Postdoctoral Associate

Postdoctoral Associate

Job no: 541548

Work type: Post Doc Associate

Location: Main Campus (Gainesville, FL)

Categories: Biology/Life Science, Engineering, Physical/Mathematical Sciences

Department: 19340000 - EG-BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING

Classification Title:
Postdoctoral Associate

Classification Minimum Requirements:
Applicants are expected to have a Ph.D. in a field such as veterinary sciences, biomedical sciences, engineering, or neuroscience. Other degree fields will also be considered if the applicant has skill sets that complement our research team. Applicants must have experience with manuscript preparation and submission and must be comfortable working with large animals (training will be provided upon hire). Applicants must also demonstrate the ability and willingness to mentor and manage graduate students. Experience with grant writing and prior formal mentoring of students is desirable.

Job Description:
The Orthopaedic Biomedical Engineering (OrthoBME) Laboratory is seeking a post-doctoral fellow to help lead an observational clinical study on osteoarthritic pain in veterinary equine populations.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is common in horses, and like human OA, equine OA is often idiopathic, develops over years, and shows a poor match between the severity of joint damage and the severity of symptoms. These parallels make naturally-occurring equine OA a powerful population for developing pain measures that can translate to humans. As such, our study is being conducted entirely in privately-owned equine patients with naturally occurring fetlock OA, where the overall goal of the study is to determine the best and most reliable measures of naturally-occurring OA pain in horses. Following enrollment visits conducted by the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, our assessment team travels to the equine patient (farms and ranches near Gainesville) and then performs on-site measurements of neural processing, autonomic nervous system function, activity, and gait mechanics, among other physiologic tests. We are seeking a post-doctoral fellow to join this NIH-funded project, helping our team establish reliable and valid behavioral measures of OA pain in horses. Using psychometric statistical approaches, our team will then evaluate the reliability and validity of these measures and compare them with data from ongoing human OA pain studies at the UF Pain Research and Intervention Center of Excellence. Again, testing is conducted at the horses' housing sites in the Gainesville-Ocala area, in partnership with the UF College of Veterinary Medicine.

The OrthoBME lab is focused on understanding how chronic joint degeneration leads to chronic pain and disability. To achieve this goal, our team works with samples and data collected from rodent models, large animal veterinary patients, and human patients ( A key tenet of our laboratory environment is team-based science. We feature a highly collaborative environment and often take on ambitious projects that integrate the skills and abilities of multiple scientific fields. As such, strong communication skills, willingness to learn, and the ability to work with and mentor others are highly important for all members of our team. The post-doctoral fellow will serve as a day-to-day scientific leader for this project and will work closely with a team of graduate students. Responsibilities will include coordinating study activities and timelines, mentoring graduate students in data collection and analysis, supporting the training and calibration of study personnel, and helping maintain data quality and protocol standardization. Ideally, the post-doctoral fellow will also lead the quantitative sensory testing (QST) portion of the project, adapting human QST protocols to the horse. Prior experience with QST is not required; training will be provided. This position is also an opportunity to expand the post-doctoral fellows own research program into veterinary populations, and as such, the post-doctoral fellow will be encouraged to develop independent research directions, contribute to manuscripts and grant proposals, and build skills for a career leading a research team.

The J. Crayton Pruitt Family Department of Biomedical Engineering (UF BME) is housed in a state-of-the-art building that is located in the medical school and steps from engineering. The University of Florida is one of only a few comprehensive universities, having medical, veterinary, dental, nursing, public health, and engineering disciplines all co-localized on the same, contiguous campus. UF is a highly collaborative environment that provides researchers with many opportunities for learning (e.g., top seminar programs, excellent core research facilities) and research collaborations. Gainesville is located in the northern region of Florida, within 1-1.5 hours of each coast, and about 2 hours to Orlando and Tampa. It is a small to medium-sized city with a low cost of living, excellent public and private schools, and southern hospitality. While Gainesville is widely recognized as the home of the Gators, it is quickly becoming known as a center for innovation and a place with a lifestyle that's comfortable for families, yet attractive for young professionals. Further, the UF BME partners with many local research centers and institutes including the McKnight Brain Institute, the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, and the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center.

Expected Salary:
$62,000-$70,000, depending on experience.

Required Qualifications:
Applicants are expected to have a Ph.D. in a field such as veterinary sciences, biomedical sciences, engineering, or neuroscience. Other degree fields will also be considered if the applicant has skill sets that complement our research team. Applicants must have experience with manuscript preparation and submission and must be comfortable working with large animals (training will be provided upon hire). Applicants must also demonstrate the ability and willingness to mentor and manage graduate students. Experience with grant writing and prior formal mentoring of students is desirable.

Preferred:
Above all, we are looking for a colleague with strong team management and mentoring skills who is excited to work with graduate students and help them succeed. We are also looking for someone with an interest in expanding their research to large animals, and, ideally, an interest in performing quantitative sensory testing, as described above. Prior experience with large animals, pain research, sensory testing, behavioral assessment, or biomechanics would be useful but is not required, as we are able to train these skills in new staff.

For this position, applicants are expected to have a Ph.D. in a field such as veterinary sciences, biomedical sciences, engineering, or neuroscience. The field of study is less important than a willingness to work with large animals, to interact with patient/clients of the UF College of Veterinary Medicine, and to mentor and lead a team of graduate students. A high-degree of professionalism during the on-site visits is required. Other degree fields will also be considered if the applicant has skill sets that complement our research team.

Special Instructions to Applicants:
In addition to applying online to Careers at UF ( applicants send a CV, a brief statement of interest, and contact information for two references to Dr. Allen at View email address on click.appcast.io. Review of applications will start immediately and continue until the position is filled.

Application must be submitted by 11:55 p.m. (ET) of the posting end date.

Health Assessment Required:No

Advertised: 29 Sep 2026 Eastern Daylight Time

Applications close: 28 Oct 2026 Eastern Daylight Time

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