Research Assistant, Wellcome Ecology/Data Science

About Us

We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.

Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.

We employ 1100 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.

Diversity and inclusion matter to us.

Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.

We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

About the role

Understanding and communicating how climate and land-use change affect human societies is essential for driving lasting shifts in our collective behaviour. This post will be based in a lab that studies the impacts of global change processes, such as climate, land-use, and demographic change, on biodiversity and human health. For example, we investigate how zoonotic pathogens spill over between people and animals in regions undergoing agricultural expansion, to understand how disease risks may evolve as natural habitats are increasingly converted to cropland. A key aspect of this work involves making effective use of large biodiversity databases, such as GBIF, to link ecological processes to disease dynamics, while developing statistical methods to account for biases in these underlying data.

Using statistical and computational tools, including disaggregation regression the postholder will develop methods to infer movement patterns from static observations to determine habitat-use preferences from large-scale occurrence datasets. They will also contribute expertise in reproducible coding workflows, data management, and machine learning, supporting the wider lab. In addition, the postholder will help publish ongoing research and will be encouraged and supported to pursue new research directions.

About you

You will hold a Master’s degree (or equivalent experience) in a relevant quantitative discipline, with a strong background in statistical and computational analysis. You will be confident using coding environments such as R or Python, working with large datasets, and applying quantitative methods, including machine learning, regression-based statistics, within a reproducible workflow. Experience with AI methods, Large-language models, open data, version control, and data management will be very useful for this role. You will be able to work independently, manage your time effectively, and contribute productively within a multidisciplinary research team.

Thriving at the Museum: the way we work

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.

Find out more here

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 - 10%)
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loan
• Life insurance
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across London and the UK.
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• We offer a wide variety of training initiatives and opportunities to build skills. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including an extensive list of special offers and reduced entry fees at a selection of cinema chains, theme parks, theatres, retailers and supermarkets. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures. For more details, visit https://www.cssc.co.uk
• Membership to our Sports and Social Association (for a small fee), which includes access to our in-house gym and clubs such as football, softball, table tennis and tennis and classes in Middle Eastern dance, yoga and Tai Chi

Hybrid working

We are working towards a vision where both people and planet thrive, and nothing gives a greater connection with this, than seeing first-hand, the visitors, scientific research and collections that all of our work is inspired by and working side by side with the teams delivering the visitor experience and events. We also recognise the benefits and flexibility that hybrid working brings. We operate a hybrid working model that requires regular, weekly attendance for this role, with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.

How to apply

If this sounds like you, please apply below by clicking on Apply for job.

Please note that as part of our commitment to anonymised shortlisting, panels do not view CVs during the recruitment process. If you choose to upload your CV, our system will automatically pull information from your CV into our application form. We advise you to double-check your application form data before submitting as the tool may interpret CVs differently.

Closing date: 23:59 on 11 January 2026

Interviews expected: w/c 19 January 2026

Please note that this role does not qualify for Museum sponsorship so the successful postholder will need to have a valid right to work in the UK at the point of offer.