Senior Cognitive Scientist

Cambridge Cognition; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work

Office in Bottisham

26 days annual leave

Pension 6.5%

Life assurance 4x salary

Job summary

Cambridge Cognition seeks a Senior Cognitive Scientist to lead development of a paediatric normative dataset for digital cognitive assessments. You will coordinate multi-site data collection, manage sites and data pipelines, and ensure rigorous scientific study design and ethics compliance.

The role offers potential publications and conference presentations, with opportunities to contribute to real-world use of digital cognitive measures for children and young people in clinical research and

Qualifications

• PhD in cognitive science or closely related field.
• Experience administering standardised cognitive/neuropsychological assessments with children.
• Experience coordinating multi-site or large-scale research projects.
• Strong knowledge of ethical requirements for paediatric research (IRB/REC).
• Demonstrated statistical analysis using R and/or Python.
• Excellent scientific communication for reports, publications or presentations.
• Ability to collaborate across science, clinical operations, data science, product and software.

Responsibilities

• Coordinate data collection across sites and testing cohorts.
• Support ethics approvals and regulatory documentation.
• Engage recruitment partners and manage site relationships.
• Collaborate with data science, product and software teams to integrate normative algorithms.
• Analyse and present study findings at conferences and in publications.

Skills

Cognitive assessments

Statistics

Scientific writing

Cross-functional teamwork

Ethics in paediatric research

Multi-site coordination

Data governance

Protocol compliance

Education

PhD in cognitive science

Job description

Job title: Senior Cognitive Scientist

Department: Science

Reporting to: Francesca Cormack, Chief Scientist

People Manager? No

Location: Hybrid, ideally with at least 2 days a week from our Bottisham office

Contract: Permanent

Working pattern: Ideally full-time (Monday to Friday) although 4 days a week could be considered for the right candidate

Salary: £50,000 to £70,000 depending on experience

Who are Cambridge Cognition and what do we do?

We are a talented global team based in the UK, Canada and USA. Backed by over 30 years of scientific discovery and validation, Cambridge Cognition offers the end-to-end platform for CNS clinical trials. Our technologies are reliable in-clinic or at home for an improved patient experience and accelerated drug development.

We aim to make an extraordinary impact by improving the health of people worldwide with innovative assessments and digital biomarkers that provide researchers with precise measures of patients’ symptoms. We lead in CNS research and are broadening our impact across therapeutic areas.

Are you interested in working for a company whose main goal is to make a difference to the health of current and future generations, through the knowledge and experience of our passionate team?

Role Summary:

This is an opportunity for a cognitive scientist to play a central role in building a high-quality paediatric normative dataset for our digital cognitive assessments. The project is large, multi-site and time-sensitive, so we are looking for someone who enjoys bringing scientific rigour, structure and momentum to complex research programmes. The successful candidate will combine expertise in digital cognitive assessment, preferably in paediatric populations, with strong project management skills to coordinate data collection, support sites, manage data pipelines and help resolve operational challenges.

The role offers the chance to contribute to work with clear scientific and real-world impact. For the right candidate, there will be opportunities to analyse the data, contribute to publications and presentations, and help demonstrate the value of digital cognitive assessments for paediatric patients across therapeutic areas. This work will support clinical trials, academic research and healthcare applications, while helping establish robust digital measures for use with children and young people.

Digital cognitive assessments can only deliver real-world benefit for children and young people if they are built on rigorous, representative normative data. This role sits at the heart of that effort: you will play a central part in delivering a high-quality paediatric normative dataset for our digital cognitive assessments, supporting their use in clinical trials, academic research and healthcare settings across therapeutic areas.

Given the size, scope and urgency of the programme we're looking for someone who takes ownership, values progress over perfection, asks why when something isn't working, and isn't afraid to propose a better way forward. You'll combine expertise in digital cognitive assessment, ideally with paediatric populations, with strong project management skills: supporting sites, managing data pipelines and resolving operational challenges as they arise.

For the right candidate, this role offers an exciting opportunity to analyse the data, contribute to publications and conference presentations, and help demonstrate the value of digital cognitive measurement for paediatric patients, driving real-world impact.

What you’ll be doing:

Study Execution

• Support evaluation of data collection approaches, make practical recommendations and support contracting with relevant partners.
• Identify, onboard and support data collection sites, ensuring they have the software, hardware and paper-based scales needed to collect high-quality data.
• Review incoming data in near-real time against the quality framework to identify completeness issues, anomalies and protocol deviations.
• Coordinate delivery of data collection across sites and testing cohorts, working closely with internal and external teams.
• Track recruitment and completion rates against targets, helping to resolve bottlenecks and elevate issues where needed.

Protocol & Ethics

• Partner with other stakeholders from the Science and R&D team to ensure appropriate ethics approvals are in place and that the study is conducted in accordance with the principles of good clinical practice.
• Maintain clear study documentation suitable for regulatory review, internal governance and publication.

Participant & Stakeholder Management

• Work with recruitment partners, including schools, clinics and contract research organisations, to support steady participant flow throughout the collection window.
• Partner with internal study and data management teams to ensure the study is configured and set up correctly.
• Act as a responsive point of contact for sites, coordinators on operational matters adding value in every interaction and communicating openly when issues arise.
• Collaborate with data science, product and software teams to integrate normative algorithms into the product software and support customer roll-out.
• Develop relationships with external key opinion leaders in paediatrics and cognition to build visibility and engagement for the assessments in these populations.

Science

• Develop and maintain standardised administration and training materials so that assessments are delivered consistently across all sites and testers.
• Define the data quality framework for the study including completeness checks, anomaly flagging and query resolution and oversee its application throughout collection.
• Safeguard the integrity of the sampling design, ensuring recruitment stays true to demographic stratification targets so the resulting norms are representative.
• Shape and deliver a validation and publication strategy for the paediatric dataset alongside the wider science and R&D teams
• Identify opportunities to validate the assessments in therapeutic areas where paediatric cognitive outcomes matter.
• Analyse and present study findings at international conferences and, where appropriate, in peer-reviewed publications to drive impact.

The team you’ll be working in

You’ll join a collaborative, cross-functional environment where scientists, clinicians, engineers and product specialists work closely together and share knowledge openly. We listen to understand, welcome diverse perspectives, and expect everyone to challenge constructively when they see a better way of doing things.

This appointment may be subject to an enhanced DBS check (or local equivalent), given the nature of the research population.

We know that candidates, particularly those from underrepresented groups, sometimes hesitate to apply unless they meet every requirement. If this role excites you and you meet most of what we're looking for, we'd encourage you to apply

If you require any adjustments or accommodations at any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know and we will be happy to support you.

What we need from you:

You’ll thrive in this role if you enjoy working across disciplines, share knowledge openly and hold yourself and others to a high standard of evidence. We're looking for:

Essential Requirements:

• PhD in cognitive science, neuropsychology, developmental psychology, or a closely related field.
• Experience administering standardised cognitive or neuropsychological assessments with children, such as WISC, NEPSY, NIH Toolbox, CANTAB or similar tools.
• Experience coordinating multi-site or large-scale research, ideally in a time-sensitive delivery environment.
• Strong working knowledge of ethical requirements for paediatric research, including ethics committee (IRB/REC or equivalent) processes, assent and safeguarding.
• Strong demonstrable understanding of statistical methods, experimental design and quantitative data analysis. With experience in analysing data using R and/or Python.
• Excellent scientific communication skills, including experience preparing technical reports, publications or presentations to a high standard across functional audiences
• Ability to work effectively with cross-functional teams spanning science, clinical operations, data science, product and software engineering.

Desirable Requirements:

• Experience with normative data collection or test standardisation studies.
• Experience working in pharmaceutical, biotechnology, digital health, healthcare technology or medical device environments.
• Familiarity with stratified sampling methodology and how demographic representation targets shape recruitment strategy.
• Experience working with diverse or underserved paediatric populations.
• A publication record in neuroscience, psychology or related disciplines.
• Knowledge of regulatory considerations relevant to digital measures, digital biomarkers or software-based health technologies.

Even if you don't have all the experience we've listed we’d still love to hear from you if you're interested.

What We Can Offer You

• Be part of a driven team to achieve commercial success and make an extraordinary impact on global health
• Flexibility – 2 days a week at our office in Bottisham, just outside Cambridge; and 3 days from home
• 26 days annual leave per year plus bank holidays (including 3 days for Christmas break) with a holiday buy/sell schemeallowing you to purchase up to an additional one week of leave
• Generous pension with up to 6.5% company contribution
• Life assurance of 4x base salary
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Private Health Insurance - Bupa Insurance and Medicash Cashback Scheme

Cambridge Cognition is an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to equality of opportunity for all employees and application from individuals are encouraged regardless of age, disability, sex, gender reassignment, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, marriage, and civil partnerships