Postdoctoral job search: freedom As I'm currently pursuing an academic job search (in parallel to the industry one), which includes potential postdoctoral positions, I would appreciate some clarifications on the following aspect.

Freedom. I assume that there are two major options for postdoctoral positions in regard to academic (research) freedom: 1) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or project and contributes to one or more of their research projects under PI's guidance; 2) postdoctoral researcher joins a group, lab or department and contributes to one of those entities' research portfolio by conceptualizing and performing her/his own research (still under PI's guidance), based on previously negotiated agenda, which fits and supports larger groups' research themes.

Question: are my my assumptions correct; does a postdoctoral title reflect the type of freedom (or lack of) of the position?

Note: My field is Information Systems, a discipline, which can be considered as a sub-domain of Management Science, which, in turn, is a social sciences discipline.
The answer is a resounding Yes.

That is, it's not "either-or", but "both". On the one hand, as a postdoc, you will be expected to start coming up with your own research ideas and projects and take an active role in pitching your ideas to funding bodies, possibly even become PI on smaller grants yourself. Your supervisor will of course still play a major role.

On the other hand, your research should still tie in to your supervisor's area of expertise. Otherwise, why do you work with him and not someone else? And how should he help you with advice and contacts?

In the end, there will be a mixture between the two options you describe. When you join a group, you may respond to a job opening for a specific project, but even then, you will need to develop your own ideas in relation to this project and pursue your own interesting questions related to the project. Or you may have your own idea, possibly even your own funding, and more-or-less cold-call a potential supervisor, but even then, for the supervisor to accept you as a postdoc, you will need to explain to him how your idea ties in with his own work.