King's College London

About Us

King’s College London is a world leading research-intensive university with a strong international profile and a long-standing commitment to addressing major societal and global challenges. This role is based within the Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, in the Department of Infectious Diseases, which brings together expertise across microbiology, immunology, clinical sciences, data science and artificial intelligence. The Department offers a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative environment, with strong links to clinical partners and access to outstanding research infrastructure and cross faculty initiatives

About The Role

This is an exciting €4.8M project Supported by the  Global Health EDCTP3 and EU Horizon. The CARE-AFRICA project is developing an innovative AI-based tool to guide diagnostics and treatment of diarrhoeal diseases in children under 5 in sub-Saharan Africa, using a combination of local and globally sourced data.

Diarrhoeal diseases remain a common cause of ill-health and death in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among children. In addition to their immediate health impacts, diarrhoeal diseases have multiple long-term consequences, affecting growth, development, schooling and economic prospects in adulthood.

The CARE-AFRICA project is developing and evaluating an AI-based tool to guide clinical decision-making, based on analysis of patient data entered by a clinician and automated retrieval of regional and national data on other factors likely to affect the risk of particular diarrhoeal diseases, such as environmental, climate, socioeconomic and demographic data. The tool is designed to integrate these data sources and provide a clinician with a likely diagnosis and a recommended treatment. The candidate will work in close proximity with international partners in Uganda, Ethiopia, South Africa, Italy and Spain.

The candidate is expected to have advanced skills in bioinformatics, whole genome sequencing and metagenomic analaysis.

This is a full-time post 35 hours per week, and you will be offered a fixed term contract until 30 April 2029.

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:

Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in relevant subject area*
2. Demonstrated expertise in bioinformatics applied to bacteria, virus and parasites.
3. Proven experience in applying whole genome and metagenomic sequencing analysis methods to bacteria, virus and parasites.
4. Expertise in integrating sequencing data with heterogeneous, large scale and complex datasets, including sequencing, sensor, biological and medical data, clinical electronic records.
5. Expertise in Linux based high performance computing environments, and the use of cloud-based platforms.
6. Programming skills in Python, Matlab, R or other equivalent

 *Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances 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.

Desirable criteria

1. Knowledge of the mechanisms underlying antimicrobial resistance, infectious diseases,
2. Understanding of infections dynamics in particular for bacterial infections
3. Expertise in data mining, machine learning, AI

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 ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. 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.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

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

Interviews are due to be held on 24 June 2026.