Research Scientist – Maternal Sleep

King's College London; Greater London; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

King’s College London is seeking a Research Scientist - Maternal Sleep to lead studies on obstructive sleep apnoea in pregnancy and their outcomes. The role designs observational cohorts and interventional trials to generate pregnancy-specific diagnostic evidence and aims to secure external funding.

The post holder will work with clinicians, data scientists, behavioural scientists, and international collaborators to deliver AI-enabled research studies and interventions.

Qualifications

• PhD and postdoctoral research in sleep/respiratory fields.
• Experience with maternal/perinatal outcomes and sleep measurement.
• Experience designing clinical, behavioural, population health or digital health studies.
• Publications in peer‑reviewed journals and conference presentations.
• Ability to secure external research funding.
• Cross-disciplinary project management with clinicians and statisticians.
• RCT experience in pregnant populations.
• Quantitative skills in R/Python.
• Experience with large maternity cohorts and datasets.
• Sleep/digital phenotyping and wearables validation.
• Translation to practice via implementation science or health economics.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of observational cohort studies and interventional trials.
• Secure external funding and translate findings into antenatal screening pathways.
• Collaborate with clinicians, data scientists, behavioural scientists, and partners.
• Develop scalable, AI-enabled research studies and interventions.
• Operate in a non-clinical/basic science post with research integrity.

Skills

Project management

Longitudinal analysis

R/Python

Collaboration

Ethics approval

External funding

Publications

Education

PhD in sleep/respiratory physiology

Postdoctoral research experience

Job description

King’s College London is an internationally renowned university delivering exceptional education and world-leading research. We are dedicated to driving positive and sustainable change in society and realising our vision of making the world a better place. We are delighted to announce exciting new opportunities to join our community.

EMBRACE is a visionary, multicomponent international research programme, the first of its kind in the world, supported by Inkfish with £35M core funds over six years, starting in April 2025. It is a global study of 60,000 participants, including 20,000 mothers, 20,000 infants and up to 20,000 partners. It brings together world-leading clinician scientists across six distinguished Healthcare organisations, world-leading AI & technology companies, together with premier biotech companies, with the overarching aim to fast-track major scientific breakthroughs, revolutionise maternal and early childhood health through precision-personalised interventions, powered by a groundbreaking symbiosis of cutting‑edge AI combined with human support.

About the role

The post of Research Scientist - Maternal Sleep leads a programme on obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and nocturnal hypoxaemia in pregnancy and their impact on maternal and perinatal outcomes. The post is responsible for the design and delivery of observational cohort studies and interventional trials of sleep‑disordered breathing in pregnancy to generate pregnancy‑specific diagnostic evidence in a field where adult diagnostic thresholds are poorly validated. The post holder is expected to secure external research funding and to translate findings into antenatal screening and treatment pathways.

The post holder will work closely with clinicians, researchers, data scientists, behavioural scientists, digital health specialists, and international collaborators across EMBRACE partner sites to develop and deliver high‑quality, scalable, AI‑enabled research studies and interventions.

The post holder could be a non‑clinical sleep or perinatal scientist or a clinically qualified doctor in specialty training or beyond. The post does not include any clinical/healthcare delivery and is categorised by the university as a non‑clinical/basic science post. The salary reflects this and is not linked to NHS salary scales.

This is a full time, fixed term contract for 4 years.

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.

About you

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

• PhD in sleep or respiratory physiology, epidemiology, biomedical engineering, physiology or a closely related discipline, together with relevant postdoctoral research experience
• Working knowledge of maternal and perinatal outcomes (hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, gestational diabetes, foetal growth restriction, preterm birth), including experience working with objective sleep measurement (PSG and/or home sleep apnoea testing) and interpretation of sleep study data.
• Experience contributing to the design and delivery of clinical, behavioural, population health, or digital health research studies, including ethics approval and participant‑facing protocols.
• A record of publications in peer‑reviewed journals, experience presenting research findings at national/international conferences and applying for research funding.
• Project management skills - ability to work across disciplinary boundaries with obstetricians, midwives, sleep physiologists and statisticians to initiate, plan, organise, implement and deliver programmes of work to tight deadlines.
• Experience of research in pregnant, perinatal or other populations requiring enhanced ethical safeguards, including randomised controlled trial experience.
• Quantitative research skills, including experience of longitudinal analysis using R, Python or equivalent statistical software, or demonstrable aptitude to develop these skills with appropriate statistical support.
• Experience of large maternity cohorts, routine data linkage or other large‑scale health datasets, including resources such as national maternity datasets or biobanks.
• Experience of sleep, physiological or digital phenotyping, including validation of consumer wearables or novel sensing technologies against gold‑standard polysomnography (PSG), and/or cardiovascular or placental phenotyping.
• Experience of translating research into practice, including implementation science or health economics, securing or contributing to externally funded research, and/or supervision or line management.

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

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

We welcome your thoughts on how organisations can create an inclusive environment, including one which supports free speech and the exchange of a wide range of ideas.

This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service clearances