PhD: Predictive Microbiome Modulators for Soil-Plant Resilience

AIT Austrian Institute of Technology GmbH; Wien; On-site; EUR 30,000 - 36,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Canteen & meal allowance

Preventive healthcare & company doctor

Pension fund

Additional days off for life events

Family benefits & Papa-Weeks paid pate

Travel support for conferences

Job summary

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology is Austria’s largest Research and Technology Organisation (RTO). A PhD Thesis position in the Bioresources competence unit focuses on validating microbiome modulators for soil‑plant systems and building prediction models to accelerate data‑driven developments.

You will work on plant trials, microbiome profiling, and statistical modelling within the ARA‑BIO platform. Join a team of experts to establish a reproducible verification workflow, curate vast

Qualifications

• Master’s degree required in relevant field.
• Experience with standard microbiological and molecular methods and plant experiments.
• Knowledge of statistics and data analysis using R or Python.
• Interest in soil‑plant microbiomes and microbiome engineering.
• Strong command of English; German knowledge beneficial.

Responsibilities

• Contribute to the ARA‑BIO research acceleration platform.
• Curate microbiome, plant phenotype and environmental metadata for selected use cases.
• Select candidate microbiome modulators from existing strains and data.
• Conduct controlled tests to assess effects on plant performance and microbiome.
• Apply statistical and machine‑learning approaches to link patterns and outcomes.
• Define experimental pass/fail criteria and assay limitations.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams on data‑driven microbiome solutions.
• Prepare scientific publications and contribute to reports and presentations.

Skills

English fluency

German knowledge

Molecular biology methods

Plant experiments

Microbiome data analysis

Programming in R/Python

Statistics basics

Interdisciplinary collaboration

Education

Master’s degree in microbiology, microbial ecology, plant sciences, bioinformatics, environmental biotechnology, agricultural sciences or related field

Job description

The AIT Austrian Institute of Technology is Austria’s largest Research and Technology Organisation (RTO). A PhD Thesis position in the Bioresources competence unit focuses on validating microbiome modulators for soil‑plant systems and building prediction models to accelerate data‑driven developments.

You will work on plant trials, microbiome profiling, and statistical modelling within the ARA‑BIO platform. Join a team of experts to establish a reproducible verification workflow, curate vast