Doctoral researcher (m/f/d) in Marine Data Science

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel is a foundation under public law jointly financed by the Federal Republic of Germany (90%) and the State of Schleswig-Holstein (10%). It is one of the internationally leading institutions in the field of marine research. 

Through our research and our commitment to the transfer of knowledge and technology, we contribute significantly to the preservation of the function and protection of the ocean for future generations. The research unit Paleo-Oceanography of the Research Division 1 Ocean Circulation and Climate Dynamics is offering a position as

Doctoral researcher (m/f/d) in Marine Data Science 

in the project “Spatial pattern mining and knowledge fusion to analyse, understand and predict occurrences of cold-water coral ecosystems” starting as soon as possible, presumably on 01^st January 2027.

The position offers the opportunity to pursue a doctoral degree as a member of the graduate school “Helmholtz School for Marine Data Science” (MarDATA). MarDATA is dedicated to training a new generation of “marine data scientists” by integrating expertise from computer science and mathematics into the field of ocean sciences. The school’s interdisciplinary focus spans supercomputing, modeling, (bio)informatics, robotics, statistics, and big data methodologies. Doctoral researchers benefit from a structured training program that promotes cross-disciplinary collaboration and provides in-depth scientific insight as well as a systematic approach to marine data science. For more information, visit: https://www.mardata.de/.

Projection and Job Description 

This project aims at the key technology for the identification of patterns and relationships across disparate heterogeneous datasets that fundamentally improve our understanding of cold-water coral growth and finally improve predictive analysis for coral growth and health. Ecosystem engineering scleractinian cold-water corals (CWCs) create biodiversity and carbon cycling hotspots in the world’s oceans Current climate change is putting these ecosystems under particular stress and therefore require mitigation and even restoration measures. However, the factors that favour and/or prevent the distribution and abundance of cold-water corals and their reefs are not defined at a satisfactory level and thus challenge future predictions on how these ecosystems will develop. In the last two decades tremendous efforts have been made to measure and monitor physical biogeochemical parameters of ambient water masses of cold-water corals ecosystems in order to determine their controlling factors.  However, so far there has been no coordinated effort to integrate these data bases in order to fully constrain and explore all environmental boundary conditions of cold-water coral growth with the development of novel machine learning techniques. The doctoral researcher will work in close collaboration between Paleo-Oceanography groups of PD. Dr. Jacek Raddatz and Dr. Sascha Flögel at GEOMAR and the Data Science group of Prof. Dr. Matthias Renz at the Faculty of Engineering at Kiel University. The doctoral researcher will thus be directly integrated into two larger, interdisciplinary, and team-oriented research units, both at GEOMAR and the Institute of Computer Science at Kiel University. 

Your Tasks:

• Development of integrated data analytics workflows based on machine learning, data mining and data engineering to integrate extensive heterogeneous databases from regional to global scales 

• Development and evaluation of scalable data-driven methods to determine correlation patterns and parameters that determine or even exclude the presence of cold-water corals in Earth’s Ocean basins

• Develop and evaluate novel machine learning techniques to identify/predict unknown cold-water coral occurrences 

• Planning, writing and submitting publications of scientific results from computer science (data science) and oceanography in the international literature and presentations at international conferences

Qualification:

Required:

• Master's university degree ideally in computer science or data science. 

• High programming skills (e.g. Python, C++) and data evaluation and analysis. 

• Very good written and spoken English skills.

Desirable:

• Teamwork skills, open-mindedness, scientific creativity, and determination

• Experience in machine learning or artificial intelligence, for example, pattern recognition or neural networks

• Experience in FORTRAN and R are appreciated

• Experience in physics, earth science, oceanography, or a related field.

• Experience in data-driven knowledge fusion

• Experience in analyzing large data sets

• Experience in scientific writing

• Previous knowledge of marine biogeochemistry and marine ecosystems 

At a workplace, directly on the Kiel Fjord with many leisure and recreational opportunities, we offer you:

• Good conditions for work-life balance: We offer, among other things, the possibility of mobile working and individual working time arrangements, vacation courses for the children of our employees, and good support in finding a place in a daycare center at the Kiel site 

• Support services for professional and personal life situations

• An exciting work environment with the opportunity to provide important impetus for the development of sustainable solutions

• Exciting topics in an international environment

• Work in the field of marine and climate research, a forward-looking area with social significance

• Currently 30 vacation days + additional time off at Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve 

• Corporate Benefits for employees

• Company pension plan and capital-forming benefits

The position is available for a funding period of 3 years. 

The salary depends on qualification and could be up to the class 13 TVöD-Bund of the German tariff for public employees. This is a full-time position and cannot be split. Flexible working models are in principle possible.

GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel seeks to increase the proportion of female scientists and explicitly encourages qualified female academics to apply. GEOMAR is an equal opportunity employer and encourages scientists with disabilities to apply. Qualified disabled applicants will receive preference in the application process.

Please send your application (CV, certificates, motivational letter, 3 references) for this post not later than September, 16^th 2026 under the following link:

Online application

We would appreciate it if you could indicate how you became aware of this position. As soon as the selection procedure has finished, all your application data will be removed according to data protection regulation.

For further information regarding the position and research unit please contact PD. Dr. Jacek Raddatz (Tel.: 0431 600-2316, E-Mail: jraddatz(at)geomar.de).

We will answer all your questions if you send us an e-mail to bewerbung(at)geomar.de. In doing so, please refer to the keyword “MarDATA_CWC”.

For further information on GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel or the Helmholtz Association, please visit www.geomar.de or www.helmholtz.de.

GEOMAR is committed to an objective and non-discriminatory personnel selection. Our job advertisements address all people. We expressly renounce the submission of application photos.