King's College London

About Us

The School of Life Course & Population Sciences is one of six Schools that make up the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine at King’s College London. The School unites over 400 experts in women and children’s health, nutritional sciences, population health and the molecular genetics of human disease. Our research links the causes of common health problems to life’s landmark stages, treating life, disease and healthcare as a continuum. We are interdisciplinary by nature and this innovative approach works: 91 per cent of our research submitted to the Subjects Allied to Medicine (Pharmacy, Nutritional Sciences and Women's Health cluster) for REF was rated as world-leading or internationally excellent. We use this expertise to teach the next generation of health professionals and research scientists. Based across King’s Denmark Hill, Guy’s, St Thomas’ and Waterloo campuses, our academic programme of teaching, research and clinical practice is embedded across five Departments.

About The Role

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.  

King's College London, with its King’s Population Health Institute, seeks to appoint a world-class Principal Medical Research Scientist to work within the newly established EMBRACE (Enhanced Maternal and Baby Results with AI-supported Care and Empowerment) large-scale programme of studies & Consortium.    

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 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. 

 The post holder of Principal Medical Research Scientist in Digital Health and Data Science will lead and support high-impact, cutting-edge research within the EMBRACE study for the duration of the programme. This post offers the opportunity to lead interdisciplinary research, and collaborate with world-class experts to deliver innovative, impactful solutions in population health in an international project.  The post will directly lead and manage a team of Research Scientists, along with providing wider senior leadership and direction via matrix management within the study. 

The post is an academic appointment at professorial level with the focus of the post holder’s time being on the EMBRACE programme during its six-year period. The post holder’s performance will be reviewed in the context of the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine’s academic performance framework for education and research academic appointments. The post holder is expected to be able to evidence academic achievement in the form of peer reviewed research papers, sustained research funding and a strong national and international profile for their work. Experience of working collaboratively, developing staff and students, creating a positive research culture is required, along with working collaboratively with international partners. 

This represents a unique opportunity to contribute to a transformative project that will shape the future of personalised health and care and improve outcomes for families worldwide. 

This is a full time post (35 Hours per week), and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 31/08/2029.

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. Medical degree (MBBS, MD, or equivalent) and PhD in Public Health, Epidemiology, Digital Health, or a related field.  
2. Evidence of an international academic profile, as indicated by a track record of publications in leading medical and digital health journals, invitation to speak at conferences, sitting on funding panels/editorial boards  
3. Strong track record in primary quantitative and qualitative digital health or health services research, including leading interdisciplinary projects in digital health.  
4. Outstanding track record in evidence syntheses and study design - qualitative and quantitative - employing different methodological approaches, including meta-analyses.   
5. Track record of needs assessment, development, co-design and leading of complex digital health interventions, evaluation of health apps, and evaluation of rules based conversational agents for health and educational interventions.  
6. Track record of leading international multidisciplinary teams, work collaboratively with students and staff, proven working with senior leaders and policymakers.  
7. Track record in the development of educational programmes for healthcare professionals, teaching and mentoring healthcare professionals of different seniorities.  
8. Track record of winning competitive research funding 

Desirable criteria

1. Track record of maternal and child health research.  
2. Track record of public health data science research.  
3. Track record of mental health research.  
4. Understanding of behavioural change techniques.   
5. Experience working in different international environments  

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 pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.

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.