Academic
Job Category
Faculty Non Bargaining
Job Title
Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Digital & Sexual Health Initiative
Department
Gilbert Laboratory CFDC | School of Population and Public Health | Faculty of Medicine (Mark Gilbert)
Posting End Date
July 18, 2025
Note:Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.
Job End Date
Aug 31, 2026
The expected salary for this position is $70,000 per annum. The Faculty of Medicine is committed to offering equitable and competitive salaries, commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate.
At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career.
We are looking for a full-time Postdoctoral Fellow to join us at the Digital & Sexual Health Initiative (DiSHI; dishiresearch.ca), a program of research led by Dr. Mark Gilbert at the School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia and the BC Centre for Disease Control. The Postdoctoral Fellow will lead the qualitative research components of the project titled “Adapting a self-collection STBBI testing intervention for rural and remote communities in BC (the ASTERR study)”, under the supervision of Dr. Gilbert. This applied public health research project, grounded in the implementation science framework, offers a rare opportunity to work within the complex health systems alongside public health, clinical, laboratory and community partners.
The Postdoctoral Fellow will be an integral part of our DiSHI team. Through our research we aim to support scale-up of effective digital and sexual health services, improve access for communities where barriers to services are greatest, and address inequities in obtaining benefits from these services. Our team’s key values include: improving health equity; engaging communities; committing to the work of Truth and Reconciliation; supporting Indigenous-led research; challenging racism; co-designing our methods and interventions; being person-centred; being accountable; building relationships; and being adaptable.
The Postdoctoral Fellow position will be for a 2-year term, with an initial appointment of one year. The position will mainly be located at the BC Centre for Disease Control, a program of the Provincial Health Services Authority which provides provincial and national leadership in disease surveillance, detection, treatment, prevention and consultation. The PDF appointment will be held at the School of Population and Public Health (SPPH) within the Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia.
The primary activities of the Postdoctoral Fellow include:
Lead qualitative research components of the study, including developing detailed research protocols from existing research proposals and implementing data collection and analyses.
Share findings with health system and community partners (through meetings, summary briefs, presentations), present at public health and academic conferences and prepare manuscripts for publication.
Liaise with the Principal Investigators, research staff, government and health authority partners, community organization partners, and potential users and providers for self-collection STBBI testing interventions.
Contribute to the overall Digital & Sexual Health Initiative research program by actively participating in research proposal development and providing collaborative support and guidance on qualitative research methodology.
Supervision Received:
The Postdoctoral Fellow will work independently under minimal supervision from Dr. Mark Gilbert, and will receive mentorship from senior members, co-investigators and health system partners of the research team.
Supervision Given:
The Postdoctoral Fellow will provide day-to-day guidance and supervision to graduate students, junior research staff, and other trainees involved in the project. This includes mentoring on qualitative research methods, supporting data collection and analysis, and reviewing research products such as interview guides, coding frameworks, and knowledge translation materials.
Education/Work Experience:
The candidate must have completed a PhD within 5 years in a relevant discipline (e.g. public health, sociology, nursing, sociology, anthropology) or a M.D. or D.D.S. within 10 years.
The candidate will also have:
Training and experience in qualitative research methods.
Commitment to the key values of the DiSHI’s research team as outlined in the job summary; these include, among others, improving health equity, engaging communities and committing to the work of Truth and Reconciliation.
Ability to work independently and collaboratively with a multidisciplinary team.
Strong oral and writing communication skills, for professional and lay audiences.
Effective interpersonal skills within teams and with professional and lay audiences.
Experience with implementation science an asset.
Demonstrated familiarity with sexual health topics an asset.
Demonstrated lived or work experience with structurally marginalized populations affected by STBBI an asset.
Experience with developing peer-reviewed publications and grant proposals preferred.
Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own.
Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion.
The expected salary for this position is $70,000 per annum. The Faculty of Medicine is committed to offering equitable and competitive salaries, commensurate with the qualifications and experience of the candidate.
Application procedure
An application package should include:
A letter of application outlining the applicant’s research interests;
A detailed curriculum vitae;
Contact information for three (3) referees
Applications should be submitted online at https://ubc.wd10.myworkdayjobs.com/ubcfacultyjobs (JR21251).
Should you have any queries around this position, please contact Hsiu-Ju Chang at hsiuju.chang@bccdc.ca.
Review of applications will begin on Jul 20, 2025 and continue until the position is filled. The anticipated start date for this position is September 2, 2025 or upon a date to be mutually agreed.
We invite applications from qualified candidates who share our commitment to employment equity and inclusive excellence, and we welcome applications from candidates belonging to historically, persistently, or systemically marginalized groups: Indigenous (First Nation, Métis, Inuit) Peoples, racialized persons, persons with disabilities, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ people, and trans and non-binary people.
The University is committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive and equitable work environment for all members of its workforce. An inclusive work environment presumes an environment where differences are appreciated, recognized, and integrated into current structures, planning, and decision-making modes. Within this hiring process we are committed to creating an inclusive and equitable process for all candidates (including but not limited to people with disabilities). Confidential accommodations are available on request. Please contact Hsiu-Ju Chang via email at hsiuju.chang@bccdc.ca. If you have any questions regarding accommodations or accessibility during the recruitment and hiring process or for more information and support, please visit UBC’s Centre for Workplace Accessibility website at https://hr.ubc.ca/health-and-wellbeing/workplace-accessibility/centre-workplace-accessibility or contact the Centre at workplace.accessibility@ubc.ca.
With gratitude, we acknowledge that the University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine and its distributed programs, which include four university academic campuses, are located on traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of First Nations Peoples and communities around the province.
Our Vision: To Transform Health for Everyone.
Ranked among the world’s top medical schools with the fifth-largest MD enrollment in North America, the UBC Faculty of Medicine is a leader in both the science and the practice of medicine. Across British Columbia, more than 12,000 faculty and staff are training the next generation of doctors and health care professionals, making remarkable discoveries, and helping to create the pathways to better health for our communities at home and around the world.
The Faculty - comprised of approximately 2,200 administrative support, technical/research and management and professional staff, as well approximately 650 full-time academic and over 10,000 clinical faculty members - is composed of 19 academic basic science and/or clinical departments, three schools, and 24 research centres and institutes. Together with its University and Health Authority partners, the Faculty delivers innovative programs and conducts research in the areas of health and life sciences. Faculty, staff and trainees are located at university campuses, clinical academic campuses in hospital settings and other regionally based centres across the province.
UBC - One of the World's Leading Universities. As one of the world's leading universities, the University of British Columbia creates an exceptional learning environment that fosters global citizenship, advances a civil and sustainable society, and supports outstanding research to serve the people of British Columbia, Canada and the world.
UBC hires on the basis of merit and is committed to employment equity. All qualified persons are encouraged to apply. Equity and diversity are essential to academic excellence. An open and diverse community fosters the inclusion of voices that have been underrepresented or discouraged. We encourage applications from members of groups that have been marginalized on any grounds enumerated under the B.C. Human Rights Code, including sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, racialization, disability, political belief, religion, marital or family status, age, and/or status as a First Nation, Metis, Inuit, or Indigenous person. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply; however, Canadians and permanent residents of Canada will be given priority.
