Postdoctoral Research Associate

Grade UE07: £41,064 to £48,822 per annum

College of Science and Engineering/ School of Physics and Astronomy

Full Time: 35 hour per week 

Fixed Term: 2 years October 1, 2027 – September 30, 2029 

The Opportunity: 

 We are looking for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Higgs Centre for Theoretical Physics to work on numerical calculations and formal developments in the context of lattice field theory applied to theoretical particle physics. 

This position will contribute to the STFC Consolidated Grant UKRI4228 ‘Particle Theory at the Higgs Centre’. Research activities will be oriented towards formal developments and precision lattice QCD calculations, e.g. the determination of multi-hadron scattering and decay amplitudes, the extraction of long-distance matrix elements involving flavour-changing neutral currents, and the constraint of spectral quantities related to (semi-)inclusive rates, amplitudes and distribution functions. The position is fixed-term for two years, with a possible extension contingent on additional funding. The calculations are to be performed, in part, using resources from the national supercomputing facility DiRAC. 

Your skills and attributes for success:  

• PhD (awarded or near completion) in Physics, including Theoretical or Mathematical Physics 
• Strong knowledge of the lattice formulation of quantum field theories and the Standard Model of particle physics 
• Experience in C++ programming in UNIX environments  
• Experience in delivering research results in an academic context; e.g. a record of peer-reviewed publications and conference presentations 
• Capability to work independently, exercising a high degree of initiative and demonstrating a proactive and flexible approach to work 

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How to apply

Applications should be submitted by 27 November 2026. Please upload a CV and a brief research statement (fewer than three pages) and provide the names and contact details of at least three referees. The referees will be approached for letters after the long-listing process. Direct enquiries about the position to Maxwell Hansen ([email protected]). 

As a valued member of our team, you can expect: 

• A competitive salary. 
• An exciting, positive, creative, challenging and rewarding place to work. 
• To be part of a diverse and vibrant international community.
• Comprehensive Staff Benefits, including generous annual leave entitlement, a defined benefits pension scheme, a wide range of staff discounts, family-friendly initiatives, and flexible work options. Check out the full list on our staff benefits page (opens in a new tab) and use our reward calculator to discover the value of your pay and benefits. 

Championing equality, diversity, and inclusion

The University of Edinburgh holds a Silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our commitment to advance gender equality in higher education. We are members of the Race Equality Charter, and we are also Stonewall Scotland Diversity Champions, actively promoting LGBT equality. 

Prior to any employment commencing with the University, you will be required to evidence your right to work in the UK. Further information is available on our right to work webpages (opens new browser tab)

The University may be able to sponsor the employment of international workers in this role. This will depend on a number of factors specific to the successful applicant. 

Key dates to note

The closing date for applications is 27 November 2026.

Unless stated otherwise the closing time for applications is 11:59pm UK time. If you are applying outside the UK the closing time on our adverts automatically adjusts to your browsers local time zone. 

Interview dates to be confirmed.

The Institute for Particle and Nuclear Physics is composed of three research groups. 

The Particle Physics Experiments group seeks understanding of the fundamental particles of nature and the interactions governing their behaviour. In particular, we aim to explain the dominance of matter over anti-matter through the study of CP violation with the LHCb experiment: to understand the mechanisms of electroweak symmetry breaking that lead to the creation of mass, and to search for new particles at ATLAS and future colliders; to discover and characterise particle dark matter with the LUX-ZEPLIN and DarkSide-20k experiments; and to explore neutrino oscillations, and neutrinos of astrophysical origin with experiments distributed grid computing (GridPP), to store and analyse the vast quantities of data that are produced in these endeavours.

The Particle Physics Theory Group is interested in fundamental physics at all energy scales, from the hadronic binding energy scale, to the scale of present and future particle colliders, up to the energy scales of the very early universe at its first fractional second of existence. We have interest and theoretical involvement in most current and upcoming particle physics experiments, high energy colliders, and in observations made by the WMAP and Planck satellites. We pursue the very latest developments in both perturbative and nonperturbative field theory, renormalization theory, and the application of quantum field theory to other branches of physics such as turbulence theory and condensed matter systems.

The Nuclear Physics Group has a broad and diverse range of research interests aimed at understanding the properties and structure of nuclei, the origin of the chemical elements in the universe, and the way in which nuclear reactions power some of the most spectacular stellar explosions, such as novae, supernovaea and X-ray bursts. Our research is performed at world-leading oversea laboratories (TRIUMF, RIKEN, GSI, LNGS, CERN and others), using a variety of experimental techniques and state-of-the-art instrumentation developed by the group.