Research Assistant (m/f/d) Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professorship for Experimental Psychology

At Helmut Schmidt University / University of the Federal Armed Forces Hamburg (HSU / UniBw H), Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Professorship for Experimental Psychology (Univ.‑Prof. Dr. Jacobsen), a position is available from the next possible date for a

Research Assistant (m/f/d)

(salary group 13 TVöD [Collective agreement for the public service];
39 hours per week)

for a limited period until 30.06.2029.

The scientific activity takes place within the framework of the third-party funded research project “Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction, and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures”.

The project forms part of the Cluster of Excellence “Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures’. It is also embedded in the Experimental Psychology Unit of HSU / UniBw H.

Research focus of the professorship includes experimental aesthetics and the neurocognitive psychology of aesthetics; auditory processing (speech perception, natural language processing, pre-attentive language comprehension, auditory deviance detection / mismatch negativity (MMN), sensory memory); and executive functions.

• Conduct independent research within the third-party funded project, including project planning, literature review, study design (semiotic and cognitive), fieldwork / surveys / experiments, data analysis, and dissemination; present and publish results in English and engage in regular project communication in English; active participation in collaborative activities (research meetings, organizing scholarly events, network building across disciplines)
• Possibility of further academic qualification (e.g., doctorate or habilitation)
• Carrying out general administrative work as well as academic activities in academic self-administration

• A completed university degree (Diploma [univ.] or Master) in psychology, cognitive science, neuro­science or a related field
• Knowledge of foreign language in English with a proficiency level that corresponds at least to the language level B2 to C1 of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages
• Furthermore desired:
• Structured and independent working style
• Ability to work in a team and engage in collaboration across disciplinary boundaries
• Ability to present / publish in English and collaborate in international teams
• Confident use of modern collaboration and project-management tools; ability to streamline communication and keep projects transparent and well-organized (e.g., shared drives, task boards, Slack / Teams, version control)
• Good command of statistics and quantitative methods (e.g., linear / mixed-effects models, power analysis), with analysis and visualization in R, Python or SPSS (or other)
• Advantageous: experience with collaborative writing / reference tools (Overleaf / LaTeX or Google Docs; Zotero / EndNote)
• Advantageous: experience with survey / panel platforms (e.g., Qualtrics / SoSci, Prolific) and reproducible workflows (clean documentation, Git)
• Fast learner for new digital tools; proactive, structured working style