University Assistant postdoctoral Universität Wien

Job description:

At the University of Vienna almost 11,000 personalities work together towards answering the big questions of the future. Around 7,700  of them do research and teaching, around 3,000 work in administration and organisation. We are looking for a/an

University Assistant postdoctoral

Explore and teach at the University of Vienna, where over 7,500 brilliant minds have found a unique balance of freedom and support. Join us if you’re passionate about groundbreaking international research and academic excellence. Ready to be part of our team? Let’s shape the future together!

Your personal sphere of play:

The Faculty of Psychology includes the Dean’s office, a StudyServiceCenter and four Departments (see https://univie.ac.at/psychologie). The courses offered in Psychology includes a bachelor's, master's and doctoral studies. Currently there are nearly 4000 students enrolled; which are taught and supervised by 220 teachers, within more than 250 courses per semester.

We are seeking candidates for a half-time non-tenured postdoc position (“University Assistant”, approx. equivalent to Lecturer”, fixed term contract of 6 years, no tenure track option) at the Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology. The successful applicant will work in close collaboration with Prof. Claus Lamm (Chair of Biological Psychology, head of the SCAN-Unit) and his team at the Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience Unit (SCAN-Unit). The SCAN-Unit investigates a broad range of topics in the field of Social Cognitive Neuroscience, with a focus on empathy, prosocial behaviour, and more recently also environmental social neuroscience,. We investigate these phenomena mainly in healthy neurotypical populations, but also incorporate clinical samples (autism, psychopathy, depression), and comparative aspects (social cognition across the lifespan, and in non-human animals) in our approach. Further information about current and past research of the lab can be found on our webpage https://scan-psy.univie.ac.at/research/

Your future tasks:

We are looking for a postdoc in neurocomputational modeling and social decision making. Successful candidates have a strong background in data science and mathematical neuroscience/psychology and the application of advanced data analysis techniques to experimental behavioral and neuroimaging data. Due to the nature of the research and the envisioned research collaborations, good command of German will be mandatory.
 
•    You actively participate in research, teaching & administration, which means:
•    You are involved in our current research projects and scientific studies in the domains of social, environmental and decision neuroscience.
•    This requires programming of experiments with human participants, typically in computer-based experiments in a behavioral or neuroimaging laboratory, but also in online experiments.
•    You need to analyse empirical data from your own and collaborators’ experiments and studies, potentially including large and complex datasets of different modalities (in particular behavioral and neuro-cognitive methods).
•    You collaborate and support other team members in their advanced data analyses, with a focus on computational modeling and Bayesian analysis approaches.
•    You teach courses within the scope of the provisions of the collective bargaining agreement, focusing on neuro-cognitive and behavioral data science and (neuro)computational modeling.
•    You take on administrative tasks in research, teaching, and administration.

Excellent oral and written English language skills are required. The working language of the lab is English. An autonomous work style and genuine curiosity are both required and supported. The position also involves teaching obligations (maximum 4 semester-hours (i.e., 3 in class presence hours) /week, seminars aligned with own research and methods skills at Bachelor and Master’s level). Previous teaching experience is a plus, but not mandatory. All applications shall include
i) letter of motivation (1000 words max.) ii) CV including full academic record and iii) full list of publications (including a brief summary statement of how the top 3 publications relate to the position and what makes them outstanding). In the letter, please sketch a five-year research program that you would pursue if hired and how your profile and this program align with the requirements of the position.

This is part of your personality:

We are seeking applicants for a half-time postdoc position who have a strong interest in social and computational neuroscience. Candidates are expected to hold a very good university degree that qualifies them for the above tasks. The ideal candidate will have experience in conducting and analyzing behavioral experiments with human participants, physiological studies, statistical analyses, and dissemination of scientific manuscripts (documented, e.g., by peer-reviewed papers in top-tier journals). Advanced programming skills (preferably in Matlab, R, Python), experience with probabilistic programming languages (e.g., Stan, Turing, Tensorflow), and high-level expertise with data analysis are mandatory; knowledge of neuroscientific methods, but in particular EEG and fMRI, and their analysis with “non-standard” advanced analysis approaches tailored to the research question is a key requirement. A track record in statistical-computational methods development and validation is highly desirable.
 
•    Completed PhD degree or Diploma, e.g. in Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Data Sciences, Statistics
•    Advanced experience in academic writing and with research methods (e.g. statistical analyses with R, Python etc.)
•    Didactic competences, teaching and supervision experience is desirable
•    A strong interest in Social Neuroscience and Decision Making
•    Excellent command of written and spoken English and German (C1 Level)
•    Expertise in scientific computing with, e.g. R, Python, Matlab
•    Experience in formulating and fitting computational models of cognition using probabilistic programming languages, e.g. Stan, Turing, Tensorflow
•    Experience with advanced applications of Bayesian inference approaches is highly desirable
•    Expert knowledge in the areas of social and computational neuroscience 
•    You should be a team player with high social and excellent communication skills
•    Autonomous and proactive working style
•    Problem solving abilities
•    Interest in pursuing education in emerging research fields

What we offer:

Work-life balance: Our employees enjoy flexible working hours, remote/hybrid and/or part-time work (upon agreement).

Inspiring working atmosphere: You are a part of an international academic team in a healthy and fair working environment.

Good public transport connections: Your workplace in the center of beautiful Vienna is easily accessible by public transport.

Internal further training & Coaching: Opportunity to deepen your skills on an ongoing basis. There are over 600 courses to choose from – free of charge.

Fixed-term contract and fair salary: The basic salary of EUR 5.014,30 (full-time basis; 14 times a year), increases if we can credit professional experience.

Equal opportunities for all: We welcome every additional/new personality to the team!

It is that easy to apply:

• With your scientific curriculum vitae / letter of intent
• With your list of publications
• With your summary of research interests (max. 1 p.)
• Doctoral Degree 
• Contact details of persons who could provide reference letters
• Via our job portal/ Apply now -  button

If you have any content questions, please contact:

Claus Lamm

claus.lamm@univie.ac.at

We look forward to new personalities in our team! 
The University of Vienna has an anti-discriminatory employment policy and attaches great importance to equal opportunities, the advancement of women and diversity. We place particular emphasis on enhancing women’s representation among the academic and general university staff, particularly in leadership roles, and therefore expressly encourage qualified women to apply. Given equal qualifications, preference will be given to female candidates.

University of Vienna. Space for personalities. Since 1365.

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Application deadline: 08/10/2026 

Apply now