Research Fellow (Principal Statistician)

About us

The post will be based within the Mental Health & Neuroscience Clinical Trials statistics research group in the Department of Biostatistics and Health Informatics at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN), King’s College London. The successful applicant will contribute to a thriving community that promotes rigorous and innovative application of statistical methods within the mental health field working with the King’s Clinical Trials Unit and the NIHR Research Support Service.

About the role

Are you passionate about medical statistics and eager to make a meaningful impact in mental health research? This is an exciting opportunity to work as a Principal Statistician across two leading research groups at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London and be part of groundbreaking mental health trials and research initiatives aimed at improving the lives of people with mental health conditions and brain disorders.

As part of the NIHR Research Support Service Hub delivered by King's College London and Partners, you will be fully immersed in a dynamic centre dedicated to research methodology in mental health and brain disorders. You will collaborate with a diverse team of methodologists to provide support, advice, and expertise to researchers, especially those applying for and receiving NIHR funding, with a focus on quantitative aspects of the design.

As part of the Mental Health & Neuroscience Clinical Trial Statistics group, you will work with clinicians and scientists to evaluate novel interventions and medications across the breadth of mental health and brain disorders.  You will be expected to lead collaborations, and design, monitor, conduct, analyse, and report randomized controlled trials and well conducted cohort studies.

The ideal candidate will possess a doctoral degree in medical statistics or similar discipline, or have equivalent professional experience. We value experience in contributing to full-scale clinical trials, writing funding applications, and a deep understanding of clinical trials and medical statistics in applied health research.

The post will ultimately be responsible to Professor Richard Emsley (Academic Director, King’s Clinical Trials Unit and Director, NIHR RSS Hub) and Professor Ben Carter (Lead, MH&N Clinical Trials statistics group).

There are two posts available and both will be offered on full-time, fixed term contracts until 31st October 2028.

About you

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

Essential criteria

•  PhD qualified in medical statistics, clinical trials or with substantial statistical content (or pending results), or equivalent experience
•  A good working understanding of the scope and requirements for UK national funding programs, in particular NIHR
• Experience in the design, analysis, and interpretation of clinical trials, particularly in the field of mental health research
•  Understanding of study design and analysis methods in epidemiology and medical statistics including longitudinal analysis and handling of missing data
• Proficiency in statistical software and programming languages commonly used in clinical trial research (e.g. R, Stata)
• Experience collaborating effectively with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders, fostering a culture of teamwork and knowledge sharing
• Experience in implementing rigorous quality control measures to maintain data integrity and accuracy throughout the trial process
• To have published in leading clinical journals with a clear position of contribution commensurate with a Research Excellence Framework of at least nationally relevant impact

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