits within the School of Life Course & Population Health Sciences , one of six Schools that make up the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King s College London. The School unites over 500 experts in a wide range of population health sciences including women and children s health, life course sciences, nutritional sciences, Health AI, preventive medicine and the molecular genetics of human disease. Our research links the causes of common health problems to life s landmark stages, treating life, disease and healthcare as a continuum. We are interdisciplinary by nature and this innovative approach works: 91 per cent of our research submitted to the Subjects Allied to Medicine (Pharmacy, Nutritional Sciences and Women's Health cluster) for REF was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. We use this expertise to teach the next generation of health professionals and research scientists. Based across King s Denmark Hill, Guy s, St Thomas and Waterloo campuses, our academic programme of teaching, research and clinical practice is embedded across seven Departments.

About the role

We are seeking a post-doctoral health data scientist with a strong mix of Python scientific coding skills and applied health research expertise, to work on the METIUS AI work package (metiusevidence.org), which is co-led by King s and UCL. The successful candidate will design, build and adapt AI-enabled evidence synthesis tools, help METIUS consortium partner organisations onboard and use them, and contribute to methodological and evaluation research.

METIUS (Mobilising Evidence Through Artificial Intelligence and User-Informed Synthesis) is an 11.5m UKRI-funded programme, led by Queen s University Belfast, building breakthrough AI and open data infrastructure for rapid, living evidence synthesis. The consortium brings together 19 organisations, including King s, to deliver exemplar syntheses across education, crime & justice, climate, and sustainable development, and to engage directly with policymakers.

You will design, build, and evaluate AI-enabled evidence synthesis tools and pipelines, writing well-documented, production-quality code, and will work directly with partner organisations across the consortium to configure and onboard these tools to their needs. You will design and run methodological and evaluation studies assessing the performance, reliability and usability of AI-assisted evidence synthesis methods, and write these up for publication.

You will work in a team with software developers, data scientists, and evidence synthesis specialists. Alongside METIUS, you will contribute to the related Solace-AI project (solaceai.org), applying AI-driven evidence synthesis methods to climate-health emergencies, and will develop new methods for making sure AI systems are trustworthy.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract for 2 years from your start date.

Research staff at King s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers , applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria:

PhD awarded in Health Data Science, Computer Science, Epidemiology, Public Health, or a related quantitative field; or PhD in one of these subjects near completion.
Experience conducting high-quality evidence synthesis (including systematic reviews, and scoping, rapid, umbrella reviews, and guidelines) using formal methodological approaches (e.g. narrative synthesis, evidence mapping).
Strong software development skills; experienced in version control/GitHub; expertise in using Python scientific stack (jupyter/numpy/scipy/sci-kit learn/pandas etc).
Strong publication track record as demonstrated through first-author publications in peer-reviewed journals.
Demonstrated ability to design and conduct applied health or policy research studies, including study design, quantitative analysis, and interpretation of findings.
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills.

Desirable criteria:

Experience in stakeholder engagement: working with policy makers, humanitarian organisations, international partners, and/or the public.
Experience contributing to multi-partner or consortium research projects, e.g. adapting tools or methods for different partner organisations.
Experience working with global and interdisciplinary teams to conduct and publish research.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

HR Use Only (Research G6 Clause):

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Further Information

At King s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King s guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of a pplications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our How we Recruit pages.

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