Vacancy
Our Mission: Discovering and describing life and earth - with people, through dialogue.
The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) is an excellent and integrated research museum of the Leibniz Association with an international reputation and globally networked research infrastructure. It is active in three closely interlinked fields: collection-based research, collection development and cataloguing, and research-based public and educational work. Over the next ten years, the Museum für Naturkunde will realise its plan for the future. New laboratories and jobs for cutting-edge research will be created. At the same time, one of the world's most comprehensive natural history collections with over 30 million objects will be housed in modern collection buildings and completely digitised in the process. The implementation of the Future Plan, funded with a total of 660 million euros from the Federal Government and the State of Berlin, will only succeed with strong interdisciplinary national and international partners.
Become part of our team as
| Position: | Research Associate with the goal of a doctorate (f/m/d) |
| Work schedule: | part-time, 75% of a full-time position (currently 29.55 hours/week) |
| Duration: | at the earliest possible date; third-party funding for 36 months |
| Salary Level: | E 13 TV-L |
| Code: | 42/2025 |
ggf. Project Description
The DFG-funded project “Postnatal Ontogenetic Patterns within Avialae (Dinosauria, Theropoda)” led by Dr. Christian Foth aims to document ontogenetic series of various modern birds, considering their phylogenetic relationships, ecology, and developmental modes. After documenting species-specific ontogenetic patterns, comparisons will be extended to interspecies levels and known ontogenetic variation in stem-line representatives. By comparing ontogenetic and phylogenetic changes within Avialae and basal Coelurosauria, the evolution of birds will be examined for potential heterochronic events.
Your tasks
- Scientific investigation of postcranial ontogenetic variation in birds and their stem-line representatives (non-avian theropods)
- Collection and documentation of morphological, embryological, and ecological data
- Application and adaptation of various scientific/statistical methods (e.g., phylogenetic regression, principal component analysis, landmark-based geometric morphometrics, ontograms, anatomical network analysis)
- Scientific analysis and synthesis of collected data
- Independent publication of research results in peer-reviewed journals
- Presentation of results at international conferences
Your profile
- Completed academic degree (M.Sc.) in biology or geology/palaeontology
- Expertise in palaeontology/zoology of reptiles, evolution, and ontogeny
- Basic knowledge of statistics
- Experience in developing and conducting independent research projects
- Excellent English language skills
- High self-motivation, ability to work independently, teamwork, and interdisciplinary communication skills
- Experience of publishing scientific papers in life or geosciences and with good scientific practice guidelines
- Basic computer skills for text and image processing (Word, Excel)
- Experience with statistical analysis programs like R
- Experience with image editing and processing software like ImageJ, Photoshop
- Experience with CT data and 3D reconstructions
We offer you
- exciting working environment in an attractive research museum with varied tasks in a dynamic and future-orientated market
- very good public transport connections in the centre of Berlin
- extensive further training opportunities on a personal and professional level
- flexible working hours and a wide range of options for balancing work and family life (e.g. flexi-time or individual part-time models)
- depending on the job, mobile working is possible for up to 60 per cent of individual working hours
- remuneration according to TV-L with company pension scheme (VBL), special annual payment and capital-forming benefits
- employer subsidy for the “VBB Firmenticket” (company ticket) or “Deutschlandticket Job” (Germany ticket job)
- employee events, company health management and German and English language courses
- 30 days' holiday plus 24 December and 31 December off
Special Notes
In support of equal rights applications from qualified women are particularly welcome. Handicapped individuals will be given preference in cases of identical qualifications.
We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates) by 31.10.2025, preferably via our online application portal. We also ask you to provide reference contacts so that we can get in touch with them.
For information on the application procedure, please contact recruiting@mfn.berlin.
Further information
Privacy Policy
By sending your application, you provide us with your information for the purpose of processing your application by the Museum für Naturkunde. Your data will be kept strictly confidential at all times. Once we have received your application documents, they will be entered into our database. Your data will be stored on our server. In doing so, we observe the provisions of the data protection laws.
Information about the handling of applicant data at the MfN (in German)
and
Privacy policy for the MfN website (in German)
The Museum für Naturkunde has set itself the goal of promoting a work-life balance and has been awarded the certificate berufundfamilie audit of berufundfamilie gGmbH - an initiative of the Hertie Foundation. Further information can be found under: https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/uber-uns/jobs-und-karriere/arbeiten-am-museum-fur-naturkunde/reconciling-work-and-family-life-audit