Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Research Fellow in Artificial Intelligence

• School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

• Full-time (100%), fixed-term position for up to 3 years

• Base salary will be in the range $78,871.35 - $105,004.02 + 17% Superannuation (Academic Level A)

• Base salary will be in the range $110,365.29 - $130,765.78 + 17% Superannuation (Academic Level B)

• Based at our St Lucia Campus

About This Opportunity 

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Fellow (Academic level A) or Research Fellow (Academic level B) to join our AI in Healthcare team within the Health research program (HERA).

In this position, you will develop your expertise and an emerging research profile in Information Retrieval, Natural Language Process, and Large Language Models, with particular applications in the health domain.

Key responsibilities will include: 

• Research: Produce quality research consistent with discipline norms by publishing or exhibiting in high quality outlets, e.g., ACM SIGIR, WSDM, WebConf, EMNLP, ACL, AMIA. Establish a research program, collaborate on research projects, seek and manage research funding, publish in reputable journals, utilize best practice research methodologies, and participate in project discussions.

• Supervision and Researcher Development: Supervise students, recruit and manage employees, provide performance feedback and training, resolve conflicts, and ensure correct remuneration and benefits.

• Citizenship and Service: Develop partnerships, demonstrate leadership through mentoring, engage in internal service roles and committees, perform administrative functions, provide support to colleagues, and uphold university values.

This is a research-focused position. Further information can be found by viewing UQ’s Criteria for Academic Performance.

UQ’s Health Research Accelerator Initiative

The health and medical research challenges the world faces today are complex and immense in terms of their scale of impact, but they are not insurmountable. To discover, develop and deliver novel solutions to these challenges, a synergistic approach is needed. That’s why UQ has created the Health Research Accelerator (HERA).

HERA applies the idea that ‘the whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ to research teamwork on a scale not seen before. From researchers, developmental specialists, advocate bodies and commercial specialists, government institutions, and end-users – HERA brings together teams with diverse capabilities and backgrounds, united by a shared passion, to create novel solutions by leveraging their joint expertise and perspectives.

The team synergy enabled by the HERA Programs of Research and Innovation will unlock collaborative gains that deliver high-impact solutions and endless opportunities for innovation and enable Program teams to achieve much more collectively than what the individuals could on their own.

About UQ

As part of the UQ community, you will have the opportunity to work alongside the brightest minds, who have joined us from all over the world, and within an environment where interdisciplinary collaborations are encouraged.

At the core of our teaching remains our students, and their experience with us sets a foundation for success far beyond graduation. UQ has made a commitment to making education opportunities available for all Queenslanders, regardless of personal, financial, or geographical barriers.

As part of our commitment to excellence in research and professional practice in academic contexts, we are proud to provide our staff with access to world-class facilities and equipment, grant writing support, greater research funding opportunities, and other forms of staff support and development.

The greater benefits of joining the UQ community are broad:  from being part of a Group of Eight university, to recognition of prior service with other Australian universities, up to 26 weeks of paid parental leave, 17.5% annual leave loading, flexible working arrangements including hybrid on site/WFH options and flexible start/finish times, and genuine career progression opportunities via the academic promotions process.

About You 

• Completion (level A and B) or near completion (level A) of a PhD in the field of Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, or Machine Learning on Textual Data.

• Demonstrated expert knowledge and experience in relevant empirical research methods, including Information Retrieval, Large Language Models, question answering, answer generation and ranking, abstractive summarisation, interactive Information Retrieval, intent understanding, user-based evaluation (evaluation of Information Retrieval systems with users).

• Demonstrated publication record in quality research outlets in relevant fields; examples include ACM SIGIR, ACM WSDM, The Web Conf, ACL, NAACL-HLT, EMNLP, AAAI, ACM TOIS, ACM TIST, TACL.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, as demonstrated by e.g., invited talks/seminars and lectures, presentations at conferences, communication to non-technical audiences.

• Software engineering expertise, including implementation of Large Language Models methods (including execution on clusters and high-performance computing infrastructure), Information Retrieval methods, Machine Learning algorithms, wrangling large-scale datasets, and showcasing the research results.

• The ability to work both independently in a research environment and as part of a research team.

• High level organizational skills, with demonstrated capacity to establish and achieve goals.

Additional for Level B:

• Evidence of identification of research problems, opportunities and solutions that are creative and non-standard.

• Experience in supervising research students (e.g., PhD, Mphil, Honors).

• Ability to build smooth liaisons and professional contact with academic and industrial collaborators.

• The ability to work part of a high-achieving, cross-disciplinary research team.

The successful candidate may be required to complete a number of pre-employment checks, including: right to work in Australia, education check. 

Relocating from interstate or overseas? We may support you with obtaining employer-sponsored work rights and a relocation support package. You can find out more about life in Australia’s Sunshine State here.

Questions? 

For more information about this opportunity, please contact Professor Guido Zuccon g.zuccon@uq.edu.au and Associate Professor Bevan Koopman b.koopman@uq.edu.au. For application inquiries, please reach out to the Talent Acquisition team at talent@uq.edu.au, stating the job reference number (below) in the subject line.
 

Want to Apply? 

All applicants must upload the following documents in order for your application to be considered:

• Resume

• Cover letter

• Responses to the ‘About You’ section

Other Information 

UQ is committed to a fair, equitable and inclusive selection process, which recognises that some applicants may face additional barriers and challenges which have impacted and/or continue to impact their career trajectory. Candidates who don’t meet all criteria are encouraged to apply and demonstrate their potential. The selection panel considers both potential and performance relative to opportunities when assessing suitability for the role.

We know one of our strengths as an institution lies in our diverse colleagues. We're dedicated to equity, diversity, and inclusion, fostering an environment that mirrors our wider community. We're committed to attracting, retaining, and promoting diverse talent. Reach out to talent@uq.edu.au for accessibility support or adjustments.

Applications close Wednesday 5 March 2025 at 11.00pm AEST (R-39640).