Research Associate in Statistics

Salary: £33,966 to £36,024 per annum

Newcastle University is a great place to work, with excellent benefits . We have a generous holiday package; plus the opportunity to buy more, great pension schemes and a number of health and wellbeing initiatives to support you.

Closing Date: 18 Febuary 2024

The Role

We are seeking a Research Associate in statistics to the 3-year Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council funded project PINCODE: Pooling INference and Combining Distributions Exactly: A Bayesian Approach. The Bayesian fusion problem, pooling inference on sub-posteriors, has attracted substantial attention recently in a number of important data science contexts, such as large data settings, privacy settings, meta-analysis and multiple expert elicitation. PINCODE aims to address the challenges in such pooling inference, with implementing either exact or asymptotically exact Monte Carlo algorithms. The project is a collaboration among Department of Statistics at University of Warwick, Department of Mathematical Sciences at Durham University, and School of Mathematics, Statistics & Physics at Newcastle University. 

The role comprises the development of R packages for Bayesian computational pooling inference. 

•    To develop an R package for path-space rejection sampling for diffusion processes
•    To develop an R package for Bayesian Fusion pooling inference
•    To develop R packages for alternatives Fusion algorithms, such as privacy Bayesian Fusion and constraint Bayesian Fusion

This is a full time hours (37 per week) position, with a fixed duration of three years, up until the project end date of 30.06.2027
To apply, please complete an online application and upload a CV and a cover letter. Your cover letter is a supporting statement, and you should outline how you meet the essential criteria of the role and evidence this with examples.

For informal enquiries about this vacancy, please contact Dr Murray Pollock ([email protected] ).

For further details about School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, please click here .

Full Information about Newcastle University can be found here .

Key Accountabilities

• Undertake research as part of the EPSRC funded ‘PINCODE’ project (EP/X028712/1), under the direction of Dr. Murray Pollock and Prof Hongsheng Dai
• Work closely with other members of PINCODE, including Dr. L. Aslett (Durham) and Prof G. O. Roberts (Warwick)
• Participate within the statistical community at Newcastle, including active involvement in seminars and research groups
• Publish research findings in leading journals
• Disseminate results widely, including at appropriate international conferences, and by making results and software available to applied practitioners

The Person

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Evidence of conducting independent, high-quality research 
• Experience of modern computational statistical methodologies, such as Markov chain Monte Carlo, rejection sampling, sequential Monte Carlo, would be highly desirable
• Strong programming skills
• The successful candidate will hold a relevant doctoral level degree in mathematics or statistics or Computer Science, or have submitted the thesis at the point of starting the position
• The successful candidate will have a good understanding on various computational statistics methods
• The successful candidate will have strong programming skills (R or C). Experience of using HPC clusters will be desirable

Attributes and Behaviour 

• Team working experience and excellent interpersonal skills
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal

Qualifications

• Relevant doctoral level research degree in Mathematics or Statistics or Computer Science
• Or to soon obtain a doctoral level research degree in Mathematics or Statistics, Computer Science, having submitted the thesis at the point of starting the position

 Newcastle University is a global University where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.  As a University of Sanctuary, we aim to provide a welcoming place of safety for all, offering opportunities to people fleeing violence and persecution.

We are committed to being a fully inclusive university which actively recruits, supports and retains colleagues from all sectors of society.  We value diversity as well as celebrate, support and thrive on the contributions of all of our employees and the communities they represent.  We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from individuals who can complement our existing teams, we believe that success is built on having teams whose backgrounds and experiences reflect the diversity of our university and student population.

At Newcastle University we hold a silver Athena Swan award in recognition of our good employment practices for the advancement of gender equality.  We also hold a Race Equality Charter Bronze award in recognition of our work towards tackling race inequality in higher education REC.  We are aDisability Confident employer and will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the essential criteria for the role as part of the offer and interview scheme.

In addition, we are a member of the Euraxess initiative supporting researchers in Europe. 

Requisition ID: 26560