Postdoctoral Research Fellow

About the Opportunity

About the Institute

Do you want to be part of an exciting new Institute focused on combining human and machine intelligence into working AI solutions?

We are launching a pioneering research and innovation hub in AI—one that will shape the way humans and machines collaborate for decades to come. Led by Prof. Usama Fayyad, the Institute for Experiential AI is built around the challenges and opportunities made possible by human-machine collaboration. The Institute provides a framework to design, implement, and scale AI-driven technologies in ways that make a true difference to society. Our ability to respond to the opportunities afforded to society will depend on training and building a workforce that is AI-capable and prosperous. 

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

About the Institute

Do you want to be part of an exciting new Institute focused on combining human and machine intelligence into working AI solutions?

We are launching a pioneering research and innovation hub in AI—one that will shape the way humans and machines collaborate for decades to come. Led by Prof. Usama Fayyad, the Institute for Experiential AI is built around the challenges and opportunities made possible by human-machine collaboration. The Institute provides a framework to design, implement, and scale AI-driven technologies in ways that make a true difference to society. Our ability to respond to the opportunities afforded to society will depend on training and building a workforce that is AI-capable and prosperous. 

Founded in 1898, Northeastern is a global research university and the recognized leader in experience-driven lifelong learning. Our world-renowned experiential approach empowers our students, faculty, alumni, and partners to create impact far beyond the confines of discipline, degree, and campus.

The Culture

Here at the Institute for Experiential AI (EAI) we are committed to the highest standards in all that we do.  Working at the EAI offers opportunities, an environment, and a culture that just aren’t found together anywhere else. This is the right place for you if you’re curious, motivated by the future of technology, and want to be part of a unique and diverse community that works on high-impact research, educational, business, and societal problems.

Job Summary

Northeastern University's Institute for Experiential AI has established a position for a Postdoctoral Researcher focused on work at the intersection of artificial intelligence and Responsible AI, NLP & IR 3.0, Health/Wellness, and/or Life Sciences. The Postdoctoral Researcher will be based out of either the Boston, MA or Portland, ME campus and conduct applied research, prepare work for submission to journal/conference publications, contribute to extramural funding applications, and project manage in connection with projects. This position has a two-year, renewable appointment.

The position will be associated to one of the following specialization areas:

• Responsible AI: This area focuses on the design, development and governance of AI systems, as well as the evaluation, monitoring, and auditing of such systems.
• NLP & IR 3.0: This area covers the study of large language models and other natural language processing techniques applied to language understanding and the next generation of search engines.
• AI + Health: This area levarages AI to study and solve complex problems in the health sciences, including fields such as healthcare informatics, movement and rehabilitation sciences, medical imaging, remote sensing, computer vision, mental health, data fusion, computational medicine, predictive analytics, big data, neuroscience, and related fields.
• AI + Life Sciences: Participate in research projects that are related to AI and the life sciences. These may include applications of neural networks to the analysis of multi-omic data, models for predicting phenotypes using genotype data, biological data integration, etc.. Participation in these projects will include scientific programming, data analysis, manuscript preparation, meeting with collaborators, etc..

Minimum Qualifications

A Ph.D. in computer science, AI, Data Science, computational biology, Ethics in AI, or health-related field by the appointment start date. A record of outstanding research during the Ph.D., as evidenced by publications, grants, software outputs, and other scholarly measures of impact. Proposal preparations for sponsored research funding, research experience involving team science projects, and project management experience are pluses.

Values & Abilities:

• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively towards common research goals.
• We expect postdoctoral fellows to establish and advocate for best practices in scientific reproducibility of all results, and to promote the ethical use of data and algorithms.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills and ability to communicate effectively with a variety of different stakeholders, e.g., academics, business executives, government officials, journalists/media, etc.
• Comfortable navigating complex internal processes and structures.
• Respect for diversity and the importance of interdisciplinary teams.
• Entrepreneurial mindset, self-starter and innovative thinker while at the same time being able to navigate multi-layered channels within a university setting and working across multiple teams/business units.
• Team-player who can collaborate effectively in a university setting.
• Open-minded, assertive, and professional when collaborating and working within our team and with other groups within Northeastern University. 

Additional qualifications:

Responsible AI

• Knowledge of key concepts like bias and fairness.
• Experience on monitoring ML models (bias, drift, etc.) and algorithmic audits

Natural Language Processing

• Knowledge of key tasks such as entity recognition and entailment.
• Experience with word embeddings and large language models.

AI in Health

• Strong research record using AI in a health-related discipline.
• Applicants with the following training will be considered
  • PhD in computer science, machine learning, AI or related computational field, or,
  • Ph.D. in a health-related discipline with experience in experimental science, devices / technology, data collection, unique populations, etc, that can be leveraged for AI applications..
• Strong written / verbal communication and interpersonal skills
• Ability to think critically and creatively, and to collaborate as part of a team 

AI in Life Sciences

Must have a Ph.D. or equivalent in a quantitative/computational field related to the life sciences. These may include bioinformatics, computational biology, mathematical biology, etc. Must have experience in bioinformatics and/or biological data formats. Must have progressive experience that demonstrates the ability to plan and execute research. This experience can be concurrent during PhD research. Must have experience in research software development, FAIR data/open science, life sciences data systems, and analysis of ‘omics data (e.g., metabolomics, proteomics, genomics, transcriptomics, etc.).

Required Documents:

Please submit the following documents in a single Word/ PDF document along with your application-

Cover Letter (please specify the specialization(s) you are interested in) Resume Few samples of your Research Papers/Articles One page Research Statement. The research statement should not exceed 1 page. A reference cited section can be appended following the research statement and does not count towards the page limit. Please use 11- or 12-point size and a standard font. Page margins should be 1 inch or greater. Please address the following:

1. Describe your research and how it has contributed to your field?

2. What future directions do you anticipate for your research?

3. Who are your primary collaborators and what are your experiences with industrial collaborations?

Position Type

Additional Information

Northeastern University considers factors such as candidate work experience, education and skills when extending an offer.  

Northeastern has a comprehensive benefits package for benefit eligible employees. This includes medical, vision, dental, paid time off, tuition assistance, wellness & life, retirement- as well as commuting & transportation. Visit https://hr.northeastern.edu/benefits/ for more information.  

All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.