Postdoctoral Position in Subjective Well-Being Across the Life Course

Introduction

UNIL is a leading international teaching and research institution, with over 5,000 employees and 17,000 students split between its Dorigny campus, CHUV and Epalinges. As an employer, UNIL encourages excellence, individual recognition and responsibility.

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Presentation

The Institute of Social Sciences (ISS) and the LIVES Centre at the University of Lausanne invite applications for a Postdoctoral position in subjective well-being across the life course. The successful candidate will contribute to the SNSF project “Subjective Well-Being Across the Life Course: A Global Research Program with 200+ Panel Datasets from 90 Countries,” under the direction of Dr. Nicolas Sommet and Prof. Daniel Oesch. The project aims to harmonize and analyze 206 already identified panel datasets measuring happiness or life satisfaction, covering 3.5 million participants across 90 countries over seven decades. It includes many understudied countries and is designed to test whether existing theories of subjective well-being generalize across diverse national contexts in both the Global North and the Global South. More specifically, the project will estimate age trajectories in subjective well-being across countries and examine how these trajectories vary as a function of country-year-level moderators.

Job information

Expected start date in position: September 1, 2026, or upon agreement
Contract length: 1 year, renewable twice, for a maximum total duration of 4 years
Activity rate: 100%, lower employment rates may be considered upon agreement
Workplace: University of Lausanne, Géopolis, Lausanne, Switzerland
Annual salary: CHF 85'819 (first year), with annual increase

Your responsibilities

The successful candidate is expected to:
• Spend the first 12 to 18 months of the project (i) assembling and harmonizing the data, (ii) merging the harmonized data with country-year indicators, and (iii) assessing data quality
• Create reproducible workflows (e.g., R scripts) and documentation (e.g., codebooks)
• Collaborate closely with a PhD student and student assistants during this initial phase of the project
• Develop first-authored and co-authored publications based on the dataset
• Present findings at international conferences
• Contribute to the intellectual life of the LIVES Centre
• The position does not include teaching duties
 
See specifications here (in French)

Your qualifications

• PhD in psychology, sociology, or a related discipline. Applicants near completion of their PhD may apply, provided that the degree is completed before the start date
• Proficiency in R and/or Stata
• Strong skills and experience in working with large-scale secondary datasets
• Strong skills in data management, including appending, merging, and harmonizing datasets
• Interest in, and ideally experience with, research on subjective well-being
• Interest in, and ideally experience with, longitudinal analysis (e.g., multilevel, fixed-effects, and hybrid models)
• Good research and publication record relative to career stage
• Collaborative attitude and interest in teamwork
• Fluency in English, which is the working language; knowledge of French is not required

What the position offers you

The position offers the opportunity to contribute to an ambitious global research project based in Lausanne, a vibrant city on Lake Geneva, surrounded by the Alps. It is hosted in a dynamic and international research environment at the LIVES Centre , with opportunities for professional development, collaboration, further training, and participation in international conferences.

Contact for further information

For further information, please contact E-Mail schreiben.

Your application

Deadline: 25 May 2026
Interviews: within the two weeks following the application deadline
Submit applications through the official UNIL website. The application, in English, should include:
1. A motivation letter detailing how the candidate’s profile is a strong fit for the project, both methodologically and theoretically
2. A CV, including a list of publications
3. A copy of the PhD degree
4. Two pieces of academic writing, preferably published or submitted journal articles, ideally first-authored.
5. The names and contact details of two to three academic referees who may be contacted directly. Please do not submit reference letters.

Additional information

UNIL is committed to:
•    equality, diversity and inclusion within its community;
•    ensuring an open and respectful environment that is conducive to personal development;
•    offering working conditions that facilitate work-life balance;
•    supporting early career researchers.

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