The University of Southampton is hiring a Senior Research Fellow in AI Applied to Genomic Medicine. The job sits in the Genomic Informatics Group of the Faculty of Medicine and is based at the University Hospital Southampton site in the United Kingdom. It is full time and fixed term until 31 August 2029, and the salary is £46,970 to £49,798 a year. Applications close on Wednesday 18 November 2026.
The work uses open-source large language models (LLMs) to pull structured clinical findings out of electronic health records, then combines them with genomic data to improve diagnosis of common autoimmune diseases. If you have a PhD in bioinformatics, health informatics or data science and hands-on LLM experience with clinical data, read on. The advert does not mention visa sponsorship, so I cover what international applicants should ask, alongside the requirements, how to apply and how to write the research statement.
University of Southampton AI genomic medicine job: key facts
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Employer | University of Southampton, Faculty of Medicine (Human Genetics and Genomic Medicine, Genomic Informatics Group) |
| Job title | Senior Research Fellow in AI Applied to Genomic Medicine |
| Location | University Hospital Southampton site (Southampton General Hospital) |
| Contract | Full time, fixed term until 31 August 2029 |
| Salary | £46,970 to £49,798 a year |
| Grade | The linked job description is titled “ERE Level 5 Senior Research Fellow” |
| Visa sponsorship | Not mentioned in the advert |
| Checks | Standard DBS check required |
| Job reference | 3535326AF |
| How to apply | Online at jobs.soton.ac.uk/3535326AF (also linked from THE Unijobs listing 416844) |
| Informal enquiries | S.Ennis@southampton.ac.uk |
| Closing date | 18 November 2026 |
| Interview date | To be confirmed |
What the Senior Research Fellow will do
The project builds on the group’s previously published work. According to the advert, the postholder will:
- Lead the EHR extraction project: use open-source LLMs to extract structured clinical findings from electronic health records and map them to clinical ontologies.
- Drive translational research: combine clinical and genomic data to improve personalised diagnostics for common autoimmune disease.
- Build pipelines: create and maintain reproducible LLM-based pipelines using workflow systems and high-performance computing (HPC).
- Publish: produce high-quality research outputs.
- Teach and train: contribute to education and training in genomic data science for academic and clinical audiences.
- Manage people: supervise early-career researchers as they deliver project objectives.
- Collaborate widely: work across genomics, clinical medicine, data science, statistics, software engineering and computing infrastructure.
This is a senior postdoctoral post. “Lead” and “manage” appear in the duties, so the panel expects you to run the project day to day as well as write the code. The advert does not name the line manager; the informal enquiries address belongs to the group, so ask there.
Requirements
The advert lists what you “will bring” without separating essential from desirable. The jobs.ac.uk version of the same advert labels them essential:
- A PhD in health informatics, bioinformatics, genomics, computational biology, data science or a closely related field.
- Extensive experience integrating genomic data with structured clinical or phenotypic data, and familiarity with ontologies such as HPO, SNOMED CT and ICD-10.
- Extensive hands-on experience with open-source LLMs, EHR data extraction, high-throughput sequencing analysis and bioinformatics workflows.
- Strong programming skills (for example Python, R, Perl, C/C++ or Bash) and comfort working in Linux.
- Experience with ontology management software.
- Experience of data governance for sensitive EHR, genomic and clinical data.
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- A proven ability to do research independently and manage competing demands.
- A proven record of first-author publications.
That is a demanding mix. Few people combine LLM engineering, sequencing analysis and clinical ontologies at an “extensive” level. If you are strong on two of the three, apply anyway and show clearly how fast you have learned the third in past projects. Clinicians with serious coding experience and a PhD are also a fit, because they understand what a phenotype in a health record actually means.
The ontologies named in the advert
If you come from pure machine learning, three terms in the criteria may be new:
| Term | What it is | Why it matters here |
|---|---|---|
| HPO (Human Phenotype Ontology) | A standard vocabulary for the signs and symptoms seen in human disease | Genomic diagnosis tools match a patient’s HPO terms against known gene and disease profiles |
| SNOMED CT | A large clinical terminology used to code findings in electronic health records, including in the NHS | Much of the structured data in hospital records is coded with it |
| ICD-10 | The World Health Organization’s classification of diseases, used for diagnoses and statistics | Diagnosis codes in records and datasets often use it |
Your job would be to turn free-text notes into terms like these, so the genomic analysis has clean phenotypes to work with. If you have mapped text to any of them before, give the details in your statement.
Salary and what it means in practice
The salary is £46,970 to £49,798 a year, which is the advertised range for this post. New staff usually start at the bottom of a range unless they negotiate, so use £46,970 for planning. The advert also lists generous holiday, membership of a pension scheme, flexible or part-time working options and subsidised campus facilities.
Southampton is a port city on England’s south coast, south-west of London. Rents are generally lower than in London, but check current listings near the hospital and the main Highfield campus before you accept.
Visa sponsorship
The advert does not mention visa sponsorship. UK universities can sponsor research staff under the Skilled Worker route, but the employer decides post by post, and Home Office rules set the salary and occupation conditions. Ask through the informal enquiries address or HR before you invest time, and read the current rules on GOV.UK. Researchers with a UK Global Talent visa, or eligibility for one, do not need employer sponsorship.
About the University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive UK universities. Its medical school works closely with University Hospital Southampton, and this post sits on the hospital site. The advert also points to work with national partners, including the NHS Genomic Medicine Service, Genomics England and Biomedical Research Centres, plus access to HPC and secure data environments across academic and NHS settings.
| Ranking | Edition | Southampton position |
|---|---|---|
| QS World University Rankings | 2027 | 111th (down 24 places, as reported by The Tab) |
| Times Higher Education World University Rankings | 2026 | 129th in the world, 15th in the UK |
| The Guardian University Guide | 2027 | 18th in the UK |
| The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide | 2027 | 18th in the UK |
How to apply for the Southampton AI genomic medicine job
- Read the job description: download the “ERE Level 5 Senior Research Fellow” job description and person specification from the advert. Note every criterion.
- Send an informal enquiry: email S.Ennis@southampton.ac.uk with two or three specific questions: the published work the project builds on, the datasets, team size and, if relevant, sponsorship.
- Update your CV: put first-author papers, code repositories and pipelines you built near the top. Name the ontologies and LLMs you have used.
- Write your supporting statement: address each criterion with evidence (see below).
- Apply online: at jobs.soton.ac.uk/3535326AF, or through the “Apply on website” link on the THE Unijobs listing. The advert does not list the required uploads, so check the portal early.
- Submit before 18 November 2026: the advert gives no time, so don’t leave it to the last evening.
How to write the supporting statement
UK universities score applications against the person specification, criterion by criterion. A long, unstructured letter makes the shortlisting panel hunt for evidence. Use this structure:
- Short opening: the post, your current role, and one sentence on why this project fits you.
- Criterion headings: take each criterion from the person specification as a heading and give one or two concrete examples under it.
- Evidence, not adjectives: name the model, the dataset size, the ontology, the workflow manager (for example Snakemake or Nextflow, if you used them), and the result.
- Leadership: show where you have managed students or junior researchers and delivered on time.
- Data governance: describe how you have handled sensitive health data safely, such as approvals, trusted research environments and de-identification.
- A brief plan: a paragraph on how you would approach the first six months of the project.
A sample opening, for illustration only: “In my current postdoc I built an open-source LLM pipeline that extracts HPO-coded phenotypes from 40,000 clinic letters, and I want to apply that work to genomic diagnosis of autoimmune disease.” Use your own real figures.
What the selection process looks like
The interview date is listed as “to be confirmed”. For research fellow posts at Southampton, expect shortlisting against the person specification, then a panel interview. Many groups also ask candidates for a short presentation on their research or a technical discussion of past pipelines. A standard DBS check follows any offer.
Common mistakes
- Sending a CV with no supporting statement mapped to the criteria.
- Claiming LLM experience that was only prompt work in a chat tool. The panel wants pipelines on real clinical text.
- Listing papers without making clear which are first-author, when the criteria ask for that specifically.
- Ignoring data governance. Work with NHS data depends on it.
- Assuming sponsorship without asking.
Who should apply, and who should not
Apply if you hold a relevant PhD, have built LLM or NLP pipelines on clinical text, understand genomic data and ontologies, and have first-author papers. Experienced postdocs ready to lead a project and a few junior researchers are the target.
Skip it if you are a recent PhD graduate with no clinical data experience, or a pure machine learning researcher with no interest in genomics or health data. A standard postdoc or research fellow post would suit you better.
Similar research jobs to compare
| Role | Institution | Salary (as advertised) | Closes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post-doctoral Researcher in Computational Genomics for Predictive Medicine | University of Helsinki, Finland | €3,800 to €4,000 a month | 19 November 2026 |
| Postdoc Researcher: AI for Precision Medicine and Therapeutics | MBZUAI, Abu Dhabi | Competitive | 5 November 2026 |
| Research Fellow, School of Health Sciences | University of Southampton | £37,369 to £41,885 pro rata | 23 November 2026 |
| Postdoctoral Research Associate in Onboard Carbon Capture and Storage | Durham University, UK | £39,560 to £46,970 | 17 November 2026 |
Your referees matter at shortlisting. Our guide on recommendation letters explains how to brief a referee so their letter supports the claims in your application. If you are still at master’s level and want a funded route to the UK, see our Chevening Scholarship guide.
FAQs about the Southampton Senior Research Fellow in AI and genomic medicine
What is the salary for the Southampton Senior Research Fellow in AI Applied to Genomic Medicine?
£46,970 to £49,798 a year, full time.
How long is the contract?
It is fixed term until 31 August 2029.
Does the University of Southampton sponsor visas for this post?
The advert does not say. Ask through the informal enquiries address or HR, and check the Skilled Worker rules on GOV.UK.
When is the deadline and where do I apply?
The closing date is 18 November 2026. Apply online at jobs.soton.ac.uk/3535326AF.
Sources and updates
Role details, criteria, salary, contract end date, reference number, DBS requirement and closing date are from the University of Southampton’s adverts on Times Higher Education Unijobs (listing 416844) and jobs.ac.uk, checked on 29 October 2026. Rankings are from the University of Southampton’s rankings page and, for QS 2027, from The Tab’s report of 19 June 2026. Visa guidance is general; confirm with the University and GOV.UK. I will update this page if the University adds a sponsorship statement or interview dates.
I am Jude Chinecherem, a final-year MBBS student at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I know what it feels like to want an education your family cannot afford. When my parents could not pay for my schooling, I had to learn how to find scholarships and work the system out on my own, with nobody to guide me. I came out the other side, and now I share everything I learned so the next student does not have to figure it out alone. This is the advice I wish someone had given me back then.
