Are you interested in being part of NIAID’s mission to better understand and address infectious diseases, immunologic mechanisms, and allergies? Here, you’ll learn all about opportunities at NIAID along with tips on the unique government job application process.
Careers at NIAID
We are dedicated to an excellent employee experience, and our ongoing, internal “Make NIAID a Great Place to Work” initiative is creating and promoting programs and activities to improve employee satisfaction, perception, and engagement. Hear from NIAID staff and others about their experience as well as the value and impact of working at NIAID in the recently published video “Find Your Place at NIAID.”
Life at NIAID offers you testimonials about working here, benefit information, and more. Also check the NIAID Role in Research to learn more about our fulfilling mission, accomplishments, and areas of study. Consider Research Training at NIAID—training opportunities for individuals from varying educational backgrounds.
NIAID staff work in multiple divisions, offices, and functional groups as detailed at Organization. Here’s a summary:
- The Office of the Director provides scientific leadership, policy guidance, and overall coordination for NIAID.
- Four divisions direct and manage grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements at external academic and research institutions. We call this external research “extramural.”
- Three divisions conduct studies and clinical investigations in laboratories at NIAID, known as “intramural” research.
Roles at NIAID
While many jobs at NIAID require expertise specific to our area of science, you may notice that many position titles and functional roles are often similar across NIH’s many institutes and centers (ICs). Some positions don’t require an advanced or scientific degree.
To consider which career types could be a good fit for you, review Jobs at NIH. It describes typical positions by category, including:
- Scientific Careers—There are two types of scientific careers at NIH. The first type is scientific administrative, which includes positions outside the lab such as program officers (POs), tasked with supporting extramural grants, contracts, and training; and scientific review officers (SROs), responsible for identifying, recruiting, and assigning reviewers to applications as well as running study section meetings and producing summary statements following the meetings. Conversely, scientist-researcher careers typically involve lab work; positions include nurses, physicians, data scientists, clinical researchers, and basic researchers.
- Executive Careers—These senior- and executive-level positions include IC directors and deputy directors.
- Administrative Careers—These opportunities don’t require a medical or science health background and include positions such as grants management specialist, responsible for managing financial aspects of grant awards and ensuring that administrative requirements are met before issuing a notice of award; and facilities support staff, tasked with supporting facilities and maintenance. Explore other administrative roles such as administrative officers and budget and program analysts.
We also use Global Recruitment to support Pathways for Students and Recent Graduates.
Note that “global” doesn’t refer to international work or travel. Instead, it means a single NIH-wide vacancy announcement. NIH uses this approach to recruit for many of the positions described above. Then NIAID and other ICs may choose relevant candidates from the global list of applicants.
Use the NIAID Careers Webpage
For an exhaustive list of current and upcoming vacancies, check out NIAID Career Opportunities. It’s also the only place to find certain intramural laboratory positions.
The list at NIAID Careers can change daily, so we advise you to Subscribe for NIAID Email Updates and choose the “Careers & Training” category. We also encourage you to follow @NIAIDcareers on X, NIAID’s LinkedIn page, or our Facebook account.
Each NIAID position listed links to details and specifies an application method:
- For some intramural laboratory announcements, you must apply by email.
- For all other intramural and extramural vacancies, apply through USAjobs.gov.
Apply or Search at USAjobs.gov
To apply for most U.S. federal government vacancies, you must use USAjobs.gov. Learn How Does the Application Process Work? and know How to See Your Application Status. Find NIAID’s application advice at the end of this article.
Although we still recommend that you use NIAID Career Opportunities as your primary source to locate our listings, USAjobs.gov offers many search and filter functions. Get an overview of How to Search Using Filters. You can also set your desired work location, appointment type, schedule, or travel using instructions at How to Search by Your Preferences.
To see vacancies for a certain type of work, consider searching USAjobs.gov by series, i.e., unique numbers that identify job occupations and categories. How to Filter Results by Series covers the major groups.
As examples, try the following USAjobs.gov searches. For NIH positions, use keyword “NIH” and the indicated series number. We don’t always have vacancies posted, so each time you check, some of the following searches may come up empty.
- NIH results for series 0601 – general health science including health science administrators, e.g., scientific review officers and program officers
- NIH results for series 1109 – grants management
- NIH results for series 0501 – financial administrators and program
- NIH results for series 0343 – management and program analysis
- NIH results for series 1102 – contracting
You can similarly search for NIAID positions. Also consider saving custom searches and signing up for email notifications. See How to Save a Search.
NIAID Advice for Job Seekers
Don’t miss our Application Tips page in the NIAID Careers section. It indexes videos and other guidance to help you get hired. Some highlights: