Research Associate in Speech and Multimodal Data Analysis for Mental Health

KINGS COLLEGE LONDON; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading academic institution in the UK is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to advance speech analytics in mental health through innovative methodologies. This full-time role requires a PhD in a relevant discipline and strong skills in data analysis, programming, and research publication. Successful candidates will engage in a pioneering project to integrate speech analysis with qualitative methodologies, aiming to transform the understanding of Major Depressive Disorder. Competitive salary and supportive research environment included.

Benefits

Professional development days (10 per year)

Supportive research environment

Qualifications

• PhD in biostatistics, computer science, clinical informatics or related field.
• Proficiency in data analysis using Python or R.
• Track record of publications in scientific journals.
• Experience with datasets from speech analysis and wearable technology.

Responsibilities

• Analyze large-scale speech and wearable data.
• Prepare research findings for publication.
• Engage with Patient and Public Involvement initiatives.

Skills

Data analysis and programming (Python or R)

Speech and language analysis

Natural language processing (NLP)

Large Language Models (LLMs)

Grant writing

Education

PhD or equivalent in a relevant discipline

Job description

Organisation/Company KINGS COLLEGE LONDON Research Field Computer science Sociology Ethics in health sciences Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Established Researcher (R3) Country United Kingdom Application Deadline 11 Jan 2026 - 00:00 (UTC) Type of Contract Other Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure? No

Offer Description

About us:

The post will be based in the Department of Biostatistics & Health Informaticsat KCL, within the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN).The centre offers a diverse research environment that is open, welcoming and supportive to all. The faculty-wide initiatives are supported by an active Diversity & Inclusion Team.

The Department has been a major force in the development of quantitative methodology as applied to mental health research. We have significant national and international collaborations, and our research has growing impact into all areas of medicine particularly through expertise in trials and software development.

About the role:

We areseekinga highly skilled and motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate to join a pioneering project at the intersection of speech analytics,mHealth,and precision psychiatry. This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to an internationally unique study that integrates speech analysis with qualitative and quantitative methodologies at scale, aiming to transform our understanding of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and advance patient-centredmental health care.

The postholder will playa central rolein collecting andanalysinglarge-scale speechand wearable datafrom participants in the GLAD Study cohort(https://gladstudy.org.uk/ ). Using large language models (LLMs) and acoustic analytics,theywill uncover patterns in content, lexical choice, prosody, and acoustic features. These speech-derived measures will beintegrated withinsights derived fromwearable data,structured assessments, medical records, and multi-omics datasets to enable innovative genetic and biomarker association studies, supporting the development of stratified and personalized approaches to mental health treatment.

In addition to conductingcutting-edgeanalyses, the postholder will prepare research findings for dissemination in high-impact, REF-returnable journals and actively engage with Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPI-E)effortsto ensure authentic, patient-centredinterpretations of the data.

To be considered for this role, you shouldhave:

• A PhD (or equivalent) in a relevant discipline (e.g., biostatistics, machine learning, computer science, clinical informatics, natural language processing).
• Strong skills in data analysis and programming (e.g., PythonorR).
• A track recordof publications in high-quality scientific journals.
• Experience or interest inlarge languageand foundationalmodels is an advantage.

This is a full-time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract from 1st April 2026 - 30th September 2028.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

Please note that we reserve the right to close this advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.

About you:

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

• PhD or equivalent in a relevant discipline (e.g., biostatistics, computer science, clinical informatics, natural language processing).
• Proven experience in speech and language analysis, including acoustic feature extraction and/or natural language processing (NLP) techniques.
• Proficiency in data analysis and programming with languages such as Python or R.
• Experience handling and integrating large, complex datasets, including multimodal data
• Proven track record of writing and publishing scientific papers in high-impact journals.
• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs) or other foundational models applied to speech or text data
• Experience applying speech and language technology in mental health research, particularly in depression
• Familiarity with wearable technologies, including data cleaning and feature extraction
• Experience in grant writing and securing research funding.

*Please note that for applicants currently undertaking a PhD and awaiting their results (thesis submitted), the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information:

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the advert. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Grade and Salary:£45,031 - £49,871 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Job ID:134105

Close Date:11-Jan-2026

Contact Person:Nicholas Cummins

Contact Details:[e-mail]