Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.

Impress employers and recruiters.
Choose from hundreds of resume examples.

Target Resume Now

About the Role

The Center for Affective and Autonomic Neuroscience (CAAN) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow with expertise in sleep physiology. This role will lead the integration of polysomnography into their human research program and analyze multimodal sleep data. The position is for four years, starting between September 1, 2026, and early 2027.

Responsibilities

• Design and implement standard operating procedures for overnight ambulatory and/or in-lab polysomnography.
• Establish quality assurance procedures for signal integrity, electrode application, and participant compliance in home-based recordings.
• Score sleep stages and arousals using manual and automated approaches and supervise quality control.
• Develop and apply quantitative EEG analyses, including slow-wave activity, spindle detection, slow-oscillation–spindle coupling, and spectral measures.
• Analyze autonomic activity during sleep, including heart rate variability and changes in sympathetic/parasympathetic balance.
• Link sleep metrics to primary outcomes such as LC structure and function, CSF and plasma biomarkers, proteomic markers, daytime autonomic measures, and cognitive and affective outcomes.
• Incorporate sleep variables into reproducible, BIDS-compliant analysis pipelines and longitudinal models.
• Lead first-author manuscripts on sleep findings and contribute to collaborative projects.
• Present at international conferences and contribute to grant applications.
• Mentor graduate students and research assistants on polysomnography methodology and sleep analysis.
• Contribute to open-science efforts, including data sharing and code release.

Requirements

• PhD (or equivalent doctoral degree) in neuroscience, sleep science, biomedical engineering, psychology, physiology, or a related field, completed within the last five years or expected before the start date.
• Demonstrated expertise in human sleep research, including hands-on experience with overnight polysomnography (data collection, scoring, and analysis).
• Strong programming skills in Python and/or MATLAB.
• Experience with sleep- and EEG-relevant toolboxes (e.g., MNE-Python, YASA, EEGLAB, FieldTrip, or comparable).
• Experience with quantitative EEG analysis (e.g., spectral methods, event detection for spindles and slow oscillations).
• Track record of peer-reviewed publications appropriate to career stage.
• Excellent written and spoken English.
• Ability to work effectively in a multidisciplinary, collaborative environment.

Skills

• Polysomnography
• Sleep data analysis
• Quantitative EEG analysis
• Python
• MATLAB
• MNE-Python
• YASA
• EEGLAB
• FieldTrip
• Sleep-dependent emotional and memory processing
• Ambulatory/home polysomnography systems
• Autonomic measures during sleep (HRV)
• Cardiorespiratory coupling analyses
• BIDS
• Reproducible-analysis workflows
• Git
• Containerization
• Workflow managers
• Integrating sleep data with MRI

Location

• Berlin

Work Type

• Full-time
• Remote (up to 40%)

Experience Level

• Postdoctoral

Education Level

• PhD

Salary/Compensations

• EG 13 TVöD

Benefits

• Access to multimodal datasets
• Collaboration with statisticians, data managers, imaging experts, and physiology experts
• Support from a data collection staff team
• Mentoring for first-author publications and career development
• Mentoring to develop grant applications
• Access to training programs offered by the Planck Academy of the MPG
• Flexible working hours
• Possibility to work remotely (up to 40%)
• Annual bonus payment
• 30 days of vacation
• December 24 and 31 off
• Daycare partnerships with dedicated places
• Parent-child room at the institute
• Excellent public transport connections
• Jobticket
• Institute canteen
• Biodiverse institute garden
• Health in the workplace offers (fitness room, massage services, yoga classes)
• Extensive support services (International Office, Disability Office, Gender Equality Office, mental health support)
• Diversity-sensitive working environment

About the Company

• The Max Planck Institute for Human Development studies how and why people develop differently over their lives and how environmental aspects shape this process.
• It fosters academic freedom, curiosity, and collaborative work across disciplines like psychology, neuroscience, computer science, economics, and sociology.
• The institute combines interdisciplinary research infrastructures with local and international collaboration to generate knowledge that strengthens individuals and society.
• Their vision is a healthy environment and an open society where individuals can realize their potential.

Equal Opportunity

• The Max Planck Society strives for gender equality and diversity.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion enrich society and foster scientific excellence.
• They are committed to increasing the number of women in underrepresented areas and employing more people with disabilities.
• Applications are welcomed from individuals belonging to groups often underrepresented in the workplace due to age, disability/chronic illness, ethnicity, gender identity, and religion.