Postdoctoral Research Associate - Data Scientist

• Full Time 12-month contract for a Postdoctoral Research Associate - Data Science

• Join the Youth Mental Health and Technology Team

• Base Salary $113,400 + 17% superannuation

About the opportunity

The University of Sydney’s Brain and Mind Centre is a centre for discovery, innovation and integrative research strategies, clinical product development and actions that translate research into improved treatment and disease prevention strategies. The centre is made up of 27 research units, staffed by around 200 researchers and 100 students.

The Youth Mental Health and Technology team puts young people at the centre of their own care. We partner with health services to develop innovative treatments for those aged 12-25 with emerging mental health disorders. The integration of cutting-edge research with safe and effective clinical care enables us to quickly and effectively translate our research findings into clinical services, facilitating continuous improvements to mental health services for the benefit of young people in Australia.

We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate - Data Science to contribute across our sub-teams in youth mental health working on research supported by the MRFF national critical infrastructure fund. In this role, you will be applying modern data science methods to drive data architecture, processing pipelines and analytic methods (including machine learning) for raw passive mobile sensor streams and wearable time-series data for our mental-health studies and digital interventions whilst reporting to the Senior Data Scientist.

Your key responsibilities will be to:

• work within a team of senior academics, data scientists, mathematical modellers, data engineers and clinicians to deliver high quality research outputs

• support the objectives of the research program by conducting data wrangling from multimodal and disparate data sources for data analytics

• contribute to the development of novel methodologies to model illness trajectories in youth mental health and facilitate their application and use in health services utilising digital technologies

• collaborate with the wider team to develop ideas for grant applications

About you

• 2 years+ experience in mathematics, statistics in youth mental health

• fluency in the R (or in another modern data-science language such as Python)

• experience in wrangling data from multimodal and disparate sources into formats for statistical analysis

• experience processing high-frequency sensor or digital phenotyping data at scale

• knowledge in machine learning and longitudinal modelling in the field of mental health

• experience dealing with real-world data sets, including heterogeneous structured data with missing or unreliable fields

• possess excellent communication skills, organisational and interpersonal skills

• ability to work effectively, collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team

• ability to work independently and complete tasks on time with minimal supervision

• proven developer experience building, testing, and maintaining software (digital mental health experience preferred)

• PhD in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or similar field

To keep our community safe, please be aware of our COVID safety precautions which form our conditions of entry for all staff, students and visitors coming to campus.

Sponsorship / work rights for Australia

You must have unrestricted work rights in Australia for the duration of this employment to be eligible to apply. Visa sponsorship is not available for this appointment.

Pre-employment checks and declarations

Your employment is conditional upon the successful completion of all pre-employment or background checks required for the role in terms satisfactory to the University.  Also, to meet the University’s obligations under the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Eliminate Gender-Based Violence you will be asked to declare if you have been investigated for, or found to engaged in, sexual harm or gender-based violence in the course of previous employment or in a legal process. Similarly, your ongoing employment is conditional upon the satisfactory maintenance of all relevant clearances and background check requirements. If you do not meet these conditions, the University may take any necessary step, including the termination of your employment.

This position is designated as involving child-related work. To undertake or remain in this position, you are required to apply for and obtain a Working with Children Check clearance in accordance with the Child Protection (Working with Children) Act 2012.

EEO statement

At the University of Sydney, our shared values are trust, accountability and excellence and we strive to be a place where everyone can thrive. We are committed to creating a university community that thrives through diversity and reflects the wider community that we serve. We deliver on this through our commitment to diversity and inclusion, evidenced by our people and culture programs, as well as key strategies to increase participation and support the careers of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, women, people living with a disability, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and those who identify as LGBTQIA+. We welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds.

We are proud to be recognised as an Australian Workplace Equality Index (AWEI) Platinum Employer. Find out more about our work on diversity and inclusion.

How to apply

Applications (including a cover letter, CV, and any additional supporting documentation) can be submitted via the Apply button at the top of the page.

For employees of the University or contingent workers, please login into your Workday account and navigate to the Career icon on your Dashboard. Click on USYD Find Jobs and apply.
For a confidential discussion about the role, or if you require reasonable adjustment or any documents in alternate formats, please contact Danielle Selinger, Recruitment Consultant by email to [email protected]

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The University reserves the right not to proceed with any appointment.

Click to view the Position Description for this role.

Applications Close

Tuesday 19 May 2026 11:59 PM