Scientist in "GAIA Mission

Overview

The Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) in the Forschungsverbund Berlin e.V., a part of the Leibniz Association, aims to understand and, where possible, ‘improve’ the adaptive capacity of wild animals to cope with global change. To this end, it focuses on the diversity of lifestyles, diseases and mechanisms of evolutionary adaptation of mammals and birds, on the limits of these mechanisms in natural and anthropogenically influenced environments, and on conservation strategies that take these into account.

The Institute fulfils this mission through long-term, application-oriented, interdisciplinary basic research in evolutionary ecology, ecological dynamics, evolutionary genetics, wildlife diseases, reproductive biology and reproductive management.

For our Department of Evolutionary Ecology, we are seeking to appoint a

Scientist (m/f/div) in full time

in the third-party funded project “GAIA-MISSION”. The project is a follow-up project within the GAIA Initiative that combines wildlife research, technology development and effective conservation work. By bringing together the evolutionary intelligence of animals (mainly carnivores and scavengers), machine learning for behaviour classification and image recognition, and human intelligence, GAIA aims at creating a high-tech early warning system powered by satellite communication that can detect environmental changes and critical ecological incidents.

The position is an opportunity for Postdocs in wildlife biology or ecology (or closely related discipline) with a focus on movement ecology, spatial data analysis and/or scavenger/carnivore systems.

• Working within and contributing to the scientific agenda of the project in the framework of the applied and granted GAIA-MISSION project.
• Analysing project data an carnivores and scavengers (e.g. lions, hyenas, ravens, albatrosses) from a holistic ecosystem perspective.
• Collaborating with the project’s scientific team.
• Supervising Master and PhD students.
• Exploring new science-based conservation applications.
• Scientific publishing.

• Completed PhD in wildlife biology or ecology (or closely related discipline).
• Experience in spatial data analysis in a biological or ecological context.
• Programming skills in R and/or Python and ideally experience in machine learning.
• High interest and, ideally, experience researching birds and mammals.
• Intrinsic motivation to think freely, carve out your own niche and inspire the team.
• Flexibility and ability to work in an international team.
• Excellent command of the English language, both written and spoken.

• An interesting and responsible position with room for manoeuvre in an international and dynamic scientific working environment in a beautiful location right next to the Tierpark Berlin-Friedrichsfelde.
• A comprehensive induction programme and a well-functioning team that will be happy to support you.
• Working on an equal footing between all those involved and respectful co-operation within the team.
• A full-time employment relationship of 39 hours per week in flexitime with part-time option.
• A salary in accordance with the public collective bargaining law TVöD (Bund) with an annual bonus payment. Depending on qualifications, experience and the tasks assigned, you will be graded up to pay group E13.
• Company pension scheme (VBL) and subsidised capital-forming benefits (VWL).
• Flexible working hours and possibility of mobile working to allow scope for work-life balance.
• 30 days holiday per calendar year, based on a 5-day week. In addition, 24 December and 31 December are days off.
• Excellent connectivity with public transport, to underground stations Tierpark (U5) or Friedrichsfelde-Ost (S5, S7, S75), as well as three tram lines and several bus routes.
• Employer subsidy for the annual public transport ‘job ticket’.
• Free admission to the Tierpark (current agreement between Leibniz-IZW and Tierpark Berlin) from Monday to Friday.

Owing to being a third-party funded project, this is a limited job offer.
The position should preferably be filled as soon as possible and is initially limited until 31 July 2027
. An extension for another 18 months…