Postdoctoral Researcher in ML / NLP Opportunity at Microsoft Research Africa: Large Language Models (LLMs) for African Low-Resource Languages

The Microsoft Research Lab - Africa is a research institute located in Nairobi, Kenya. Our mission is to understand, build and deploy innovative cloud and AI technologies which not only address core opportunities in Africa and help to solve local challenges at scale, but which will create a more productive future globally.   

We are currently seeking a Postdoctoral Researcher to join our team, with a specialized focus on Large Language Models (LLMs) and image generation models. This role offers a unique opportunity to advance Machine Learning (ML) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies tailored for the cultural and linguistic diversity of Africa. If you have experience in NLP for African language, generative model evaluation or designing culturally inclusive generative AI this might be the position for you.  

Responsibilities

• Conduct research in ML, NLP, and LLMs to improve AI technologies for African cultures and languages. 

• Establish new ways of benchmarking multi-modal output and methods for iteratively improving that output. 

• Work as part of a multidisciplinary team, integrating insights from different research specialties including human-computer interaction into your research 

• Analyze, validate, and document research findings and methodologies.  

• Publish research findings in leading AI journals and conferences. 

• Mentor students, interns, and junior researchers in related fields. 

Qualifications

Required/Minimum Qualifications:  

• Ph.D. candidate in the field of Computational Linguistics, Computer Science, Data Science, AI, or a related field.  

• Passionate about building equitable AI solutions for Africa.  

• Proficiency in NLP and AI, with specific interest in LLMs and their applications.  

• Demonstrated experience with Python, NLP frameworks and related libraries.  

• Solid background in Data Science and Machine Learning techniques.  

• Ability to work with complex datasets and computational models.  

• Strong problem-solving, analytical, and communication skills.  

Preferred/Additional Qualifications:  

• Desirable: Experience in writing papers for academic journals and conferences, such as EMNLP, NAACL, ACL.  

Microsoft is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, ancestry, color, family or medical care leave, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, medical condition, national origin, physical or mental disability, political affiliation, protected veteran status, race, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, or any other characteristic protected by applicable laws, regulations and ordinances. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request via the Accommodation request form.

Benefits/perks listed below may vary depending on the nature of your employment with Microsoft and the country where you work.