Postdoctoral Positions (m/f/d) | Gravitational-Wave Science

Postdoctoral Positions (m/f/d) | Gravitational-Wave Science

Scientist Potsdam-Golm

Astronomy & Astrophysics Particle, Plasma and Quantum Physics

Job Offer from September 28, 2026

The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics is one of the world’s leading centers for gravitational physics, with a unique breadth and depth of its approach to the subject, where scientists focus on all aspects of Einstein’s theory of general relativity.

Gravitational-wave astronomy is moving from discovery to precision science. The Astrophysical and Cosmological Relativity (ACR) department at the Albert Einstein Institute (AEI) in Potsdam works across the full chain of that transition — from first-principles modeling of strong-field gravity, through numerical relativity, to the analysis and interpretation of data from LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA today, and from Einstein Telescope, Cosmic Explorer and LISA in the decade ahead.

We invite applications for several postdoctoral appointments, offered at different levels according to experience and seniority, with durations from two to five years.

Positions

• General appointments in the ACR department, at junior and senior postdoctoral levels.
• Several positions within the ERC Synergy Grant “Making Sense of the Unexpected in the Gravitational-Wave Sky” .
• One position within the Simons Collaboration on Black Holes and Strong Gravity .
• One position within the Center of Gravity, shared between the AEI (two years) and the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen (two years).

The department also hosts Max Planck Fellowships for scientists from outside Germany; details and application instructions .

The department

Led by Alessandra Buonanno, ACR comprises about 45 scientists, including three permanent research group leaders — Jonathan Gair, Harald Pfeiffer and Jan Steinhoff. The department hosts a steady flow of long- and short-term visitors and maintains close ties with the Department of Physics at the University of Maryland, Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Potsdam.

Collaborations

ACR participates in the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) Collaboration, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, the Einstein Telescope Collaboration, the LISA Consortium, and the LISA Distributed Data Processing Centre, where the department leads waveform generation and the global-fit deep analysis.

Your tasks

Research areas

• Analytical modeling of gravitational dynamics and radiation: effective field theory, post-Newtonian and post-Minkowskian expansions, gravitational self-force, black-hole perturbation theory and the effective-one-body formalism.
• Numerical relativity: vacuum simulations of compact objects on bound and unbound orbits, in general relativity and in alternative theories of gravity.
• Observation and interpretation of gravitational-wave data from ground-based (LIGO, Virgo, KAGRA, Cosmic Explorer, Einstein Telescope) and space-based (LISA) detectors, including searches and detector characterization.
• Acceleration of gravitational-wave inference, including machine-learning methods.
• Astrophysics of compact objects and binary formation scenarios.
• Cosmography with gravitational waves: dark energy, dark matter and gravitational lensing.
• Tests of gravity in the strong-field and highly dynamical regime.

Your profile

We are looking for creative, highly motivated researchers who work equally well independently and within a large, interdisciplinary group.

Our offer

Computing

The department operates Urania, a high-performance cluster with ~6,050 cores; Hypatia, a high-throughput cluster with ~12,000 cores; and two GPU servers, Saraswati and Lakshmi, each with eight NVIDIA A100 GPUs. Both clusters are currently being extended. They support numerical-relativity simulations of gravitational-wave sources as well as source-modeling and data-analysis studies for current and future detectors.

Salary and benefits

Salary and social benefits, including health insurance, follow the collective labour agreement for the German public sector (TVöD Bund), normally at pay grade E13 where the TVöD qualification criteria are met. A projection of gross and net salary under the TVöD regulations is prepared whenever an offer is made.

Equal opportunity, diversity and family support

The Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics is an equal opportunity employer, and is committed to providing employment opportunities to all qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, age, gender identity, sexual orientation or national origin. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Our institute and the Max Planck Society welcome persons with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas who embrace and value diversity and inclusion ( Code of Conduct ). The institute promotes a healthy work-life balance by offering all employees a family support service, cooperation with a nearby international kindergarten, as well as an in-house parent-child office and nursing room.

Your application

Applications are submitted through our job portal . Please upload:

• a cover letter;
• a curriculum vitae;
• a list of publications;
• a statement of past and future research, no longer than three pages excluding references.

You will also be asked to name three referees. Please register with our job portal and enter your referees’ contact details well in advance of the deadline: referees will receive an email with upload instructions, and letters must arrive by the deadline to be considered. For technical problems with the application form, write to jobs@aei.mpg.de .

Dates

Deadline for full consideration: 23 November 2026, including receipt of reference letters.

Anticipated start date: Fall 2027.

Candidates are encouraged to apply as early as possible. Applications will be considered until all positions are filled.

Contact

For further information, please write to acr-jobs@aei.mpg.de .