Postdoc ERC Project FIRMS: Firms Shape Career Inequality ; Mental Health

Organisation/Company University of Amsterdam (UvA) Research Field Sociology » Socio-economic research Sociology » Sociology of labour Researcher Profile Recognised Researcher (R2) Final date to receive applications 30 Mar 2026 - 21:59 (UTC) Country Netherlands Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Not Applicable Hours Per Week 30.4 Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

The Department of Sociology has an opening for a postdoctoral researcher who will contribute to the ERC-funded research project FIRMS – Firms and Careers:
How the Workplace Structures Career Inequality. As a postdoctoral researcher, you will study how organizational contexts influence health outcomes and how these effects accumulate into long-term career inequality. Join an ambitious ERC-funded project and work with unique longitudinal data to answer pressing societal questions!

The project conceptualizes firms as social environments that differ in authority structures, work intensity, technological change, and workplace culture. These organizational differences can systematically affect workers’ mental health, for example through exposure to stress, insecurity, or limited control tal health, in turn, shapes careers by influencing sickness absence, job mobility, and long-term wage growth. You will study when and for whom mental health functions as a mechanism linking firm contexts to unequal career trajectories.

Your research addresses a central theoretical question: how do differences between firms translate into persistent career inequality through workers’ mental health.

Empirically, you will work with rich longitudinal linked employer–employee data combined with population-wide health registers, focusing primarily on the Netherlands and Norway. These data make it possible to follow workers and firms over long periods and to identify how firm-level conditions are associated with mental health outcomes and subsequent career inequality.

You will work closely with the principal investigator and the PhD team, combining life course theory with organizational and inequality perspectives to develop and test mechanism-based explanations using large-scale longitudinal data.

• Study how firms affect workers’ health outcomes and how these outcomes shape careers
• Analyze longitudinal linked employer–employee and health register data in the Netherlands and Norway
• Develop and apply advanced quantitative methods to identify firm effects
• Write and submit articles to leading international journals
• Collaborate closely within the FIRMS team and with international partners

• You work and think at an academic postdoctoral level in sociology, economics, or a related field
• You have extensive experience in analyzing longitudinal or administrative data
• You have a theoretical background in studying labor market inequality and or health
• You translate complex analyses into clear scientific arguments
• You work independently while actively contributing to a research team

• Experience with quantitative data analysis
• A completed PhD by the start of the employment

We offer a temporary employment contract for 30.4 hours per week (0.8 fte) for a period of 35 months with a probationary period of two months. The starting date will be 1 September 2026. Depending on a suitable match between the candidate and department, the contract can be heightened with teaching duties.

The gross monthly salary, based on 38 hours per week and dependent on relevant experience, ranges between €4,728 and €6,433. This does not include 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% year-end allowance. The UFO profile Researcher 3 is applicable. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Universities of the Netherlands is applicable.

You will work in a stimulating and…