Postdoctoral Research Associate

**Salary**

The starting salary will be from £33,482 up to £35,116 on Grade E, depending on qualifications and experience.

**Contractual hours**

36.5

**Package**

Generous holiday allowances, flexible working, pension scheme and relocation package (if applicable).

**Job category/type**

Academic

**Date posted**

17/06/2025

**Job reference**

Q06013

**Faculty of Health and Life Sciences**

The above full-time post is available on a fixed term basis from September 2025 to August 2027 in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences.

**The post**

The Faculty wishes to recruit a Postdoctoral Research Associate to support the work of Dr Matthew Witt. This post is part of the Subsea Soundscape (S3) project of the Offshore Wind Evidence and Change programme (OWEC) funded by The Crown Estate. The post is available from September 2025 to August 2027. The successful applicant will be responsible for managing the analysis of several hundred terabytes of acoustic data gathered across an array of seabed mounted underwater sound recorders to be deployed across the Celtic Sea. This project will operate in collaboration with Celtic Sea Power and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult.

The post will include development of analytical pipelines for underwater sound data analysis, including detecting and characterising biological and anthropogenic noise sources, detection of vocalising species, better characterising noise characteristics of the Celtic Sea and contributing survey effort to the European Tracking Network for animals already fitted with acoustic tracking tags at liberty in the Celtic Sea.

**About you**

Applicants will possess a relevant PhD (or nearing completion) or possess an equivalent qualification/experience in a related field of study and be able to demonstrate sufficient knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques to work within established research programmes. Applicants will be proven data analysts of large datasets with advanced data management and analytical skills, able to work in scientific programming languages (e.g. R, Python, MATLAB) and with experience of other software environments typical used for acoustic analysis (e.g. PAMGuard, Raven and Triton). Applicants will have demonstrable experience of working at sea (to at least a level of multi-day research cruises), where on vessel analytics will be required to be performed.

**Please ensure you read the Job Description and Person Specification for full details of this role.**

**What we can offer you**
- Freedom (and the support) to pursue your intellectual interests and to work creatively across disciplines to produce internationally exciting research;
- Support teams that understand the University wide research and teaching goals and partner with our academics accordingly;
- An Innovation, Impact and Business directorate that works closely with our academics providing specialist support for external engagement and development;
- Our Exeter Academic initiative supporting high performing academics to achieve their potential and develop their career;
- A multitude of staff benefits including sector leading benefits around maternity, adoption and shared parental leave (up to 26 weeks full pay), Paternity leave (up to 6 weeks full pay), and a Fertility Treatment Policy;
- A beautiful campus set in the heart of stunning Devon.

**The University of Exeter**

We are a member of the prestigious Russell Group of research-intensive universities and in the top 200 universities in the world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2024 and QS World University Ranking 2024). We combine world-class teaching with world-class research, achieving a Gold rating in the Teaching Excellence Framework Award 2023, underpinned by Gold ratings for Student Experience and Student Outcomes.

Our world-leading research impact has grown more than any other Russell Group university in recent years, and we are home to some of the world’s most influential researchers, seeking to answer some of the most fundamental issues facing humankind today. More than 99 percent of our research is of international quality and 47 percent is world-leading (2021 Research Excellence Framework).

We encourage proactive engagement with industry, business and community partners to enhance the impact of research and education and improve the employability of our students. Read about our world leading research - Green Futures and how we are transforming education for a changing world. We are located in a beautiful part of the country and Exeter (a fast growing tech hub) is one of only a few UK cities to have been designated as a UNESCO Creative City

**Our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Commitment**

We are committed to ensuring reasonable adjustments are available for interviews and workplaces.

With over 30,000 students and 7,000 staff from 150 different countries we offer a diverse and engaging environment where our diversity is celebrated and valued as a ma