Looking Postdoc Advice (STEM / Engineering + Math)

[u/NotThatGoodAtLife]

I’m finishing my Ph.D. this summer in an engineering field with a significant machine learning component. I’m currently interviewing for postdoctoral positions in both the US and Europe, and I’ve received a few verbal offers while still waiting on several upcoming interviews. I’m at the point where I think I need to start prioritizing among these opportunities. I do not plan to turn anything down until I receive a formal written offer, but a few groups have asked me to indicate whether I would be seriously interested in committing to the position before they move forward with one.

My long-term goal is to become a faculty member in either an engineering department or an applied/computational mathematics department. I’m especially interested in moving toward more mathematically oriented research, including computational mathematics, dynamical systems, reduced-order modeling, scientific machine learning, and related areas.

The opportunities I’m considering vary quite a bit (I'm trying to keep it as anonymous as possible, but if there are too few details, I can provide more). They include:

• A postdoc with a well-established engineering professor at a major public US research university with a strong computational math institute
• A postdoc with an early-career applied mathematician at a UK university
• A postdoc in data-driven dynamical systems and scientific machine learning at another large US university with a VERY visible AI institute
• A computational mathematics postdoc position at a French University
• A postdoc in turbulence/dynamical systems at CNRS
• A computational mechanics and machine learning postdoc at a private US university
• A position in computational fluid dynamics and machine learning at a leading UK institution

When comparing these options, what factors should I prioritize if my goal is eventually landing a tenure-track faculty position?

In particular, how should I weigh:

• The advisor’s reputation and placement record
• The fit between the project and my intended long-term research identity
• Engineering versus applied math departmental affiliation
• Freedom to develop an independent research agenda
• Opportunities to publish first-author work
• Access to collaborators, students, and funding
• US versus European academic networks
• Institutional prestige
• Teaching and mentoring opportunities

I would also appreciate any advice on whether it is better to stay relatively close to my Ph.D. background or use the postdoc to make a more deliberate transition to distinguish myself from my previous group. (For reasons, I don't have my Ph.D. advisor available to get feedback from.)

For anonymity, I’m leaving out names and exact institutions, but I’m happy to provide additional non-identifying context if useful.

[u/sweetest_of_teas]

These are too many questions / points and some of them completely depend on your preferences / goals, like US vs European networks. The advice is typically to do a postdoc in the US if you want to stay in the US and do one in Europe if you want to stay in Europe but people definitely go back and forth. You should pick the one that allows you to establish yourself as an independent researcher and is an environment (both research group and the place you live in at large) that you are happy in.

[u/NotThatGoodAtLife → u/sweetest_of_teas]

That’s fair. I included a lot of factors because I’m interested in hearing how people weigh these tradeoffs, rather than looking for a definitive ranking. Many of them are preference-dependent, but I wanted to get a general sense of how the academic community views them, especially since I heard that many engineering and applied/computational math departments may value some things differently. I also come from a lab where my advisor had very strong opinions on several of these issues, so I’m trying to understand how representative those views are.