Post-Doctoral position in CSS

Position overview

Salary range :

A reasonable estimated salary range for this position is $66,737 - $71,769

Review timeline :

Review will begin May 2, 2025

Application Window

Open date : May 28, 2025

Most recent review date : Friday, Jun 20, 2025 at 11 : 59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications received after this date will be reviewed by the search committee if the position has not yet been filled.

Final date : Tuesday, May 19, 2026 at 11 : 59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

We are looking to recruit a postdoctoral scholar for a two-year position in an interdisciplinary NSF-funded research project (#2020751). A premise of the work is that open source software (OSS) communities are model systems for subjects including self-governing institutions, social networks, organization theory, and collective action. Data include complete longitudinal records of code and all internal communications for hundreds of autonomous organizations. Major methodological opportunities are at some intersections of network science, longitudinal data, machine learning, NLP and LLM, and computational modeling.

We are seeking candidates representing interdisciplinary computational social science, or a computer / information scientist interested in speaking to general audiences. The scholar will work within an interdisciplinary team representing political science, computer science, anthropology, computational social science, policy analysis, and OSS practitioners at UC Davis, UMass Amherst, University of Washington, and in the not-for-profit sector. The position is based in Davis, CA.

The scholar will be coming into the project in year 4 of 5 or 6, and will have substantial freedom to creatively bring together tools, datasets, and theories from the initial phase of this project toward questions with general appeal. Their duties may include :

• Theory and hypotheses building with a cross-disciplinary, multi-campus team;
• Quantitative analysis, both creating entire analysis pipelines and advising faculty and graduate students on theirs;
• Collaborative paper and project report writing;
• Coordination of UMass and UC Davis teams' work, and coordination with peer postdoctoral research associate at UMass Amherst;
• Mentoring of graduate and undergraduate RAs from both computer and social sciences; or
• Contributing to the OSS ecosystem.

The postdoc may also ask about opportunities to engage in elective opportunities related to industry engagement, grant writing, open source software community development, or teaching.

The successful application will have substantial experience in quantitative data analysis and some combination of programming, data science, computational statistics, and machine learning. They will be able to demonstrate a track record of both independent initiative and effective teamwork. They will be interested in being able to communicate across engineering, practice, and the social sciences. They will likely be interested in representing system-level outcomes in terms of individual-level behavior, and systems thinking or complex systems generally. Less important than domain expertise in software engineering research, OSS, or online communities is an interest in their potential for advancing social science generally.

The position will remain open until filled, starting likely in Summer or Fall 2025. We will begin reviewing applications June 20, 2025. Potential applications should feel comfortable contacting sethfrey@ucdavis.edu directly for questions about the call, including its current status. A reasonable estimate for this position is $66,737 - $71,769.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications

(required at time of application)

PhD required. Degree in hand at the time of appointment (applications from students close to completing their degrees considered).

Application Requirements

Document requirements

Cover Letter

Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.

Link to a past project or your programming portfolio (e.g.Zenodo / OSF / GitHub / etc.) - Please submit a document with a link to a past project or your portfolio (e.g. Zenodo / OSF / GitHub / etc.)

Writing Sample - article, dissertation chapters, etc.

Writing Sample 2 - Optional second submission

(Optional)

Authorization to Release Information Form - This form is required for all applicants applying to academic recruitments. Please see the Employment Disclosure Requirements webpage for more information. Download, complete, sign, and upload the form .

Reference requirements

Apply link :

https : / / recruit.ucdavis.edu / JPF07116

Help contact : sethfrey@ucdavis.edu

About UC Davis

As a condition of employment, the finalist will be required to disclose if they are subject to any final administrative or judicial decisions within the last seven years determining that they committed any misconduct, are currently being investigated for misconduct, left a position during an investigation for alleged misconduct, or have filed an appeal with a previous employer.

To implement this process, UC Davis requires all applicants for any open search to complete, sign, and upload the form entitled, "Authorization to Release Information" into UC RECRUIT as part of their application. If an applicant does not include the signed authorization with the application materials, the application will be considered incomplete, and as with any incomplete application, will not receive further consideration.

UC Davis is a smoke and tobacco-free campus (http : / / breathefree.ucdavis.edu / ).

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, protected veteran status, or other protected status under state for federal law.

Under Federal law, the University of California may employ only individuals who are legally able to work in the United States as established by providing documents as specified in the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Certain UC Davis positions funded by federal contracts or sub-contracts require the selected candidate to pass an E-Verify check. More information is available at : http : / / www.uscis.gov / e-verify

The University of California, Davis (UC Davis) is committed to creating a welcoming and inclusive environment for all employees and students. Our excellence in research, teaching, and service are embodied by members of our academic community who share our commitment to these values. A variety of resources and programs are available to academics, staff, and students that reflect the core values reflected in our strategic plan : "To Boldly Go," our Principles of Community, the Office of Academic Affairs' Mission Statement , and the UC Board of Regents Policy 4400 .

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Job location

Davis, CA