Research Associate

About the role

The Laboratory of Professor Etienne De Villers‑Sidani at McGill University is seeking a highly motivated Research Associate to develop digital biomarkers of brain function using eye‑tracking and speech/voice recordings for neurological disorder detection and monitoring.

Key responsibilities

• Design, implement and optimize signal‑processing, statistical and machine‑learning algorithms for eye‑movement and voice/speech data.
• Validate algorithms against clinical reference standards, including accuracy, reliability, longitudinal sensitivity and generalizability.
• Curate, quality‑control and analyze large multimodal clinical datasets; maintain reproducible, documented analysis pipelines and code.
• Draft peer‑reviewed scientific articles autonomously, as well as abstracts, reports and grant sections.
• Present findings at lab meetings, scientific conferences and communicate with clinicians, engineers, trainees and collaborators.

Required profile

• PhD in computer science, engineering, mathematics/statistics, computational neuroscience or a related quantitative discipline.
• Advanced programming skills in Python and/or R, MATLAB, with sound software practices (version control, reproducible pipelines).
• Strong mathematical and statistical background in signal processing, time‑series analysis, machine learning, mixed‑effects/longitudinal models and diagnostic‑accuracy statistics.
• Demonstrated ability to write scientific articles autonomously, evidenced by first‑author publications.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple projects and communicate complex results to multidisciplinary audiences.

Required skills

• Python
• R
• MATLAB
• Signal processing
• Machine learning